By arthur Weinreb
Tuesday, May 24, 2005The second budget vote that was taken last week ended in a 152-152 tie before Speaker of the House, Peter Milliken, voted with the government and kept the Liberals in power to fight another day. Much of the media gave credit for keeping the government going and preventing the election, so dreaded by many Canadians, to Independent MP Chuck Cadman.
Cadman was only one of three independent MPs who did not have to vote along party lines. But David Kilgour indicated prior to the vote that he was going to vote against the government. and the other independent, Carolyn Parrish, had said all along that she would vote with the government Liberals.
There is no doubt that Cadman’s reluctance to announce what he was going to do added to the drama of what actually took place in Parliament. Mark Kennedy, writing in the National Post, was typical of those in the media who credited Cadman with keeping the Liberal Party in power. The headline of his article, "Prime Minister has one man to thank" said it all. The reality is that Cadman was no more responsible for keeping the Liberals afloat than Carolyn Parrish was. and again, Kennedy was not the only one in the media to see the vote as the Chuck Cadman Show.
The reality is that if Paul Martin had anyone to thank it was not Cadman but Belinda Stronach. Had Stronach not crossed the floor a day before the non confidence vote, the government would have been defeated by a vote of 151-153.
Not only should Paul Martin have thanked Stronach — he did by making her the Honourable Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development.
There was another item in Kennedy’s piece that has been repeated elsewhere in the media in their reporting of the suddenly newsworthy independent Members of Parliament. Kennedy repeats the revisionist history of Carolyn Parrish by describing her as having "been dumped from the Liberal caucus after having stomped on a doll of U.S. President George Bush…"
Parrish was not dumped for her doll-stomping display on national television; she remained a valued member of the anti-american wing of the Liberal Party. Parrish was only dumped after she told Martin and his inner circle to go to hell.