I'd like to see Clement win (as he can read a book and is not a wacko) , 2nd choice is Balinda Stronach, with her 1.5 years of university, and last choice is Harper.
But, perhaps I'd vote for Martin...
Well, I like getting kicked in the balls. The Conservatives have a one- track mind: economic growth for all. They are not inot kicking people in the balls.
If the Liberals loose, I'd have to pay somone to kick me in the balls. Heck, even homelsess people shy away.I chase them and tell them "$20.00 if you give me a swift kick in the balls!" but they just run away and look at me as if I'm getting in their way. But with the Liberals in power, a kick to the balls is part of the deal.
THE REPORT FALLOUT
By JEFFREY SIMPSON
UPDATED AT 1:26 PM EST Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2004
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OTTAWA -- The sponsorship scandal is a complete nightmare for Prime Minister Paul Martin. No silver lining exists anywhere.
Political redemption might yet happen, but it remains a long way off. And it might never come because Canadian politics has become unhinged for the first time in more than a decade.
The Liberals' collapse has been stunning. Ten days ago, before the Auditor-General's report, Liberal support stood at 48 per cent in Ipsos-Reid surveys. The company's poll in today's Globe and Mail puts the Liberals at 35 per cent. A majority government -- a sure thing a week ago -- cannot be stitched together from 35 per cent.
Consider the damage behind these raw numbers.
With the Liberals apparently cruising toward re-election, the party was attracting strong candidates -- and a few star candidates -- across Canada, even in places such as British Columbia where the party had struggled. A strong crop of local candidates coupled with a popular party leader spelled Liberal gains.
Now, many of these candidates will say no thanks. This scandal, and the downdraft in Liberal support, will scare them off so that even if Mr. Martin recovers from the scandal, he'll find a weaker team of candidates.
Leave the candidates aside. The biggest loser is Mr. Martin himself. He has now been buffeted by three knocks against his character, and his character was the Liberal Party's single strongest asset heading toward an election.
First, the RCMP raided the offices of two of his organizers in British Columbia.
The reasons for the investigation have not been made public, but these two (and others) were involved in swamping ridings with instant Liberals to help secure delegates for Mr. Martin in his battle for the leadership.
Then, Mr. Martin was embarrassed over CSL, his family's shipping company. Asked in October, 2002, how much federal money CSL received over the previous decade, the government answered $137,000. Recently, however, the government has provided another answer -- $161-million.
This whopping difference was attributed to clerical errors. Average taxpayers -- and the opposition parties -- were properly skeptical, if not incredulous, at the astonishing difference.
Now comes the sponsorship scandal. The Ipsos-Reid poll shows 67 per cent of respondents believe Mr. Martin knew "a lot" or "something" about the sponsorship scandal while it was happening.
The deepest convictions are in Quebec, Mr. Martin's own province, where the Liberals had been riding high. There, 57 per cent of Quebeckers believe the Prime Minister knew "a lot" about the scandal, compared with 33 per cent in the rest of Canada.
Today's Ipsos-Reid poll has now caught up to the CROP poll in La Presse on Saturday. It showed a staggering drop of almost 17 points in Liberal support in Quebec. The first Ipsos-Reid poll, published Saturday, found a five-point fall, whereas the one today reports numbers close to those of CROP.
The Bloc Québécois, given up for moribund before the scandal, now enjoys a huge lead over the Liberals -- about 2 to 1 among francophones. All those Liberal hopes for huge gains in Quebec have at least temporarily disappeared.
Quebeckers often follow federal affairs less attentively than people elsewhere in Canada. Not this time. Their awareness is as high, or higher, than people outside Quebec. After all, the scandal occurred in their province. And Quebeckers are angry because they feel the scandal reflects unfairly on them.
Quebeckers rally to nationalist figures when they believe their province is being attacked, insulted or humiliated by the rest of Canada. When they hear people insinuating this is the way politics is done in Quebec, they stand up for themselves by turning away from federalist parties. And that means Mr. Martin's Liberals.
Mr. Martin's chosen method for defusing the scandal is the riskiest possible. He has decided to make himself responsible for cleaning up the mess. He has used language as fierce as that of the Auditor-General. He has reopened the wounds with the Chrétien wing of the party. He has legitimized and stoked public anger now being directed at himself, the Liberal Party and the Liberal record. He is now identified with the issue and its resolution.
Rather than trying to diminish the problems, he has magnified them with his own rhetoric. His entire reputation as Prime Minister is on the line. The public inquiry might take several years. It cannot finish before an election. Therefore, Mr. Martin cannot possibly satisfy Canadians that he has "gotten to the bottom" of the scandal before the vote.
That impossibility, combined with continuing public restlessness, suggests that heads must roll, likely at Crown corporations, in the weeks or days ahead to assuage public anger.
jsimpson@globeandmail.ca
Fallout from a scandal
Jan. 15; Feb. 14; Today
Liberal
48%; 39%; 35%
Cons.
19%; 24%; 27%
NDP
16%; 18%; 17%
Whom do you blame?
Chretien; 29%
Martin; 22%
Gagliano; 16%
Public service; 7%
All of the above; 12%
© 2004 Bell Globemedia Publishing Inc. All Rights Reserved.
