Sponsorship Scandal

Thu, April 14, 2005
Grit defence: Change topic
By GREG WESTON -- Sun Ottawa Bureau

As election fever grips the nation's capital, Paul Martin and his panic-stricken Liberal Party have evidently succumbed to acute damage-control dementia, a symptom of desperation causing the Grits to imagine voters are dumb as a brick and twice as gullible.
With Liberal poll numbers falling faster than bombshells from the Gomery inquiry, the prime minister yesterday offered a glimpse of the Grit election campaign to come, and it is definitely not pretty
Get ready for another Liberal extravaganza of fear, loathing and lies, a strategy that ultimately hinges on enough voters being either brain dead or dead drunk.
What became the day of the long noses started shortly after noon yesterday when the PM emerged from his weekly meeting with Grit ministers and MPs.
Stepping up to the media microphones, Martin let it be known the first pillar of the Liberal campaign will be his own leadership.
Before reporters could shout their first questions, Martin begged a moment to share with Canadians some of his most passionate, heartfelt beliefs, all of which he read verbatim from a prepared text someone else had written.
"The true test of character is whether you do the right thing when it's difficult," Mr. Dithers read with some apparent difficulty from his notes.
Then, with all the fervour of a kindergarten roll call: "I believe that Canadians look to their political leaders to take responsibility and show character."
Two hours later in the Commons, Martin put on quite a show of responsibility and character, all right, leading us back to the future of Liberal campaigning.
Conservative Leader Stephen Harper wanted Martin to explain exactly what the PM's relationship had been to Claude Boulay, president of one of the Montreal advertising firms mixed up in Adscam.
Martin had previously told the Gomery inquiry that he barely knew Boulay. But a lobbyist involved in the sponsorship fiasco testified last week that he had once heard Martin and Boulay discussing government business over lunch during a Liberal convention.
Harper's question was reasonable and simple: "Did the prime minister have lunch with Claude Boulay on any occasion, yes or no?"
What follows is taken from the actual transcript of Commons proceedings -- we are not making up this stuff.
Martin: "Mr. Speaker, my testimony is a matter of public knowledge. Any allegation that I interfered in any contract is a lie.
"I will tell members what is not a lie, and that is what is now the Conservative position for health care."
Health care? (At this point, many honourable members in all parties are seen adjusting their earpieces and giving their heads a stiff shake.)
Martin continued: "What is the Conservative agenda, which is no longer hidden? I will tell members. It is no federal role in health care. It is no Canada Health Act. It is no one saying 'no' to the privatization of health care.
"I will fight the Conservatives tooth and nail and we will protect the Canada Health Act."
Harper resisted turning the PM into easy roadkill by pointing out Martin's own doctor runs one of dozens of private clinics in Montreal, and that privatization of health delivery elsewhere has mushroomed under the current Liberal bunch.
Instead, the Conservative leader kept asking the same question about Martin's relationship to Boulay. Did Martin have lunch with Boulay? Yes or no?
The PM again referred Harper to the Gomery testimony. Then this: "Having said that, why is it that (Harper) is refusing to address his hidden agenda on health care?"
Harper said: "Mr. Speaker, if this were not so serious, I would say the prime minister is in danger of making himself a national joke."
Too late for that.