Posted on 01/11/2006 8:14:59 AM PST by UpHereEh
Prime Minister Paul Martin and Conservative Leader Stephen Harper are accusing each other of "failed" and "wrong" efforts to defend Canada's interests in dealings with the United States.
In a French-language debate expected to focus on national unity, it was ironically the Canada-U.S. issue that provoked the sharpest barbs between the two men who would be prime minister when voting is all over on Jan. 23.
Martin slammed Harper for an appearance on U.S. television a few years ago, in which he said Canada had been wrong in its reaction to the U.S.-led war on Iraq.
"A prime minister's role is not to put down his own country in front of the neighbours," admonished the Liberal leader.
Harper did not mince words in response, calling Martin a failure in defending Canada's interests in the lengthy softwood-lumber dispute with the U.S.
"Mr. Martin, it's not the prime minister's role to insult Americans on TV. It's the prime minister's role to defend Canada's interest, and you failed," he said, referring to the lumber trade dispute and other feuds with Washington.
Firing back, the Prime Minister said: "I'm going to tell you something, Mr. Harper: Telling the truth to the Americans is telling the truth. It's not insulting them. That's the difference between you and I. I'll tell you something else, the person who wants to be prime minister should not go on American television and insult Canadians because we didn't want to take part in the war in Iraq. You were wrong."
With polls showing Harper surging ahead and the Liberal campaign faltering, last night's French-language debate was a final chance for the leaders to either seal that trend or reverse it before a larger TV audience.
The Liberals, meanwhile, have released a dozen new TV attack ads aimed at painting an unflattering picture of Harper and of past statements he's made.
Last night, Bloc QuŽbŽcois Leader Gilles Duceppe demonstrated vividly that he now has two rivals in the Quebec race, doling out attacks equally on Harper and Martin. He portrayed Conservatives and Liberals as equally guilty for trying to buy Quebecers' loyalty with federal money, and pointed to both parties' involvement in a new scandal, dating back to the 1995 referendum, to prove his point.
"It is not a crime to promote federalism in Quebec," Harper shot back.
Curiously, last night, Martin was almost silent on the big human-rights declaration he lobbed into the middle of Monday's English-language debate Ñ his proposal to abolish Ottawa's power to opt out of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. This was his major, hail-Mary pass, intended to push Harper into a corner on same-sex marriage. Liberals argue Harper could only reverse same-sex marriage legislation by invoking the opting-out, "notwithstanding" clause.
It was only when prompted by moderator Sophie Thibault, that Martin raised the proposal late in last night's debate Ñ a reflection of the fact, perhaps, that Quebec has long been fond of the notwithstanding clause as its insurance policy to protect French-language supremacy in the province.
And Harper and Duceppe poured scorn on the idea. Harper accused Martin of a death-bed conversion in his sudden acceptance of constitutional change, as well as 11th-hour recognition of Quebec as a "nation" or the reality of the fiscal imbalance between Canada and the provinces.
NDP Leader Jack Layton's goal was to avoid getting squeezed out of the limelight and he was quickly on the offensive last night in a series of sharp exchanges with the Prime Minister, mainly on ethics.
He challenged Martin to accept the principle of ministerial responsibility and force Finance Minister Ralph Goodale to step aside as the Mounties probe whether a government's tax announcement was improperly leaked. That sparked a sharp rebuke from Martin who dismissed Layton's charges as "mudslinging" against an "honest" minister.
Layton also accused both Harper and Martin of stacking their backrooms with well-connected lobbyists, a practice he vowed to end.
"We're going to put an end to the influence of lobbyists at the heart of Ottawa, at the heart of the office of Prime Minister," said Layton, who put in a more forceful performance than he did in the English debate.
As he did in Monday's English-language debate, Harper tried to keep the focus on his party's family-friendly policy planks.
"You have an alternative to a corrupt party and endless government. The opportunity for a change of government doesn't come along every day," he said.
But the cool veneer Harper displayed Monday was peeled back at one point when he appeared bewildered at a lengthy Martin screed against him.
Shaking his head as Martin railed that the Tory leader would scrap the Kyoto protocol on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and would have sent troops to Iraq, Harper seemed eager to set the record straight.
"Mr. Martin prefers to invent a bogus platform for me than to defend his own record. My role ... is to bring people together," he said sharply, adding he would work with other parties in a minority Parliament.
With files from Les Whittington and Sean Gordon
Have any Hollywood types been involved in the liberal campaign?
I haven't seen any other than U2's Bono supporting the liberals of course. Mind you that the liberals are hurting for money this time around so that could explain things.
Sure he will. His party gets big union money, which is stolen from union members who do not support the Canadian NDP communists. He's one to talk. He and his party are just as corrupt as the liberals, and he proved it by blackmailing the Liberal party.
Paul Martin criticizing people for not being Canadian enough?
The same Paul Martin who registers his container ships in vanatua and the bahamas.Then flies their foreign flags on said ships !?
That Paul Martin ?
I noticed this myself and had to shake my head. Where would the NDP be without the lobbyists, activists and unionists. Hello pot my name is kettle... nice to meet you!
That would be the one. Even better, the liberals came out with an environmental plan to clean up the toxic hot spots in the Great Lakes. These are the very same toxic hot spots that were created by his CSL dumping toxic excess cargo for years.
Here's a great article about the mess his Steamship Lines have created:
http://www.thismagazine.ca/issues/2005/09/sweepingitunder.php
Can't these Canadian politicians find any way to differentiate themselves other than by how anti-American they are? Get a life - you're living a reaction.
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