Threat of Election Rouses Federal Liberals From Their Stupor

April 20, 2005

Suddenly there are signs of life emanating from the Prime Minister’s office. Scandal and fear of an election has stirred Paul Martin and his cabinet from their catatonic state.

Since first taking office in December 2003, and even after the close-call June 2004 election that should have been a rude awakening, the Liberals have been stumbling around Ottawa in a stupor of inaction.

Liberal-made promises never materialized, leaving farmers, the lumber industry, the military and over-burdened taxpayers waiting. Promised policy reviews were delayed indefinitely. The thin gruel on the legislative calendar, most of it bills leftover or initiated by the Chrétien regime, had the Parliamentary press gallery restlessly haunting the halls for federal news stories.

I firmly believe the effort we made in the Official Opposition to make this Parliament work by cooperating with other political parties was the responsible course of action. Canadians wanted Members of Parliament to get on with the business of running this country. Trouble is, the Liberal government chose to sit out the past nine-and-a-half months doing little more than the minimum required to keep themselves in power.

Now that the Gomery Inquiry has given the media lots to talk about and prompted serious questions about the federal Liberals’ authority to govern, Paul Martin is frantically whipping his pre-election team into action. In the first part this past week alone, they released policy statements on immigration, foreign affairs, international trade, defence, and corrections. However, it’s definitely a case of quantity over quality.

The Liberals’ defence proposal for example is an obvious ‘fluff piece’ quickly cobbled together in case of an election. It would take a lot more military funding than the Liberals offered up in their February budget to reach the capability requirements described in their defence document. It doesn’t even provide new money for equipment replacement or address the urgent need for administrative transformation in the Canadian Forces.

The Liberals’ so-called plan for international trade offers no timetables and no targets for anything. Like most of the policy documents presented this week, it’s filled with more promises to ‘consult’, hold ‘dialogues’ and maintain the same tired course that threatens the future prosperity of this country.

As for the recent bevy of Liberal ‘cash’, be wary. As farmers can tell you only too well, announcements are easy to make, but don’t expect a cheque in your mailbox anytime soon.

The Liberals can’t run an election on their dismal record, so they’ve also resorted to fabricating lies and hidden agenda theories about their political opponents again. During the last election, they misled Canadians by stating the Conservative Party wanted to purchase nuclear aircraft carriers when we had actually called for hybrid carriers so our military can transport equipment, troops and aid to countries ravaged by war and natural disaster, like the devastating December tsunami.

The Liberal government has resorted to this kind of fear-mongering and announcement-a-day strategy in an attempt to change the channel from their own corruption. Their frantic flurry of money and policy-on-the-fly only serves to underscore the twelve years of policy failure by Paul Martin and the Liberals.

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