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Monday, March 21, 2005
The Chretien vs Martin Conflict
The suggestions by ET and mr on "My thoughts on the Tory Convention" led me to ideas roiling in my mind for some time. I have always wondered what was at the root of the enmity between Chretien and Martin. Since Chretien has proved himself to be such venal, vindictive, small minded man it isn't difficult to imagine any number of scenarios for this conflict, but I seem to be seeing a pattern as suggested in ET & mr's comments.
Here are some what ifs:
1 Chretien was and is disappointed that Power Corporation rewarded Martin through Canada Steamship Lines, far more than they rewarded him, , even though his daughter is married to Paul Desmarais' son;
2 Chretien knows more than any of us how indecisive (Mr Dithers) Martin really is, and maybe to give him more credit than he deserves, he knew how bad he would be for the Liberal party and tipped off the Desmarais clan of that weakness;
3 He rushed through the change to the political financing act to prohibit corporations from directly contributing to political parties, thereby, in his mind at least, thwarting Martin's Liberals from benefitting from Power Corporation's largesse;
4 Finally, Power Corporation, seeing ample evidence of Martin's weaknesses, and sensing their impending loss of over influence over federal government matters, have begun their campaign to regain that influence by buying off anyone in the CPC susceptible to their blandishments .
Does any one else see these things as I do? If I am right, we cannot on one hand blame the Liberals for the affect we consider the Power Corp has had on their policies, and at the same time not call on the CPC to ward off Power Corp's baleful influence.
Posted by Bob Wood on March 21, 2005 in Canadian Politics | Permalink
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Comments
I asked this a couple of weeks ago, but I think it's a valid question. Who was the MP who called Chretien 'the right honorable member for Desmarais-Beaudoin" and what became of the legal threat made by Chretien to that member? There may have been some kind of "inside the house / outside the house" libel law involved, but it seemed to me at the time to be a clever way of raising a real issue- the (mostly) unseen influence exerted by a small group over an entire country.
Posted by: JM | 2005-03-21 7:12:12 PM
"News: Martin parody website at legal odds with PM"
Posted January 09, 2004.
http://www.paulmartintime.ca/lawsuit/000116.html
Site appears to be inactive. Why?
Hot breath from ?
Posted by: maz2 | 2005-03-21 7:42:07 PM
I think that we DO have to blame the Liberals for their ties with Power Corp. Together, that 'bloc' of businessmen plus the Liberals plus their cronies...the latter who are appointed to the key public positions in the civil service (director of Via Rail, Bell, deputy ministers, etc, etc)..have set up an extremely functional (for them) oligarchy. This oligarchy maintains its enormous economic power by maintaining political power - and they do this by using taxation dollars to buy off and quiet the population.
Problematic issues are shut down (Somalia inquiry, other inquiries..and they will do everything to discredit and shut down the Gomery Inquiry). They control the media via the CRTC and their control of the MSM. Criticism is redefined and will increasingly be redefined as 'hate speech'.
They were nervous about losing Quebec after the referendum, which would have meant a loss to Chretien - and the loss of their power - and so, I maintain, the taxation money was laundered to pay for work done by those ad firms in the Quebec federal ridings to ensure Liberal re-election.
Now- they are nervous again. They will work very hard in the next 6 months to discredit Harper, to promote dissension in the CPC, to portray the CPC as a deeply divided party, as one having 'hidden agendas' (they'll keep on with that)..and, they must also see if they can corrupt members to work with them.
I can't explain the enmity between Chretien and Martin as anything other than personal. Chretien has an enormous ego, he's a totally self-absorbed narcissist. He's indifferent to Canada and anyone...and I will maintain, at the moment, that the enmity is personal; Chretien, to my mind, would willingly see the Liberals lose, to see Martin fall.
Therefore, the Power Corp has to plan for the eventual Liberal failure - and that means that they have to have Their Guys in as CEOs of the public corporations and also, they have to see if they can move in as 'buddies' on the CPC party. So yes, the CPC has to watch out.
Posted by: ET | 2005-03-22 5:51:12 AM
"I have always wondered what was at the root of the enmity between Chretien and Martin."
There was a well-known incident at the 1990 leadership convention in which Martin supporters chanted "vendu" (referring to Chretien's opposition to Meech Lake). As you can imagine, Chretien was infuriated.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/viewpoint/vp_zolf/20030526.html
They worked well together to fight the deficit in the mid-1990s (see the book "Double Vision"), but relations worsened again when Martin tried to push Chretien out.
Posted by: Russil Wvong | 2005-03-22 1:27:11 PM
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