Martin on CBC

[cowman]

Last night Paul Martin was on TV with Peter Mansbridge. Now without a doubt Martin is a good speaker, one on one! He gave a strong performance in my opinion? Why listening to him you would think he was the best thing since pizza!
However it was always "we're going to do this" and "we have a long way to go on this, but we've started"!
I guess the question should be: Paul, you've had twelve years? You've promised all these things before, but never delivered? Why would this time be any different?
I will give him one thing? He can look the camera right in the eye and lie that he never knew that anything was going on in Quebec with the sponsorship money!

[farmers_son]

Some facts about Martin having all this time to put his policies in place. Martin was sworn in as Prime Minister in December 2003 and called an election in June 2004 which resulted in a minority Liberal government. The minority government was marked by the Conservatives constantly threatening to bring the government down which certainly limited the programs the government could put in place. Prior to becoming Prime Minister Martin was not in cabinet for a year and a half as Chretien replaced Martin as finance minister in June 2002 with John Manley.

Martins achievement as finance minister was to balance the budget in 1997-98, the first time Canada had a balanced budget since 1970. There have been balanced budgets every year since. An entire generation had grown up never knowing what a balanced budget was.

Regarding the sponsorship scandal. It is no secret that Chretien and Martin did not get along. In fact they were rivals for the Prime Minister job for years. It is very possible, in fact it is most probable that Martin was not a confidant of Chretiens.

[olhoss]

<i>"Some facts about Martin having all this time to put his policies in place. Martin was sworn in as Prime Minister in December 2003 and called an election in June 2004 which resulted in a minority Liberal government. The minority government was marked by the Conservatives constantly threatening to bring the government down which certainly limited the programs the government could put in place."</i>

He had time to denounce companies not paying taxes in Canada, change the law but leave a loophole for CSL to change flags and continue to evade taxes.

"Certain Canadian corporations are not paying an appropriate level of tax," he intoned disapprovingly. "Accordingly, we are taking measures to prevent companies from using foreign affiliates to avoid paying taxes which are otherwise due." --Paul Martin

http://www.walrusmagazine.com/article.pl?sid=04/06/21/1935240

Excerpt;

In the draft legislation Martin submitted to the House with his 1994 budget, he had tossed Liberia and nine other countries off that privileged list. However, when the bill's actual regulations came down four months later, a new, obscurely-worded, third clause had been tacked on to Section 5907 (11.2). It revised the definition of just where the foreign affiliate of a company could be headquartered in order to repatriate its profits without being dinged by Canadian tax collectors. Clause c) was written in the sort of convoluted legalese that journalists dub mego—My Eyes Glaze Over—which may be why none of them paid attention to its extraordinarily precise provisions. But for fiscal wizards whose idea of bedtime reading is the latest subsection of the Liechtenstein tax code, the message of that snorer was clear: Barbados, which had lost some of its privileges in the first draft, had just lucked back in.

[cowman]

I doubt Martin was unaware of what was happening. He had a pretty heavy duty network working to get rid of Chretien for a long time and I would expect he had spies in the Chretien camp?
I think you know there is no way he was so dumb he didn't know what was going on? I would hope if we have a new government Jan 24th they continue on the paths of the thieves and we can get the whole story.
It almost seems the media has turned against Martin and the Liberals in a big way? Which sort of astounds me? I wonder if someone hasn't given them new marching orders? Maybe the powers that be want Paul and all his baggage gone so they can bring in a new puppet?