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The Hill Times
| Monday Oct 5, 2000 | BACK | NEXT
Chrétien to run
church vs. state campaign
by Angelo Persichilli,
Mike Scandiffio and Bill Curry
Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, who is likely to hold an election before
the end of November, will run a campaign on a theme of church versus state,
say Liberal MPs.
Federal Liberal MPs are still deeply split over going to the polls in
November, but Prime Minister Chrétien (Saint-Maurice, Que.) left no doubt
about the theme of the campaign when he told Liberal MPs that it will be a
kind of “state versus church,” issue.
The prime minister told his Liberal MPs that elections “are about whether
we will have a referendum on abortion or capital punishment. Or, should the
church set the school curriculum.”
And at last week’s national Liberal Caucus meeting on Parliament Hill,
Liberal MP Joe Volpe (Eglington-Lawrence, Ont.) asked the prime minister to
respect the United Nation’s decision that school funding be extended to
schools of all denominations and said the prime minister should force the
provinces to respect “what an international organization (UN) we belong to
has decided.”
During Mr. Chrétien’s closing remarks — which were quite lengthy because
he was waiting for the soon-to-be-Liberal MP Rick Laliberte (Churchill
River, Sask.) to show up for the official presentation to his new
colleagues — the prime minister also made it clear he wants to polarize the
next electoral contest as the policy of intolerance against the policy of
compassion.
Many MPs stood up in the caucus to express their concerns about an early
election, including Liberal MP John Godfrey (Don Valley West, Ont.), who
asked the prime minister for a reason, saying, “because I do not have it.
Are you scared of Stockwell Day?”
The prime minister said he was not scared of the leader of the Canadian
Alliance, but recalled a conversation he had with a gay man some time ago.
“He told me about how proud he was to be living in this country and how
safe he feels,” said Mr. Chrétien. At the same time, Mr. Chrétien said that
the worker told him that he was “scared of Stockwell Day.”
Former caucus chair, Liberal MP Joe Fontana (London North Centre, Ont.),
also reminded the prime minister about former Liberal Ontario premier David
Peterson’s experience, in an effort to make a case for a spring election.
Other MPs were, however, of a different opinion and in favour of an
early electoral call. For her part, Liberal MP Carolyn Parrish (Mississauga
Centre, Ont.) asked the prime minister to end the speculation and call an
election. In front of the caucus, Ms. Parrish said holding off on the
election is like “a virgin sitting on the edge of the bed who is told how
good it is, and you do not take her.”
And “how good it is” is in the polls taken in the last few weeks.
According to polls the support for the federal Conservative Party and the
NDP is melting away “at a speed never experienced in political history,” a
pollster said last week.
Furthermore, Liberal strategists said they were “encouraged by the
mistakes made by Stockwell Day in the first days of his tenure,” one of
which was Mr. Day’s challenge to the prime minister to call an early
election.
“It is not correct to say that Day’s statement was the determining
factor that tipped the balance toward an early election, but definitely it
was the political encouragement Chrétien was looking for,” one Liberal
strategist told The Hill Times.
The mistake has also been acknowledged by Canadian Alliance strategists
who now hope the other parties will make the Liberals pay the price for
calling an early election.
Meanwhile, preparations for the campaign have increased with most of the
Liberal MPs already looking for campaign headquarters and some of them have
already rented spaces.
As for nominations, the Liberals claim they have no problems in Ontario
where all MPs have their membership cards renewed. Only two of the 103
Ontario ridings were they lost in 1997, including York South-Weston. The
Liberals will run former Metro-Toronto Chairman Alan Tonks against
Independent MP John Nunziata.
Liberals had wanted to run local city councillor Frank Scarpitti in
Markham against Jim Jones, but Mr. Scarpitti said last Friday he intends to
run municipally again.
Meanwhile, most key Liberal party strategists and organizers rejected
the suggestion last week that the death of the party’s greatest post-war
leader will affect the timing of the next election — now widely expected to
be held in November.
As teary-eyed MPs left the House on Friday after hearing party leaders’
eulogize former prime minister Pierre Trudeau, B.C. political minister
David Anderson rejected suggestions from the media that the death of the
man who led the party and the country for 16 years from 1968 to 1984 might
be a factor in when the prime minister calls an election.
"I don't think it would have any effect on an election. It’s not a
political issue,” said Mr. Anderson.
However, one key Liberal strategist said he was certain the death of Mr.
Trudeau would have a “big” impact on the election, but added that it wasn’t
quite clear how it would play out.
Liberal strategist Michael Robinson said Mr. Trudeau’s death would
preoccupy Prime Minister Chrétien and PMO staffers’ time as they organize a
formal recognition of the event but he doubted it would affect a decision
on an election call.
“The prime minister still needs to come to a conclusion over the next
couple of weeks,” he said. “I don’t know if it changes the calculation.
People will not go into a year of national mourning. People will get back
to business.”
The House will not sit on Monday or Tuesday in honour of the former
prime minister. His funeral will be held in Montreal on Tuesday.
Liberal Party national director Terry Mercer said he doubts the prime
minister will delay calling a fall election because of Mr. Trudeau’s death.
“It’s a time of sadness and reflections but Mr. Trudeau would not want us
to stop. He would want us to continue and prepare for a good fight,” said
Mr. Mercer.
The prime minister has increasingly laid hints that he would like to
call a fall election but some of his caucus and advisers, especially in
Ontario, remain hesitant. Skittish MPs say they could be ready to go if
needed but warn that the party needs to show a clear reason for running,
not just because they could win or they are afraid of Canadian Alliance
leader Stockwell Day (Okanagan-Coquihalla, B.C.). “We don’t want to waste
the first two weeks coming up with reasons why we called the election,”
said one party strategist. With a flood of media images of the former
prime minister and glowing testimonial, the Liberal Party could be tempted
to exploit a wave of public sympathy over Mr. Trudeau’s death.
However, Mr. Mercer said he does not think the party will invoke the
image of Mr. Trudeau in a fall election. He said Mr. Trudeau inspired him
to become involved in the party in the 1968 election, but now he calls
himself a Chrétien Liberal. Mr. Mercer said the current political climate
differs too much from Mr. Trudeau’s days and that the party has worked to
shed its image of high government spending and intervention in society “I
think the party is a bit of a chameleon and has had to adapt to the needs
of the day,” he said. “In Mr. Trudeau’s days, we needed more spending than
we do now under Mr. Chretien.”
Liberals are sensitive that there may be lingering resentment towards
the former prime minister in the West. While he may be a source of pride
for Liberals, Mr. Trudeau’s name also stirs up distrust over extravagant
government spending.
The caucus is now embroiled is in a debate over what to do with the
surplus which has been estimated in some news reports to be as high as
$30-billion. Some are recommending spending more money on debt reduction
and tax cuts while others are pushing for a return to more spending on
social programs. While he praises Mr. Trudeau for embodying certain virtues
such as pride in country and the use of government to effect change in
society, Mr. Robinson said the prime minister’s reputation could be a
double-edge sword.
“It reminds [people] that there is the positive side of the Trudeau
policies to do good works but it also conjures up the expenses and that we
don’t get into debt,” said Mr. Robinson. Tory leader Joe Clark
(Kings-Hants, N.S.), who delivered one of the strongest memorial speeches
in the House last week, rejected any suggestion that an election call might
be affected by the Mr. Trudeau’s death. Mr. Clark said the Liberals may be
more concerned about an Auditor General’s report on the Human Resources
Development job funds.
“Frankly, I would think that the events in the House, the hidden report
that the government does not want to see in the public domain may affect
their election plans more than Mr. Trudeau’s death does,” said Mr. Clark.
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