I liked Greg Weston’s column this morning in the Ottawa Sun, written after speaking mano-a-mano to Paul Martin.
For 25 minutes, the PM fielded questions from myself and fellow Sun Media correspondent Kathleen Harris on everything from guns to government leaks. And not once did he give the impression he was fired up about anything, not a thorny question nor even a broad issue.
Perhaps it’s partly show. On this occasion, Martin is tieless in shirt-sleeves slacks and loafers, looking what his handlers probably hope will be perceived as a leader relaxed and confident.
But methinks there is something deeper at work here, something fundamental that would surely sap any prime minister of his essential fighting passion: In his frantic attempts to be everything to everyone, Martin is now very much at risk of becoming nothing to anyone—including himself.
[…] The man sitting in the Prime Minister’s Office yesterday sounds more every day like a talking weather vane, swinging around wildly in whatever direction the polls may blow.
One minute he is the Liberal leader more to the left than Jack Layton, throwing billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money at every group and any cause the Grit strategists have determined might steal votes from the New Democrats.
But mostly Martin sounds as though he spent the Christmas hiatus practising his best imitations of Stephen Harper, apparently hoping to confuse voters into thinking the Liberals and Conservatives speak with the same voice on popular Tory platform issues.
After more than a decade in government, for instance, Martin is suddenly a born-again law-and-order crusader, a champion of crime issues the Tories have been espousing for years to nothing but heckling from the Grit benches.
For years, it has been something of a Liberal tenet to resist Conservative calls to throw more criminals in prison for longer sentences, arguing that ridding our streets of violent crime is far more complicated than rounding up some punks and throwing away the key.
But now that a rash of gruesome street shootings in Toronto are making voters everywhere demand action, Martin is of a whole new mind. Or someone else’s mind.
“Harper has said there should be increases in punishment—I couldn’t agree more,” Martin said yesterday. “There is no difference of opinion in that area.”
Martin is quick to point out that he and Harper are anything but political twins: “We have a different set of values, a different view of the role of government.”
Whatever. Even where there are no significant differences in policy, the Liberals seem quite happy to make them up as they go along, apparently hoping to tell voters what Harper thinks, even if he doesn’t. […]
Meanwhile, Weston’s associate Kathleen Harris started asking the enevitable: Will Martin just quit?
Paul Martin is keeping coy over whether he will resign as Liberal leader if he loses the election, but signalled he would stay on to rule another minority government.
Speculation has been swirling about potential successors and whether Martin’s leadership days are numbered. The veteran politician told Sun Media he won’t speak about “hypotheticals.”
“I’m not getting into it,” he said when asked if he will step down if he’s defeated on Jan. 23.
Martin said he hasn’t had a lengthy talk with wife Sheila about his political future since 1998. At that time, her opinion was “not favourable,” he said, adding he doesn’t think it has changed much. […]
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
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