Or criticizes you in this case. Ottawa is in a tizzy now that the Economist Magazine has used the "Mr. Dithers" label to describe PM Martin. On the panel on tonight's CBC Newsworld Politics there was agreement that this is the type of label that tends to stick and the biggest problem for PM Martin is his biggest perceived strength, international respect, may be exposed as weakness. It seems to me that the economist is just a rehash of old issues and the Canadian press (and opposition parties) have been using the ditherer label for months. Now that a respected British publications says the exact same thing, in the exact same way, it becomes a headline issue. What is it about the Canadian psyche that you are only a success or failure if another country labels you as such.You check of the list in the article:
Health-Care: Top of the list was a pledge to “fix for a generation” Canada's beloved but creaking Medicare system. The provincial premiers, who run the system, subsequently extracted from Mr Martin a larger cheque than he had originally offered: $41 billion over ten years, as well as a special deal for Quebec. He failed to win any commitments to reform the system in return.
Assymetrical Federalism: Mr Martin is ceding revenues to the provinces too. On February 14th, he flew to the Maritime provinces to sign a special deal under which Nova Scotia and Newfoundland will keep all their revenues from offshore oil and gas but not lose federal handouts from the equalisation fund (an arrangement under which richer provinces hand over some of their revenues to poorer ones). In doing so, Mr Martin was honouring an unwise election pledge. More federal money is unlikely to revive the Maritimes' economy, which has been slowly dying for decades. But the deal has unleashed a stampede of demands from other provinces, led by Ontario, a Liberal stronghold and the largest of the three net contributors to the equalisation fund.
Child-Care: Last week, a ministerial conference on child care—another of Mr Martin's pledges—again suggested that Quebec should have special arrangements. Mr Martin is setting up a “fiscal cafeteria” for the provinces to choose their own takeaways, quipped Hugh Mackenzie, a Toronto economic consultant.
Foreign Policy: At the same time, the federal government has seemed slow and hesitant in pushing ahead with its own agenda. Mr Martin has travelled abroad almost frenziedly, but a long-promised foreign-policy review has yet to appear.
The article also alludes to what I noticed in PM Martin's testimony at the Gomery Inquiry, namely his seemed to be the Paul Martin of old, calm, competent and confident. His was very succesful and respected Finance Minister "but he cannot quite shake off the impression that Canada's top job is too big for him."
