If this is the new media bandwagon I can live with it. PM Martin has gone beyond not eliminating the democratic deficit he has continued, or worsened, Chretien's ethical deficit. Here is how Chantal Hebert explains it in the Toronto Star today.
If there is a lasting subtext to the tape transcript that has immortalized tawdry Liberal haggling over the purchase of the soul of a Conservative opposition member this week, it is that precious little stands between Paul Martin and a repeat of the sponsorship episode.
Justice John Gomery can be as thorough as is humanly possible in his report — and there is every probability his recommendations will fully live up to the high hopes of Canadians — but even he cannot make up for the poor quality of the moral fibre of a government.
Given the lengths to which Martin and his team have gone just to prolong the life of their minority government for a few more months, one has to wonder how many more ethical niceties they would dispense with if, like Jean Chrétien, they, too, were faced with the implosion of the Canadian federation.
Having listened to Ujjal Dosanjh's overtures to Gurmant Grewal, would anyone vouch that the health minister is made of more principled material than Alfonso Gagliano? Or that he and his colleagues are operating under a stricter moral code than members of past cabinets?
Having heard Martin chief-of-staff Tim Murphy nod and wink and dress up the Liberal window with future government considerations, can anyone doubt that this is an administration that is just as likely to live and die by the rule that the end justifies the means?
And have the Prime Minister's obfuscations around the inescapable rotten core of the exchanges between his chief-of-staff, one of his senior ministers and Grewal been all that different from Chrétien's petulant protests over the sponsorship issue?
The fact is, over the past few months the Prime Minister has compounded the damage wreaked on the credibility of Canada's political class by his predecessor.
Bridges between the government and the opposition were ordered burned as part of a parliamentary procedural war. Merit was shown to come a poor second to naked partisan interest in the allocation of government responsibilities. Deniability was given precedence over accountability.
It is quite an article.
Update: Let It Bleed suggests that the Prime Minister should resign. He also quotes Chantal Hebert:
...Some of Martin's cabinet loyalists are now quietly questioning whether their loyalty to him is in conflict with their duty to the country — and so probably should the rest of us.
She is right. For the sake of our country PM Martin must step down. If he does not then these cabinet loyalists should sit as independents and help bring this government down.
