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Canadian elections called for June

Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin and his wife Sheila leave their residence in Ottawa, Sunday. Martin has called new elections. PHOTO: REUTERS

Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin called general elections for June 28, but he faces a much tougher test than expected six months ago, when he took office on his predecessor's retirement.

Martin, who replaced Jean Chretien in December, was supposed to romp to victory, but recent polls suggest support for his Liberal Party is teetering between majority and minority status.

Spending scandals and unpopular Liberal governments in Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec, which contain some 70 percent of the country's 31 million people, have rocked Martin's reputation earned as the finance minister who eliminated the federal deficit in the mid-1990s.

Martin doesn't have to call an election now, as there is still more than a year left in Chretien's term. But Martin has wanted to gain his own mandate from Canadians.

Taxes

He announced the polling date Sunday in a speech after emerging from a meeting with Governor-General Adrienne Clarkson at her residence. As the representative of Queen Elizabeth II of Britain, Clarkson is the one who dissolves Parliament to allow the election.

The Liberals have governed Canada since 1993, and some polls suggest rising support for Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper could stick Canada with a minority government. Under that scenario, the Liberals would get the most seats in Canada's Parliament, but would need support from other parties to pass legislation.

In his first speech on the campaign trail Sunday, Martin told Canadians in Ottawa that the election would turn on whether to retain Canada's social safety net.

He sniped at Harper, saying his plan to reduce taxes to below those in the US would have grave consequences.

``You cannot have a healthcare system like Canada's, you can't have social programs like Canada's, with taxation levels like those of the United States,'' Martin said.

Missile defense

Other major election themes include improving defense spending, helping city infrastructure and scrutinizing the financial credibility of the government in the wake of a US$72 million scandal over government advertising and a staggering US$700 million cost overrun on implementing a national gun registry.

The Canadian military is still crippled by budget reductions of about one-quarter during the 1990s, when then finance minister Martin cut costs as part of his plan to balance the budget.

Canada has now had balanced budgets for seven years in a row, longer than any other G-8 country, but it faces pressures from inside and abroad to restore funding for foreign troop deployments, such as in Afghanistan and Haiti, to hike border security and to join the US missile defense program.

Marijuana

There are also cross-border issues with the US that will contribute to the election debate: a ban on Canadian beef in the US due to outbreaks of mad cow disease, a longstanding dispute over softwood lumber sales -- and to a lesser extent, proposals to decriminalize marijuana possession and legalize gay marriage across the country.

Martin has striven to improve relations with the US after his predecessor, Chretien, refused to send troops to Iraq and one of his aides called US President George W. Bush a ``moron.'' Martin had positive meetings with Bush in Mexico in January and in Washington in April.

Martin also faces drooping support in the mostly French-speaking province of Quebec, where the separatist Bloc Quebecois Party has nearly twice the support of the Liberals, according to an Ipsos-Reid poll.

The prime minister said a vote for the Bloc would isolate the province and help ``lead Quebec out of Canada.''

Bloc leader Gilles Ducceppe campaigned on Sunday in Montreal, calling for the removal of ``obstacles and intrusion from Ottawa'' in Quebec affairs.
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