Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin's gamble in calling an early election has yet to show signs of paying off, with questions being raised over whether he will lose his parliamentary majority or even lose office after six months in power.
Martin's Liberals made no major gaffes in the first week of campaigning for the June 28 vote, but the 65-year-old leader has also failed to catch fire.
In calling the election last Sunday, a year and a half before he had to, the gamble was that he could raise his support during the campaign to the point where he could salvage a majority government -- but his polling numbers have gone the wrong direction.
"In the four weeks remaining before June 28, Martin must reconnect with fickle, angry voters, illuminate a vision for Canada's future that has lost its focus, and, most important, dispel rising doubts about his leadership," columnist Jim Travers wrote in the pro-Liberal Toronto Star.
"Martin, who just months ago, was expected to sweep the country, might now become opposition leader and, in time, little more than a political curiosity," Travers wrote.
Martin had gained respect as finance minister from 1993 to 2002, when he delivered balanced budgets first and then tax cuts. He had an aura of invincibility and superstar popularity as he ousted his political rival, Jean Chretien, as prime minister in December.
He remains ahead of the Conservatives by a lead of 38 percent to 30 percent in the latest poll, but this is a far cry from leads of 30 points to which the Liberals had become accustomed. It would also mean losing a majority in Parliament.
The Conservatives, who are pushing for more tax cuts while Martin now says Canada cannot afford them, could even deny him even a minority government if the current trends continue, Ekos pollster Frank Graves predicted on Friday.
If he becomes a "political curiosity" as a short-term prime minister, Martin would join the ranks of Conservatives Kim Campbell, in office for just five months in 1993, and Joe Clark, who served nine months from 1979-80, and Liberal John Turner, who lasted just three months in 1984.
"I don't think [Martin is] seen as change anymore," the Star quoted Graves as saying as it released an Ekos poll showing 59 percent of Canadians think it's time to change parties.
Voters had certainly tired of Chretien after they gave him three successive majorities. Martin had to try to present a new face despite being elected under Chretien and serving in his cabinet.
The two biggest reasons for the decline in the polls are a spending scandal which saw government ad money being channeled to Liberal firms, sometimes for no work, and a broken-promise tax hike by Ontario's provincial Liberals.
Martin's strategists put a brave face on the numbers -- "It's only the first week," one said -- and said they saw encouraging signs especially toward the end of the week.
A sleeper issue in this campaign is gay marriage, which the Liberals want to legalize but most Conservatives oppose.
KINGPIN: Marset allegedly laundered the proceeds of his drug enterprise by purchasing and sponsoring professional soccer teams and even put himself in the starting lineups Notorious Latin American narco trafficker Sebastian Marset, who eluded police for years, was handed over to US authorities after his arrest on Friday in Bolivia. Marset, a Uruguayan national who was on the US most-wanted list, was passed to agents of the US Drug Enforcement Administration at Santa Cruz airport in Bolivia, then put on a US airplane, Bolivian state television showed. “The arrest and deportation were carried out pursuant to a court order issued by the US justice system,” Bolivian Minister of Government Marco Antonio Oviedo told reporters. The alleged kingpin was arrested in an upscale neighborhood of Santa
FAKE NEWS? ‘When the government demands the press become a state mouthpiece under the threat of punishment, something has gone very wrong,’ a civic group said The top US broadcast regulator on Saturday threatened media outlets over negative coverage of the Middle East war, after US President Donald Trump slammed critical headlines from the “Fake News Media.” The US president since his first term has derided mainstream media as “fake news” and has sued major outlets over what he sees as unfair coverage. Brendan Carr, head of the US Federal Communications Commission — which oversees the nation’s radio, television and Internet media — said broadcasters risked losing their licenses over news coverage. “The law is clear. Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will
SCANDAL: Other images discovered earlier show Andrew bent over a female and lying across the laps of a number of women, while Mandelson is pictured in his underpants A photograph of former British prince Andrew and veteran politician Peter Mandelson sitting in bathrobes alongside late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was unearthed on Friday in previously published documents. The image is believed to be the first known photograph of the two men with Epstein. They are currently engulfed in scandal in the UK over their ties to their mutual friend. The undated photograph, first reported by ITV News, shows King Charles III’s disgraced brother and former British ambassador to the US sitting barefoot outside on a wooden deck. They appear to have mugs with a US flag on them
INFLUTENTIAL THEORIST: Habermas was particularly critical of the ‘limited interest’ shown by German politicians in ‘shaping a politically effective Europe Jurgen Habermas, whose work on communication, rationality and sociology made him one of the world’s most influential philosophers and a key intellectual figure in his native Germany, has died. He was 96. Habermas’ publisher, Suhrkamp, said he died on Saturday in Starnberg, near Munich. Habermas frequently weighed in on political matters over several decades. His extensive writing crossed the boundaries of academic and philosophical disciplines, providing a vision of modern society and social interaction. His best-known works included the two-volume Theory of Communicative Action. Habermas, who was 15 at the time of Nazi Germany’s defeat, later recalled the dawn of
RSS