|
|Monday May12, 2003 | BACK | NEXT
"It's time to
give martin the keys"
by Angelo Persichilli In an exclusive interview with The Hill Times, Mr. Mills said he also now wonders what the point of the Liberal leadership race really is all about, given Mr. Martin's (LaSalle-Émard, Que.) substantial lead over Sheila Copps (Hamilton East, Ont.) and John Manley (Ottawa South, Ont.), but Mr. Mills would not go so far to say the two should withdraw from the race. "I am not telling anybody what they have to do, I am only saying that we have to ask ourselves what's the national interest, not my interest," Mr. Mills said last week. "It is time to turn the page and to give Paul Martin the keys of the Liberal Party so we can get back to having a passionate focus in governing the country. We are at a state now that were we are becoming disjointed." In a wide-ranging interview, Mr. Mills explained how he has evolved from one of the chief organizers for Jean Chrétien in the 1984 and 1990 campaigns, to a potential candidate himself, then a neutral MP in the upcoming race, and now a Martin supporter. "In 1988, Paul Martin and I were having a dinner and he asked for support, and I told him, Paul, it is not your turn, it is Jean's,'" he said. Mr. Mills said he remembers telling Mr. Martin during a conversation in a downtown Toronto restaurant that Mr. Chrétien "lost by 75 votes in 84, he has worked hard and now we must give him a shot." Mr. Mills said he has always been "pretty loyal to the leader" even if he has, from time to time put forward "ideas and initiatives" that have raised concerns within the PMO. "In politics, they believe that when you challenge your government it is because you are not happy because you are not in government. That's not my case, because I knew that I was not eligible for Cabinet at that time. I had, at that time, a lot of economic challenges," said Mr. Mills. Mr. Mills, in fact, has always believed that debating issues corroborates the strength of a political organization. "When I get upset," Mr. Mills forcefully stressed, "is because for a year-and-a-half the senior public service of Canada wouldn't tell the Toronto MPs where they spend the $20-billion a year." Mr. Mills said he strongly believes that "it is my privilege, as a Member of Parliament, to know where the taxpayers' many is spent in my city. Especially when The Toronto Star, week after week, makes the statement thatthe Toronto caucus is missing in action, when, in fact, we had 10 consecutive years of spending over $24-billion a year in the GTA." However, Mr. Mills said he believes that "until we show that list, people will not believe us." Therefore, putting all those piece together, Mr. Mills said when the Prime Minister announced last year that he was going to turn the page, he reflected for awhile "as to whether or not I was going to be involved in the debate of renewing the Liberal Party by being a candidate myself. And I realized that now it was Paul's turn." Asked what convinced Mr. Mills about Mr. Martin's strength, Mr. Mills said it was indepth research done for him by the Toronto Consulting firm, Navigator. "I thought it was a good thing to put ideas on the table and debate them. What I did, before getting into the race, I made some research and I asked my good friend Jamie Watt to do some independent research for me." During the months of October and November "Jamie, myself and some of my friends went across the country and we spoke to many people, Liberals and non-Liberals. In December, the results come back and what Liberals, but also Conservatives and even NDPers, told us was that this was Paul Martin's turn." Mr. Mills said that "it was the answer we had from 85 per cent of the people we talked too. For a short time, I was a bit frustrated, but the reality was that people were quite satisfied with the work by Paul Martin as minister of Finance, they were quite comfortable with him as a person, and the confidence in him was consistent in every region of the country." Mr. Mills said he "shared this experience with my dear friend Sheila Copps, who turned out to be, from the experience we had touring the country, the second most popular politician in Canada as a potential leader." Two months ago, Mr. Mills said he also had "a chat" with Mr. Manley when he was talking about getting into the race and Mr. Mills told the Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister to "do yourself a favour, like I did with myself, and do some research. You will discover that the results are chilling for you and me." Moreover, Mr. Mills said it is important for an MP to be close to the onstituents: "I have been elected four times in my community and my compass determines how I conduct myself as a Member of Parliament. We are at a moment in time in the Liberal Party, right now, where the people are telling us, directly, indirectly, through polls that this is Martin's time." To stress the importance of the message coming from the people, Mr. Mills said that "we don't have to count the number of MPs supporting Martin, we have to count the number of times those MPs have been elected and re-elected." According to Mr. Mills "when people are elected three or four times, it is not because of a magic event, it is not just because of the leader or the splits in the opposition. That means that those MPs must be doing something right and listening to their voters. If all those MPs are getting around Martin it is because the people of Canada are saying, It's now time to put the national interest ahead of your own interest, your party's interest.' " It is in answering to this question that Mills decided to
support Mr. Martin: "I spoke to Paul last week and I declared my support to
him." Mr. Mills also said that he wants to "thank Jean Chrétien and his wife
Aline for their friendship over the years and for letting me be the |