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|Monday November 17, 2003 |
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THE HIDDEN TRAPS
TORONTO
- I was on the floor of the Air Canada Centre last Friday night, and I was
watching alternatively Paul Martin on the podium about to deliver his
acceptance speech and his wife Sheila, in her seat, looking at her husband.
Sheila is the one person who, more than anyone, knows the inside struggle her
husband has had to endure for 13 years to get to that podium. While the crowd
was yelling and applauding for Martin, she was watching the podium and looking
almost numb, until the new leader pronounced the first words: "I knew it was
tough, I didn¹t know it was that tough" he said.
As I watched Sheila Martin for what seemed like an eternity, but was only a
few seconds before the beginning of Martin¹s acceptance speech after he won 95
per cent of support as the new Liberal leader on Saturday in Toronto, I could
only imagine the harrowing torment the couple had to endure for 13 years, to
get to that point.
Very few Liberal leaders had to work so hard to get the top job. In fact, it
looks as though his quest for the leadership of the Liberal Party started in
the 1960s with his father Paul Martin Sr. and finished on Nov. 14 on the floor
of the Air Canada Centre.
Nobody disputes his great contribution to the party or his competence as
finance minister. Paul Martin deserves to become the leader of the Liberal
Party and the next Prime Minister of Canada. And in the midst of all the
highly-anticipated and deserved celebrations, it might be anti-climatic to
talk about some concerns. I know that Mr. Martin is surrounded by loyal and
capable advisers, but, nonetheless, I would like to list some hidden traps on
the way to a successful prime ministership.
Last week¹s victory is not like winning the gold medal at the Olympics, it¹s
just the right to run for it in the final sprint. This is the time when the
team needs the help of everyone to achieve the final victory. It would be a
huge mistake for his team to use the new power to get even with old enemies,
instead of trying to make new friends. Running a campaign is different from
running a government; as well as winning a convention is much more different
than winning the country. If anything, it took 13 years to get to last
Saturday night¹s victory within the Liberal Party. Thirteen weeks is all they
are going to get to win the country; something that requires different
dynamics, different skills and different approaches.
Up to now Mr. Martin and his team had the opportunity to work as a phantom
team, they had an opportunity to do their job quietly without having the
weight to run the country on their shoulders, the nuisance of the media on
their back and the scrutiny of public opinion to deal with on a daily basis.
They were shielded from all of this by Jean Chrétien, the Prime Minister, who
was getting all the bad press or the scrutiny of the media. Moreover, the
opposition will be on his case asking all kinds of questions like, for the
sake of argument, how much money did his companies get from the government
while he was at Finance: $132,000 or $132 million?
He is loved by the Liberals, respected in the country and internationally.
It¹s all true, but there are some concerning coincidences that should not be
overlooked.
Paul Martin is not Ernie Eves, and Paul Martin is not Barbara Hall. However,
he too, like Eves, is a former minister of finance slipping into the job of
his former boss. Eves got the job of Mike Harris easily because he convinced
the Conservatives he was the best person to win the province. But he failed to
convince Ontarians. The main reason is because he was not able to articulate a
policy to define himself. He told voters he would be different from Mike
Harris without a policy to prove it. He tried to pick and choose from the past
and was foggy about the future. At the end of the day, when leaving the cosy
position of minister of finance and forced to face the scrutiny of the people
and the media, he failed to answer the basic question a politician should
memorize before entering into an election: why he wanted to premier?
Of course, Martin is not Eves and Harris is not Chrétien, but the new leader
has to define all of this to Canadians. Now that he is not shielded by
Chrétien and Chrétienites, he has to explain why a successful leader, who won
three back-to-back elections, put the finances in order and "left the country
in a better shape than the one he got 10 years ago" was forced to leave.
Yes, Martin, contrary to Eves, is now very popular with Canadians and high in
the polls. So was Barbara Hall. Only a few weeks before the Nov. 10 election
in Toronto she was almost at 50 per cent in the polls, with David Miller
running in the single digits. So why did she collapse? Because Torontonians
were tired of Mel Lastman and were parking their dissatisfaction on the only
commodity they knew, Barbara Hall. It was all name recognition. When Lastman
was removed from the equation, she had to stand on her own strength, and she
failed.
Paul Martin is no Ernie Eves, who had all the charisma of Robocop, and Paul
Martin is no Barbara Hall, whose communication skills made her lose one per
cent of votes each time she spoke. Nonetheless, the federal environment has
many similarities with the provincial and municipal ones in Ontario and
Toronto. As well, Mr. Martin and his people must know that the most difficult
task in politics is not to get to power, but to maintain it.
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