[quote:1908d]Martin to Address Nation About Scandal
Wed April 20, 2005 7:01 PM GMT-04:00
By David Ljunggren and Randall Palmer
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Prime Minister Paul Martin will make a rare nationwide televised address on Thursday to discuss an escalating cash-for-favors scandal, but he will not propose dissolving Parliament and calling an election, an aide said on Wednesday.
Uproar over the scandal has paralyzed Parliament and opposition parties seem poised to topple Martin's minority Liberal government and force a June vote.
A public inquiry into the scandal has heard that money from a sponsorship program designed to boost Canadian unity in French-speaking Quebec was funneled to Liberal-friendly advertising firms, often for little or no work.
"The prime minister will speak about the sponsorship program and the current situation in Parliament. We're clearly in an exceptional political circumstance," Martin's chief spokesman Scott Reid told Reuters.
"While he will not be proposing that Parliament be dissolved or prorogued (suspended), he will be direct in saying what he has done and what he believes should be done to address the current situation," Reid said.
The last time a prime minister formally addressed the nation in this way was Jean Chretien in 1995 in the run-up to a referendum on independence for Quebec, parliamentary officials said. Martin will speak at 7:45 p.m. (2345 GMT) on Thursday.
Martin says the inquiry should be allowed to finish before an election is held. Judge John Gomery, who is heading the probe, is due to release his final report in December.
Polls show that if an election were held today, the most likely result would be a minority government led by the official opposition Conservative Party of Stephen Harper.
News of the televised address did not impress opposition parties, who said if Martin had ideas on how to solve the current stalemate he should make them to Parliament.
The Liberals have been in power since November 1993, but the party lost its majority in the House of Commons in an election last June amid anger over the scandal.
The advertising program was designed to promote Canadian unity in Quebec after separatists nearly won the referendum. But the inquiry has unveiled allegations of kickbacks to the Liberal Party in connection with the program.
Although opposition parties say they have not decided whether to try to topple the government and trigger an election, the language of their statements has raised the likelihood of a June 27 vote.
"All Liberals have done a lot of damage to this country, to the image of federalism in Quebec, and that's why it's necessary for the people of Quebec and of all the provinces to replace this government," said Harper.
Martin set up the inquiry into the scandal in February 2004 and has been in serious trouble politically ever since.
"He presumably could have buried this whole thing, but he chose not to, and it may even cost him his prime ministership," senior Liberal parliamentarian John McKay told reporters.
The Conservatives, vowing to explore every avenue to put pressure on the Liberals, will ask a parliamentary committee to approve a nonbinding motion of non-confidence in Martin's government.
The measure will be formally introduced into the public accounts committee on May 2 and if approved -- which seems likely -- it would then be voted on within 10 days.
Asked whether the Liberals could ignore the results of a full parliamentary vote on what would be a nonbinding motion, leading Conservative Jay Hill replied:
"If the majority of the members of Parliament elected to the House of Commons voted in favor of non-confidence, it would be extremely hard for the prime minister to maintain that he had the confidence of the House."[/quote:1908d]
http://www.reuters.ca/locales/c_newsArt ... ID=8244451
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Prime Minister Martin To Address The Nation Thursday
Prime Minister Martin To Address The Nation Thursday -
04-20-2005, 09:01 PM
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