[lbo-talk] Martin seems set to follow Joe Clark's lead

Todd Archer todda39 at hotmail.com
Sat Jul 10 07:31:44 PDT 2004


In '79 Joe Clark, then PM under a minority government, decided to govern as though he had a majority:

"The tone that June 5 -- Clark's 40th birthday and a day after his ministers had been sworn in -- mirrored his post-election comment that he'd govern as if he had a majority."

http://www.canoe.ca/CNEWSPolitics9906/29_clark.html

For that, he's excoriated.

Now here's another minority PM who seems ready to follow in Clarke's footsteps:

"Scott Reid, a senior adviser to Mr. Martin, said that on health care and other issues, Mr. Martin will want to hear from other parties, but he objected to Mr. Layton's assertion that the Liberals have no mandate to act without consultation.

"It may have been a minority Parliament but there's a mandate and the government is going to have to take decisions," Mr. Reid said."

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20040710/NDP10/TPHealth/

Martin also insists on seeing the other party leaders on a one-on-one basis, not as a group. Wow! Wonder if he learned that trick at CSL.

Todd

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