Paul Martin, Ham Actor
You probably know the old Hollywood joke: "Sincerity is everything. When you can fake that, you've got it made."
Paul Martin's problem is that sincerity is the one thing he cannot quite fake. He displayed that failing most vividly Friday night, when he erupted into his choreographed and stage-managed outburst against Gilles Duceppe. He delivered his lines like some ham actor who's made up his mind: The audience has to see acting, and by God, they are going to see acting!
One of CTV's debate commentators, Joy McPhail, a former NDP legislator from British Columbia, complained during a discussion afterward that Martin had made an error of timing. Wouldn't it have been better, she wondered, if Martin had delivered his attack on separatism and his paean to Canada during the French-language debate the night before? After all, it's not as if anybody watching the English debate would be tempted to vote for the Bloc Quebecois.
But of course there was no error. Delivering that "impassioned" message in French would have been politically risky. To speak those words to an audience that might not want to hear them would have demanded courage and character. So naturally Martin didn't do it.
Instead, he waited 24 hours and delivered those words--in English--to an audience that would unanimously applaud. Points scored, and at a cheap price too. For this same Prime Minister who stands ready to "defend Canada" is the same prime minister who condemns Canada's most active patriots, its soldiers, to die in ancient, obsolete helicopters, ships and lightly armed cars.
A century ago, a British poet shrewdly described Paul Martin's brand of ardent patriotism:
When you've shouted 'Rule Britannia,' - when you've sung 'God save the Queen,'
When you've finished killing Kruger with your mouth,
Will you kindly drop a shilling in my little tambourine
For a gentleman in khaki ordered South?
"Kruger" is Paul Kruger, the prime minister of the Boer colonies during Britain's Boer war, and for a long time afterwards, the phrase "killing Kruger with your mouth" was used to describe exactly the kind of empty noisy patriotism that Paul Martin exhibited Friday.
Perhaps even more objectionable than Mr. Martin's tinkling brass is his glaring hypocrisy.
Could we remember please exactly why it is that separatism has suddenly re-emerged as a live force in Quebec? It was the crookedness and corruption of Martin's own party that revived the very threat he denounced.
And was it not even more bizarre to hear the Prime Minister swivel immediately from his "I love Canada" speech to an assertion of the need for Quebec nationalists to obey the law? As Gilles Duceppe rightly pointed out, the only party proven to have violated the law in Quebec was Martin's Liberals, who used illegal funds to fight at least two elections in the province.
And as Duceppe likewise points out, Canadians still do not know how this illegal money was used: The Liberals have refused to say which of their candidates received the money.
And who knows? The Liberals may well be benefiting from illegal funds even now. Nobody knows how much the Liberal party got from Adscam--and nobody knows how much of it the Liberals have as yet paid back.
Liberal talking heads keep insisting that "the money" has been "repaid." But what does that mean? Has the government of Canada received and cashed a check? Or have the Liberals just written some notional IOU into their party's books?
And how are Canadians to know how much money is owed. The Liberals estimate that they received $1.14-million. Even assuming that estimate can be trusted--when they say "the money" do they mean all $1.14 million? Or just some of it?
In the run-up to this election, the Liberals decided how much they would repay and on what schedule--and both remain closely guarded secrets. As Stephen Harper quipped last week, the party made "a plea bargain with itself. Those must have been some tough negotiations."
Again and again through this election season, Paul Martin and his surrogates have claimed or insinuated that he loves Canada more than Harper. But what is it exactly that he loves? The scenery? The profits of office? Or something more?
When most Canadians say "Canada," they are referring not just to the rocks and dirt that make up the Canadian landmass. They mean Canada's constitutional government, its democratic society, its freedoms. If the Martin Liberals really loved those latter things, they would be the first to demand their own punishment--for they have disgraced, betrayed and violated all three.