PM risked Canada: Gagliano

[Numure]

OTTAWA - Alfonso Gagliano is predicting the end of Canada after Quebec separatists win the next referendum in the province -- and he says the country will have Paul Martin and his inquiry to blame.

In a telephone interview from Florida, the former Chretien Cabinet minister and Quebec lieutenant called Mr. Martin and his election team "a bunch of amateurs" in last year's election and suggested that Transport Minister Jean Lapierre may have acted improperly as a lobbyist before returning to federal politics in 2004.

Mr. Gagliano said Mr. Martin has badly damaged the Liberal party in Quebec and predicts the Bloc Quebecois will "sweep" the province's 75 seats in an upcoming election. He says the separatist party's big win will boost the fortunes of the Parti Quebecois.

"The next provincial election, unless there is a miracle, the PQ will win and they will call a referendum right away," Mr. Gagliano said. "And 'goodbye Canada.' This is the end, thanks to Paul Martin's leadership."

Mr. Gagliano, who was Mr. Chretien's Quebec political lieutenant for the 1997 and 2000 election campaigns, said he was "much more successful" in the province than Mr. Martin and Mr. Lapierre last year.

"I don't have to take any lessons from Paul Martin and Jean Lapierre. They were running a campaign like a bunch of amateurs," Mr. Gagliano said.

He said Mr. Lapierre is infamous for his "short fuse" and made numerous ill-considered statements during the campaign that hurt his party's chances. Calling him "opportunistic," he said the former Bloc Quebecois co-founder joined Mr. Martin believing they would sweep the country in last year's election.

"I think the first mistake Paul Martin made was calling the inquiry on his own party. Imagine if there had been a Gomery inquiry into the Mulroney years, or any political party. This is a very politically driven inquiry," said Mr. Gagliano.

He said "it is too late" to turn the Liberal party's fortunes around in Quebec: "The damage has been done for the next 10 years. The Liberal Party of Canada will have a tough time in Quebec. I mean, that is the only federalist party that can face the separatists."

Still bristling from Mr. Lapierre's comments a few weeks ago about "rotten apples" in the Liberal party, Mr. Gagliano recalled Mr. Lapierre, a consultant to several businesses at the time, approaching him when he was minister of Public Works, asking him to meet "a friend."

Accompanied by Mr.Lapierre, Mr. Gagliano said he met with Francois Dufort of Cossette Communications Group for a presentation on publicity services and only found out later that Mr. Lapierre was a lobbyist for the firm.

"If I'd known he was a lobbyist, I definitely wouldn't have gone," he said, adding that Mr. Lapierre had "in a sense" misrepresented himself.

"I am not settling accounts. I was asked about it and that's what happened," he said.

Cossette Communications has since landed the lucrative federal contract for placing ads for the government.

When asked about adman Claude Boulay's relationship with Mr. Martin, an issue that has dominated Question Period the past week, Mr. Gagliano said the pair first came together in 1990 in the leadership campaign.

He said Mr. Boulay also worked on Mr. Martin's LaSalle-Emard riding campaign in the 1993 election, and the pair both own properties in the same area of the Eastern Townships of Quebec. But he backed away from saying they were more than acquaintances: "I don't know really. What I know is the business side. I don't know the personal side."

http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=32fc3b06-af79-4f15-9ebe-42de76bafe23

 

[mrmom2]

:lol: :lol: If that isn't the pot calling the kettle black I don't know what is :lol: These politicians are a total joke.First they steal our money then they argue about who's the best at pulling the wool over the taxpayers eyes :evil:

 

[shamus11]

And all that from an alledged made man.

 

[bluealberta]

I just love watching a snake eat it's own tail. Nothing scarier than a liberal mad at another liberal. If we can get Ontario on side, perhaps a Conservative government that believes in personal responsibility and adhering to the constitution of this country can turn us around and generate respect again for us around the world. Then maybe Canada can really be saved, instead of being put at risk both nationally and internationally by the whole liberal group, including Martin, Chretien, and the master of disaster, Trudeau. Come on Ontario, how about it? Had enough of liberal disaster and are you willing to give the Conservatives a real shot at fixing the mess the liberals made yet again? We need to save Canada, and seeing as how the liberals got us where we are, and the NDP is never going to form a federal govt (ditto Bloc), the only party with a legitimate chance to save us is the Conservatives. Fiscal and social responsibility will save us, not the irresponsible actions shown by the liberals.

 

[Numure]

RE: PM risked Canada: Gag

One thing I can garante, beubye Québec with a conservative Goverment.

Is that saving your country?

Like he said, the only federalist party with the tools to fight seperatism are the liberals. No doubt about that. I even hoped for a conservative goverment in the last elections so we could finaly get it over with.

 

[bluealberta]

I give the people of Quebec much more credit than that. They are too smart to get out of a country which provides them with everything they have, and virtually everything they have demanded over the years. How can the liberals, who are on the verge of losing their support in Quebec any different from the conservatives who have no seats there at present? The liberals are the ones that got us into this mess, and are the ones who have given rise once again to the separatist mindset.

I am and have been curious to know how Quebec would survive outside the safety net of Canada which provides them with linquistic protection, and more importantly, money. At the present time, only Alberta, Ontario, and to a smaller degree BC are the only so-called have provinces, and all other provinces are the recipient of monies provided by these have provinces. How does Quebec plan on replacing these federal funds? I respectfully suggest that if Quebec did somehow manage to pull the plug, the provinces who provide funds will not continue to send money to Quebec.

I do not want to appear confrontational in this, and I really would like to hear how Quebec could manage, as everything I have read and heard over the years regarding this subject has said that the best deal for Quebec is to be part of Canada. Being a French island in a sea of North American English would be very difficult. Anyway, I don't want to see Canada break up, but maybe it is time for all concerned to call it a failed experiment. I know that in Alberta there is a mindset that if we could keep the twelve billion in transfer payments, we would be able to have a good chance of going it alone, and having moved most of our trade from east-west to north-south over the last few years, we would not have to establish any new trading partners, we already have them. Maybe Martin has done us all a favor, and maybe Gagliano is right. Hope not, though.