Chretien advises Dion to trigger election: analyst
CTV.ca News Staff
Updated: Sun. Feb. 17 2008 4:19 PM ET
Former prime minister Jean Chretien has advised Liberal Leader Stephane Dion to trigger an election now, says a former senior Liberal.
"We hear now that ... Chretien and Jean Pelletier, his former chief of staff, are telling him it's a matter of credibility, that he can't support the government any more and that the timing would be right," Jean Lapierre told CTV's Question Period on Sunday.
Lapierre, now a political commentator for Quebec's TVA network, said Dion would be "comfortable with that advice."
The Liberal caucus is said to be deeply divided on an election call, with Dion among the most hawkish.
In a Feb. 11 appearance on Question Period, Dion strongly hinted the Liberals might defeat the Tories over the budget, which will be tabled on Feb. 26.
Chretien had called elections as prime minister in 1997 and 2000 despite the objections of what he called "nervous Nellies" in his caucus, "but in the end, he was proven right," said Lapierre.
"I think (Chretien) will have a greater influence on Mr. Dion than any member of caucus," he said.
"I'm sure if Mr. Chretien were the leader of the Liberal party, he would pull the plug and he'd go for a fight," Lapierre said, citing controversies like the Afghan detainees issue and the Mulroney-Schreiber affair.
This affair is a major test of leadership for Dion, he said. "The toothpaste is out of the tube; he can't put it back in."
CTV's Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife said there are several signs the Liberal party is preparing for an early election:
* The Liberals finally have a campaign plane;
* Dion took his staff out for beers on Friday night to get them "revved up"; and
* Is spending Sunday at Stornoway, the official residence of the leader of the opposition, to prepare for a campaign-style tour of Quebec. The House of Commons won't be sitting this week.
Conservatives attack
The Conservative minority government appears to be spoiling for a fight itself.
Along with the budget, which is always a matter of confidence, the Tories have made a late March vote on extending the Afghanistan mission a matter of confidence. They also made Senate ratification of their omnibus crime bill to be a matter of confidence.
Industry Minister Jim Prentice used his Question Period appearance to give a preview of an attack on Liberal spending promises:
* The Tories claim the Liberals have made 86 major spending commitments since January 2006 (the last federal vote took place on Jan. 23, 2006; the Conservatives took power on Feb. 6);
* If implemented, they would add $62.5 billion to Canada's debt over the next four years; and
* There are at least 33 more uncommitted spending promises.
Prentice put a $98 billion price tag on those promises.
"It's time for the Liberals to come clean with Canadians on how they would pay for these spending promises," he said.
A television ad shows Dion making a number of spending commitments. At least one clip about where Dion talked about "megatonnes of money" may actually from a speech where he was saying how much money could be made by shifting to a lower-carbon economy.
"We can hardly be faulted if it doesn't look like leadership; it looks like confusion and it looks like spending promises that will drive our country into debt," Prentice said.
Asked if the government was trying to trigger an election, Prentice said: "Whether there's an election or not will depends on the Liberals in particular.
"In that context, we feel it's appropriate to force them to account to Canadians," he said.
Liberals respond
Liberal Finance Critic John McCallum described the Conservatives' claims a "$62 billion Conservative lie.
"History shows that it's Conservatives who run big, fat, juicy deficits, and it's Liberals like Jean Chretien, Dalton McGuinty and soon, Stephane Dion, are left to clean up the mess," McCallum said.
"We have said over and over again we will not go into deficit," he said. "Every promise we make in the course of the election campaign will be fully costed, fully documented and fully public."
The two federal Conservative budgets to date have been balanced and have also resulted in healthy surpluses. That led to major tax cuts, the most prominent of which has been reducing the Goods and Services Tax to five per cent.
McCallum said he suspected the Tories want an election because they suspect the economy will start to slip.
"They have little (left) to help the manufacturing sector," he said.
In the upcoming budget, McCallum echoed Dion in saying the Liberals would review the budget and support it if it's good for Canada.
Any decision to trigger an election would be up to Dion, he said.
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As for Chretein, the less I say the better.
