Dion and theMartinites
by Angelo Persichilli
THE HILL TIMES
Former prime minister Paul Martin is heading back to private life, but “Martinites” are still in the political business.
In particular, they’re right back in the office of the new Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion. This, at least, is the opinion of many Liberal MPs who are increasingly nervous and resentful of this presence.
They’ve been talking about it in the hallways, in private conversations during Question Period, and at night, at Hy’s.
However, last week the concern was made official during the weekly meeting of the national Liberal caucus.
Two Ontario MPs have complained about this presence and have asked the leader to take action, others cheerleading behind them. In fact, for whoever wants to listen, there are many more complaining about the presence of Martinites in a less and less discreet way. At the end of the caucus meeting, in his closing remarks, Dion did not address those concerns.
The issue of the staffing of the Liberal Leader’s Office was also the topic of the discussion during the meeting of the Quebec caucus, even though they decided not to raise it, for now, at the national meeting last Wednesday.
Until last week, many were convinced that a federal election was around the corner and hints of what the potential organization of each party would have been were more evident. And, as far as the Liberal Party’s organization, many MPs didn’t like what they saw.
In particular, “the presence of many Martinites in the Leader’s Office was noticed and not appreciated,” one Liberal MP, who didn’t want to be identified, told The Hill Times.
The only one from the Martin organization who seems to be accepted is Mark Marrisen, but he is now seen like a Trojan horse for a busload of former Paul Martin’s advisers, who were thrown out of the window and are now coming back through the front door. With Marrisen, those close to Dion are now Brian Guest, Tim Murphy, Mike Robinson, Elly Alboim and the usual “known” people behind the scenes.
Furthermore, there has been some pressure on the Leader’s Office to clarify the position of Scott Reid, former director of communications to former prime minister Martin, since he’s been appearing regularly on CTV NewsNet as a pundit who spars with Conservative Tim Powers. Some MPs have asked Dion to make it clear to the network that Mr. Reid talks on behalf of himself and not on behalf of the Liberal Party.
The discontent goes beyond Ontario and Quebec and into the Maritimes, where the decision to drop the Liberal candidate in the riding of Central Nova and support the Green Party leader, Elizabeth May, has still not been well-received by local Liberals.
Dion’s intentions might be wellfounded: he wants to bring unity into a very divided organization. However, his action is not having the desired results and there might be, according to some Liberal strategists, two explanations: one, the Martinites are not cooperating in this “peace mission” and have started the “war” all over again against former enemies; or two—and this is more serious—Dion’s action is just premature.
The resentments are still too deep to pretend that everything can go back to normal with a snap of a finger, it takes time to have these confrontational feelings fade away. In some cases, they will fade only when certain individuals are erased from the political map of the Liberal Party, meaning that it is not going to happen during Dion’s leadership.
And this confirms what many Liberal strategists were saying before the last convention: the next real leader of the Liberal Party is going to be the one after the next.
Most likely, people like Frank McKenna and Brian Tobin, people with a lot
of political experience, sensed all of this last year at this time, and
gracefully declined the invitation. And here it comes, Dion.
