Ignore the polls, (Cdn) Liberals told (election rumours) Globe and Mail

[Screaming Lord Byron]

http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040414.wxliberals1404/BN

Ottawa — Prime Minister Paul Martin's strategists told Liberal MPs yesterday to ignore disappointing public-opinion polls and that they are eager for a ''head-to-head contest'' with the Conservatives and their ''radical, far-right agenda that is consistently out-of-sync with Canadians.''

MPs received the message as part of an e-mail from the Prime Minister's Office. It was in reaction to a Globe and Mail/CTV/Ipsos Reid poll showing the Liberals at 35 per cent nationally, the lowest level the party has reached since September, 1993.

"Over the next few weeks, the Prime Minister will be expanding on his vision for the country and going to work on issues of concern to Canadians, like striking a new health-care agreement with the provinces to secure medicare for a generation," the PMO missive says

(snip)

MPs were also told yesterday that the Prime Minister will be available to pose for individual pictures with them just after next week's caucus meeting. "Gee, does that not kind of smell like something?" asked a Liberal aide.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

1. OK, something is definitely up. Liberal internal polls show lead in Quebec

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1081894211471&call_pageid=968332188774&col=968350116467

Liberals lead Bloc, party poll shows

OTTAWA—The Liberals have pulled ahead of the Bloc Québécois in Quebec, according to a poll done for the Liberal Party of Canada.

The survey by the Quebec polling firm Créatec+ shows the Liberals with 43 per cent, the Bloc with 37 per cent, the Conservatives with 10 per cent, the New Democratic Party with 6 per cent and other parties with 4 per cent.

The poll stands in sharp contrast with other recent public opinion surveys in Quebec, and the Ipsos-Reid poll published this week, all of which show the Liberals trailing the Bloc by at least 10 points.

A source who gave the Star the poll results said the party wanted an organization that is not the usual Liberal polling firm to conduct the survey, and do so without any preliminary questions

[Minstrel Boy]

2. ''radical, far-right agenda"?

That sounds like NDP strategists, talking about Martin. :)

[Screaming Lord Byron]

3. OK, I give up on predicting an election date.

I don't, however, buy this argument that Martin is determined to disregard the polls. I get the feeling that everything he does is dictated by what Ipsos-Reid or EKOS report back to him. As each day goes by, Paul Martin looks more and more like John Turner.

[Minstrel Boy]

5. Since he chose to meet Bush at the end of April, I expect he's

ruled out a May date. June, maybe? That's my best, and last, guess.

He can't keep the election machine idling indefinitely.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

6. That machine would be very difficult to hold together through the summer.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

4. From The Star - Scandal report points to Gagliano

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1081894211477&call_pageid=968332188774&col=968350116467

OTTAWA —The sponsorship scandal was driven by the political will of the Chrétien government and abetted by disregard for government rules by key federal officials, according to a confidential draft report to Parliament being discussed today by MPs.

The report lays much of the blame at the feet of former public works minister Alfonso Gagliano and bureaucrats in his department while the $250 million program operated between 1997 and 2002. The preliminary finding was prepared by legislative researchers for the House of Commons public accounts committee.

Chuck Guité, a mid-level advertising manager who was in charge of doling out the sponsorship money, and former public works deputy minister Ran Quail are named as key contributors to the conditions that led to the widespread waste of taxpayers' funds.

-Looks like they're going to pin everything on Gagliano and get this out of the way as soon as possible.