Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - June 29, 2004, Winnipeg, Manitoba Election special Judy was lycia leis beats Cabinet minister Rey Pagtakhan As nip holds balance of Power night of surprises Ken Gigliotti / Winnipeg free press new democratic party candidate Judy was lycia leis reacts to her Victory in Winnipeg North Over Liberal Cabinet minister Rey Pagtakhan. The liberals lost their majority but won a minority of about 135 by Gerald flood Early this morning Down from 172 in the last election. But the lib eral score was enough that with support from the nip they should command by a whisker a majority in parliament. The demise of the Liberal grip on Power turned out to be a near death experience no t was a night of surprises big surprises More. Or. Martin May not have done what he was expected to do Only that will be talked about for generations. Three months ago ? sweep to Power with a greatly increased the conservative party promising to Cut majority. But there seems Little doubt that liberals across the land will be rejoicing All the same this 25 per cent and projected to win a its been a Rocky Road for or. Martin. He was expected to do what his father Paul Martin sr., failed to minority government just two Days earlier do three times ? win not Only the respect of the party and country was instead brought Down to Earth when voters by serving honourably in Cabinet but also by doing More winning the party a leadership and then the coun instead embraced parties promising big increases try. For a scam a Flag waving program that funnelled $100 million to Liberal Friendly firms for nothing and which frittered away $150 million More on next to nothing. And despite or. Martins vow to get to the Bottom of a scam the country is nowhere near that Point ? and reports audits and the findings of a judicial inquiry Are still to come. And that matters because it was a scam in the All important election in Quebec that has Cost or. Martin his majority. Quebe cers could not forgive a cynical promotional Campaign of wasted Money to keep them in confederation. In Ontario which in the end gave the minority government to Martin a scam was not As big a Factor As perhaps fears of How far to the right a conservative government of Stephen Harper might prove to be and How far it might go economically and socially especially with abortion and same sex marriages. Or. Martin Rose higher on the ladder than his father. In Ontario voters appear to have been less upset within program spending on the one hand and bigger he succeeded in taking the leadership and thus the voters the recent budget of the liberals under Premier Dalton prime minister ship from Jean Chr Tien who ironically Mcguinty than had been claimed. That budget Intro spending increases on the other. Perhaps had pitied and supported Paul Martin or. In the defied the diced health premiums of $400 per person despite athe nip Rose to respectability by doubling the first of his three failed bids for the leadership. Signed pledge that the new Ontario Liberal government but Paul Martin or. Was supposed to do More ? he confident would not raise taxes. Number of seats it has in parliament where its was supposed to win a landslide majority of As Many As and it will be said a scam occurred on or. Chr Tien a 200 seats yesterday he was supposed to be the Jugger and watch and largely at or. Chr Tien a pleasure. Or. Martin representation will include not one but three for naut he was described As being in a recent biography. And the liberals have now paid the great Price for Mer and present leaders ? Jack Layton Alexa he was supposed to be the new Liberal Broom a Man collective a scam. If audits and judicial review find that the for the times As opposed to yesterdays Man his hated hands of those who survived yesterday Are clean the Mcdonough and de Broadbent. Rival or. Chr Tien the Friendly dictator and Iron Man opinions might put the scandal behind them. Of two other recent biographies. But they will not easily or soon put the fact that or. Voters defied the confident and collective Opin he was in Short expected to be More successful than of polls Martins failure in Quebec has brought separatism Back ions of polls and pollsters seat projectors and or. Chr Tien to be the better politician. He did not do to life. A recent poll if we can believe it says 50 per that. But he did recover. He showed a different kind of cent of Quebe cers once again support separation the and pundits. Maybe voters had been fibbing to poll determination. He made a comeback and if it was Only same level As existed when the liberals almost lost the a comeback from his own failure to do what was expect-1995 referendum. Sters All along but whether they were or not pollsters de of him it still counts. It is too easy however to concentrate Only on a scam or. Chr Tien never thought he had the steel to be a there can be Little doubt they moved to the Liber successful political Leader not As no. 1, and on that the als at the last minute and turned on its head the verdict is still out because As natural As the fit with the nip appears to be his minority government remains at the mercy old cliche that governments never gain support in of the opposition parties. And it will not necessarily quell internal criticism. The Chr Tien campaigns they shed it. Ites Many demoted by Martin since he became prime minister will but most surprising of All was that prime minis still be Able to gloat and second guess to contrast or. Martins minority with or. Chr Tien a three straight majorities. Ter Paul Martin and the liberals lost but won. And the euphoria of the moment wont last. Soon it will be recalled that he imposed Star candidates on Riding associations pushing out local favourites even such popular incumbent maps As Herb Dhaliwal and Sheila Copps moves that showed him to be More ruthless and less of a Democrat than his Heartfelt rhetoric implied. Or. Martin and the liberals also collectively share responsibility and the Mcguinty budget. The undercurrents of the Liberal fall from Grace can be traced Back to the 2000 election and the presumption of Liberal Hegemony that it produced. In 2000, after or. Martin gave some of the burgeoning Federal surplus Back to the country in tax cuts so As to Blunt the platform of the Canadian Alliance or. Chr Tien called an Early election to catch the alliances new Leader Stockwell Day unprepared. Without a tax Cut platform and on the evidence without a clue the hapless or. Day bungled his Way through the Campaign and or. Chr Tien scored his third straight majority. Continued ;