Canada has a new prime minister (if you hadn't noticed)

[YogsVR4]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...da_politics_dc


OTTAWA (Reuters) - Paul Martin became Canada's 21st prime minister on Friday and immediately announced sweeping government reforms, declaring he wanted to bring in "a new agenda of change and achievement" ahead of an election expected for next May.
Martin, a 65-year-old multimillionaire businessman, replaced the man his supporters effectively drove from office, fellow Liberal Jean Chretien. The majority of Chretien's ministers lost their jobs. Martin has pledged to improve ties with the United States, to give legislators a more effective role in Parliament and to make government less prone to the kinds of spending scandals that dogged Chretien's last years in power. "I look forward to the opportunity to rally Canadians toward a new sense of national purpose and around a new agenda of change and achievement ... we must restore Canadians' trust that their government is listening to them," he said in a statement.

Martin said he would break up the enormous Human Resources and Development Canada ministry, which accounts for most of government spending and was at the center of one particularly damaging scandal. He also announced the creation of a new Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness ministry to boost protection of the public during national crises and natural disasters. Martin -- who served nine years as finance minister before being sacked by Chretien in June 2002 -- was formally sworn in at Rideau Hall, the residence of the Governor-General who represents Canada's head of state, Queen Elizabeth. Martin's swearing in marked the end of a 13-year struggle to be prime minister and was a moment of personal triumph for him. In getting the top job he succeeded where his father -- also a Liberal cabinet minister -- failed. Paul Martin Sr., made a run for prime minister in 1968 but was beaten by the younger Pierre Elliott Trudeau. Martin told his new cabinet to perform like stars and get ready for an election soon after April 1. Opinion polls show the Liberals -- who have been in power for a decade -- are well ahead of other opposition parties. "We were told these were four-month appointments," one member of the new cabinet told Reuters. Several of top posts went to current ministers but ones who had been Martin allies rather than Chretien loyalists. Martin picked western Canadians for the two most powerful jobs -- finance and deputy prime minister -- in a switch from Chretien's era when those posts were always held by people from the central provinces of Ontario and Quebec.

Martin wants to cut into western Canadian alienation, a phenomenon that has fed the main opposition party, the conservative Canadian Alliance, headquartered in Alberta. Arguably the top post under Martin is the finance portfolio, which former Public Works Minister Ralph Goodale takes over. Goodale is a no-nonsense, homey figure from Saskatchewan who shares the fiscally conservative wing of the party. Alberta's Anne McLellan, currently health minister, becomes deputy prime minister and is in charge of the new Public Safety ministry, which is intended to mirror the U.S. Homeland Security Department. She won election to Parliament by a narrow margin in the 2000 federal election and at least part of the thinking is that her reelection chances will be boosted by extra profile. Foreign Minister Bill Graham kept his job. David Pratt, chairman of Parliament's defense committee, becomes defense minister. He stood out against the government's opposition to the war on Iraq (news - web sites) and wants more military spending to boost what many see as Canada's dwindling influence abroad. Martin feels that Chretien had unnecessarily angered the United States with his stance on Iraq, and he intends to put a high priority repairing relations with the United States.


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I don’t really know that much about the man. I do like his conservative approach to the purse strings. That bodes well for our northern neighbors.

[bobby28384]

Sorry, I hadn't noticed.

[YogsVR4]

Originally Posted by bobby28384

Sorry, I hadn't noticed.

Yeah - looks like there is a collective 'YAWN' over this.

[2strokebloke]

Let's see if he can deliver on those promises - improve Canada's relation with the U.S. ?

[taranaki]

There is not so much a collective yawn,as a 'this doesn't really affect me'.Hopefully,the new man will keep to the respectable Canadian tradition of looking to make improvements to his own back yard before meddling in the affairs of other countries.

[YogsVR4]

Excellent point. Perhaps they should start a drive to leave the UN too.

[Cbass]

Paul Martin is an interesting man. Nobody is completely sure what he is going to do as Prime Minister, although it's a certainty that the economy will be his chief focus. All we can hope is it won't be his only focus. He will continue Mulruney and Chretiens policies of selling Canada to the US, and damaging our trade relations with other countries...

It's a foregone conclusion that Canada is just going to continue to become even more economically dependent on the US, and that when the US economy faces inevitable recession or collapse, so will Canada's... Hence why I plan on leaving this country before Martin's next term is through.

[DVS LT1]

It just means the puppet's strings were finally cut. Enjoy retirement Jean.

[Cbass]

You think Martin is going to be any better? He'll just do all the same things Chretien did, selling our resources and our nationality.