Mr Dithers is a really likable guy, but he's deceitful too. He's telling Canadians one thing and doing the exact opposite. The accolades that Thomas de Aquino, president of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives --who on their website have taken full credit for authoring the Free Trade deals & deep integration with the US-- were especially revealing when he offered Martin praise as "the most distinguished Council alumnus".
 david.

Paul Martin to be Canada’s new prime minister
 

By Keith Jones
22 November 2003

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/nov2003/mart-n22.shtml


Thus last spring, shortly after Chrétien had said the lack of UN Security Council authorization made it impossible for Canada to join in the US war on Iraq, Martin, without publicly criticizing that decision, proclaimed that Canada must be ready to wage wars without UN approval. Similarly, without publicly attacking Chrétien, he has repeatedly said that repairing relations with the Bush administration will be among his foremost priorities and called for a sharp increase in Canada’s military budget.

In September, two days after Chrétien had given a speech that suggested government spending be increased to answer social problems, Martin told the Montreal Board of Trade that his priorities are further reducing taxes and the federal debt, the commercialization of university research, and measures to encourage capital investment and promote cutting-edge industries. Martin aides have promised that the new government will review all recent cabinet spending decisions and order every department to pare its budget.

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Canada’s Liberal government veers right
 

By Keith Jones
19 December 2003

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/dec2003/mart-d19.shtml
Paul Martin has used his first week as Canada’s Prime Minister to steer the ten year-old, federal Liberal government sharply to the right.
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Martin’s choice of Defence Minister was also a statement of intent. The new minister, David Pratt, was one of only a handful of Liberal MPs to publicly criticize Chrétien for failing to deploy the CAF alongside US and British troops in the illegal conquest and occupation of Iraq. As head of the House of Commons Defence Committee, Pratt has for years championed the CAF’s demands for a massive infusion of cash and was among the first proponents of Canada joining the US anti-ballistic missile defence-shield.
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Martin has named himself chair of a new cabinet committee on US-Canada relations and has appointed as his parliamentary secretary for US-Canada relations, Scott Brison. An investment banker and recent defector from the Progressive Conservatives (PC), Brison ran for the PC leadership earlier this year on a platform calling for a new economic and security partnership with the US so as to create “a seamless border.”

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On just his third full day as prime minister, Martin visited the headquarters of the Department of National Defence. His aides were quick to note that in ten years in office, Chrétien had not once visited the nerve center of Canada’s military. In a speech punctuated by repeated applause from Canada’s top brass, Martin hailed the Canadian troops currently propping up Afghanistan’s US-backed puppet government and signalled his readiness to deploy Canadian troops in other parts of the world.
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The steps taken by Martin in his first week in office have been welcomed almost unanimously by the corporate media. For his part, Thomas d’Aquino, head of the Council of Chief Executives (CCE), which represents the country’s 150 biggest firms, wrote an obsequious letter of congratulations to Martin, calling him “the most distinguished Council alumnus” and praising the new prime minister as a “model to all ...