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.
*********
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.
snip...
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.
snip...
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.”
snip...
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.
snip...
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 ...