Paul Martin, trying to end the income-trust controversy that has dogged his campaign, told reporters yesterday to stop asking him questions about the issue.One can understand Martin's never wanting to hear the words "income trust" again and wanting to keep his campaign focused on other issues. But this is obviously a dangerous tactic on a couple of levels.
Mr. Martin, citing an RCMP investigation, also refused to name the officials in his office who were given advance notice of the income-trust announcement.
Three members of Mr. Martin's staff and two cabinet ministers knew about the announcement, Finance Minister Ralph Goodale told reporters Tuesday when discussing a meeting with RCMP investigators.
It became clear yesterday that some aides to the other cabinet ministers also knew of the information in advance, with Revenue Minister John McCallum confirming he was informed hours before the announcement and told two staffers.
First, nobody can reasonably expect the income trust question to be ignored the rest of the campaign. If Martin refuses to deal with it, that merely leaves the opposition unopposed in questioning what happened. And given that Harper can never refuse the chance to make up allegations far beyond whatever facts are known publicly, it'll be interesting to see just how far he's able to take the issue before PMPM at least has to step in and address the plausibility of Harper's latest theory.
Second, PMPM's apparent effort to strong-arm the media on an issue of public interest could simply highlight the fact that he can't be trusted as to what's relevant and not during the course of the campaign. And if that leads the media to turn any serious scrutiny on Martin's perennial attempts to exclude the NDP from consideration, then the Libs' left-flank strategy may be in just as much trouble as their fading reputation for competence.
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