OTTAWA - Landslide Annie has it all. Power. Perks. People to perform her biding. Drivers to chauffeur her places. Government jets to fly on command. Budgets to approve or axe behind closed doors.
But Anne McLellan has little chance to win back her seat in the upcoming federal election unless there's a startling reversal of Liberal fortunes in The West.
[. . . .] McLellan chairs the most critical Cabinet committee and has a Rolodex containing the access codes for contacting the Prime Minister whenever required, day or night.
She controls the RCMP, the prisons, the airports and the border as Public Safety Minister. Some 55,000 government employees call her The Boss.
[. . . .] So powerful has McLellan become that Air Canada executives have been fretting lately at the many missed connections on her flights through Toronto and have urged ground crews to try harder to keep that plane on schedule.
This week, Paul Martin set out to save [her . . .]
Martin put her front and centre at the announcement of a billion-dollar bailout for cattle breeders and feedlot owners hit by mad cow consequences and let it be known through his spin doctors that his deputy had been a particularly aggressive advocate for the package.
The sale of Petro-Canada's remnants was an emotional bonus for Western Trudeau haters and didn't hurt the Liberal chances.
And his federal budget had enough Western-friendly themes to attract above-average marks in The West, rare for a Liberal fiscal blueprint.
But dejected Liberal organizers in Alberta still whisper Anne McLellan is a "dead minister walking" without an unanticipated surge in poll popularity.
McLellan's election track record has never been particularly bright. She has never claimed victory by more than a 2% safety margin and the combined vote of the two right-wing parties, the merged enemy she now faces, would've defeated her three times in a row.
[. . . .] I'd bet McLellan survives, despite being minister in charge of the maligned gun registry, as her Edmonton West voters opt to retain a pivotal place at the Cabinet table.
[. . . .] Particularly aggrieved is inner city Calgary hopeful Julia Turnbull. After a year of campaigning, she's still being denied the right to claim party nomination colours as the Martin camp beats the bushes for a star recruit. They won't find one and even if they did, bumping a woman with thousands of memberships under her name to appoint a high profile replacement would ensure an anybody-but-Liberal victory.
The very idea of what the Prime Minister's camp is trying to do is profoundly undemocratic -- whatever political party does it. It seems to me sacrosanct that a riding should be able to determine the person to be its representative in an election. Why does so much power rest with the PM? Is it written somewhere? Someone, please enlighten me. NJC
Update: A Cow in Every Barn
A billion for Martin's "A cow in every barn" initiative. "Geez, I nearly forgot that we have to buy the West. Could we, maybe, get one rural seat in the west out of this?" It is not as if the money isn't needed; it is just the optics of the timing. I haven't had the chance to look at Martin's new budget. Reports are that it is relatively free of the usual pork servings. I will make sure I read the fine print.
