Enter the Fixers

Would you like some wine with your crow Mr. Martin? It wasn’t supposed to be going this way when they claimed the prize! Back in November it was generally believed that Paul Martin would have no trouble winning his own mandate from the people. He was to be a new man, with new ideas ready to put his imprint on Liberalism.

His planning team was so secure in their beliefs, that they brazenly tossed aside any of the old Chretien acolytes, preferring to follow their pre arranged path to power. They were to be the new team, with no more of the old ways.

Oh, how one would like to have been a fly on the wall when all that fell apart and they had to admit they were in trouble. While we are only one week into a campaign, the Liberals are apparently so spooked by their falling numbers that they have called out the Chretien Cavalry for help.

The Canadian Press is reporting that the Martinites have brought in former Chretien advisors Jim Munson and Peter Donolo into the planning offices for the Martin campaign. From the Alan Rock bunker, the Martin crew has called in Cyrus Reporter and for good measure they have recruited old Trudeau advisor Patrick Gossage to help pump the water out of the listing ship Martin.

The Four Fixers join up with Martin’s current management team twice a week to try and get the Martin message back on track. Nervous Liberals are finding a rather annoyed electorate out there, ready to take out its frustrations on the first available Liberal to the door. With Stephen Harper pulling his numbers up quickly, the NDP making inroads in the cities and the Bloc Quebecois far from the corpse the Liberals said they were, Mr. Martins handlers are in an apparent state of panic.

So secure is Mr. Harper in his rise in popularity that he’s even mentioned the dreaded M word, that of Mulroney. So disliked has the Liberal agenda apparently become of late, that it’s now no longer a lynching offence to mention the era of Mulroney in public again. Harper has apparently been asking Mulroney about some of the finer points of transitional government. Harper has even pegged Hugh Segal as the man to ease any eventual transition. Such is the fall of the Liberal fortunes of late.

So the Fixing Four have their work cut out for them, the leaders debate now will be a pivotal point in this campaign. The Prime Minister will be feeling like a swimmer in the water with sharks all around him, smelling blood. A stumbling performance in that national forum will be a disaster for the Liberals.

In November Martins backers were bravely talking about his first term and how he would follow up the first four years with even more progressive legislation in the second four. Little did they realize that instead of years they were dealing with months and if the spiral continues on downward there won’t be a second term to worry about.

Somewhere sits Martin’s predecessor, Cheshire cat grin on his face. He may not get to go on the road with Martin and most likely wouldn’t want to anyways, but his shadow still falls over the party. Scrub as they may, but it would seem that Martin’s advisors just can’t get rid of that spot!