'Mr Dithers' and his distracting 'fiscal cafeteria'

摘要

As prime-ministerial occasions go, being questioned for more than four hours at a judicial inquiry-broadcast on live television-hardly ranks among the most agreeable. Indeed no serving Canadian prime minister had suffered such an indignity for 130 years. In the event, Paul Martin acquitted himself rather well when he appeared as a witness before an inquiry into sleaze on February nth. But 15 months after succeeding his fellow-Liberal, Jean Chretien, Mr Martin, a successful finance minister for almost a decade until 2002, cannot quite shake off the impression that Canada's top job is too big for him. As finance minister, Mr Martin acquired a reputation as a tough and decisive deficit-cutter who transformed the public finances and oversaw the renaissance of the Canadian economy. But as prime minister, his faltering leadership has earned him the sobriquet of "Mr Dithers". At an election last June intended to give him a personal mandate, the Liberals scraped back, reduced to a parliamentary minority. Both before and since, Mr Martin's main concern seems to have been to court popularity by parading a generous social conscience.