Liberals are ‘pyromaniacs’

NATIONAL UNITY Lord says Harper better equipped to douse sovereignist fire Blasts Martin over unity, wants less centralized government

FREDERICTON— New Brunswick Premier Bernard Lord lambasted Liberal leader Paul Martin as a “ desperate” politician who is powerless on the national unity file.

After appearing at a boisterous evening rally in support of Conservative Leader Stephen Harper, Lord said his fellow Tory, who was shut out of Quebec in the last election, is betterplaced than Martin to defuse sovereignist sentiment in the province.

“ I don’t accept the proposition of the Liberals that only they can keep this country together . . . they’re like pyromaniacs with the matches and gasoline in their hands, they light the fire and then say, ‘ Oh, let us put it out,’ ” said Lord. “The fact is they created the problem in Quebec . . . if you want to create a stronger Canada you need a government that is less centralizing and paternalistic than this government has been for the last 12 years.” Martin provoked Lord’s ire when he made an off- hand remark to a journalist while on a campaign swing through St. John, N. B. Asked about why there has been little progress in cleaning up the city’s harbour, Martin said “ money has been allocated, money is there . . . it should be underway, sometimes things take longer in New Brunswick.” Lord shot back that it’s Ottawa that has let his province down, and that Martin has little to offer beyond “ drive- by smears.”

At the same time, Lord didn’t insist on an apology.

“It’s just politicking, if the Prime Minister wants to come here and politic, that’s his choice,” he said. Lord also engaged in some politicking of his own, talking up Harper’s child care plan — which would pay families $ 1,200 annually — instead of the Liberal plan to fund more daycare spaces, a plan New Brunswick signed on to earlier this year. Harper won an endorsement last week from Nova Scotia Tory Premier John Hamm and yesterday he met with Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams, who is also a Conservative.

All four Atlantic premiers supported Harper in the June 2004 election, during which the Tories actually lost ground. But Lord said the Conservatives have a strong roster of candidates, and that the party is in better shape in Atlantic Canada than last year.

Earlier in the day, leaked documents revealed accusations of ethical breaches by marquee Tory recruit Allan Cutler, a former civil servant who is running in Ottawa South.

Cutler was shunted aside from his job in the Public Works department after raising the alarm over Ottawa’s sponsorship program in the late 1990s. An ethics investigation was launched after others in the consulting field complained this past summer that Cutler, now a business consultant, violated the legally mandated coolingoff period for retiring civil servants by offering to “ leverage” his experience to lobby his former department.

One of the principals

in a company that

briefly entertained hiring Cutler wrote a letter in July complaining

about an “ apparent

conflict of interest” and suggesting his conduct was “ inconsistent with the post- employment obligations imposed on former public servants.”

Cutler has denied the allegations, and told a television interviewer yesterday that a Public Works investigation concluded he had done nothing wrong.

“ No, I never said leveraging information. I offered to help them with my experience in bidding to governments,” he told CTV.