We can’t trust the Liberals to govern, Duceppe says

OTTAWA — Opposition parties had no other choice than to plunge Canadians into a Christmas election because the Liberals are so corrupt they can no longer be trusted to govern, Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe charged Tuesday.

“Because of Liberal corruption and the sponsorship scandal a new election campaign has become unavoidable,” Duceppe told reporters in Ottawa.

“Judge (John) Gomery’s report has confirmed our worst fears regarding Paul Martin’s Liberal party. The Liberal party has broken laws, it has misappropriated public funds, it has tried to buy the election with our own money. Judge Gomery’s report tells us that the Liberal party has brought disgrace upon itself. That it instituted a system of kickbacks in its favour and it has contravened the rules of democracy.”

Nor can Martin, the second most senior member of former Prime Minister Jean Chretien’s government, be trusted to clean up the scandal, said Duceppe, pointing to the refusal by Martin’s government to investigate who got the envelopes full of sponsorship program money that were distributed in eastern Quebec by former Quebec Liberal cabinet minister and organizer Marc- Yvan Cote.

Now that Gomery has revealed the extent of the sponsorship scandal, it is up to voters, he said.

“Judge Gomery did not have the mandate to punish the Liberal Party of Canada. It is the electors who will have the mandate to punish the Liberals.”

However, Duceppe also suggested the Liberals can regain the moral authority to govern if they win this election.

“They will have the support of the population. That means people will have believed that they have the moral authority.”

While Duceppe is going into this election far out in front in terms of Quebec — sauntering into the race at a leisurely pace with only one short press conference — it is clear that the Bloc, which won 54 seats in the last election, is going to be a target for national parties looking to form a majority government.

Today, both Prime Minister Paul Martin and Conservative leader Stephen Harper are in Quebec — Harper in Quebec City where his party got some of its best results in the province in 2004 and Martin to launch the campaign of his star candidate — astronaut Marc Garneau who is running in VaudreuilSoulanges.

However, Duceppe has got the polls on his side. A CBC-Radio Canada poll taken just before the campaign launch, found the Bloc has the support of 59 per cent of Quebecers while the Liberals, in second place, are trailing with 22 per cent.

Today, Duceppe is in Montreal where he is to unveil his party’s election platform. Montreal Gazette