DAVE MULLINGTON reports on disarray in Ottawa Six Cabinet scandals plunge Govt in Canada into public disgrace

Press, 21 February 1987, Page 20

DAVE MULLINGTON reports on disarray in Ottawa Six Cabinet scandals plunge Govt in Canada into public disgrace

Half . way through its five-year mandate, the Government of the Canadian Prime Minister, Mr Brian Mulroney, is in deep political trouble. Beset by Cabinet scandals, a relationship with the United States that has gone awry, and a devastating drop in the polls, Mr Mulroney’s Conservative Government is limping along seemingly uncertain of what it wants to do and where it wants to lead the country.

It- was elected with a commanding 140-seat majority in September 1984 — the Liberal Party picked up only 40 seats to its 211 while the New Democratic Party won 'in 30 ridings and an Independent got the remaining seat — but since then six Cabinet Ministers have been forced to resign for various improprieties, policies have been changed in mid-stream and Mr Mulroney’s once-close relationship with the American President, Mr Ronald Reagan, has cooled considerably because of the Americans’ inactivity on issues dear to Mr Mulroney’s heart, such as acid rain and a better trade agreement.

As a measure of the Government’s fall from grace, a recent poll showed it had slipped to third place among Canada’s three political parties — the first time it had slipped below the perennial cellar-dwellers, the socialist New Democrats.

Meanwhile, the Liberal Party, which has governed the country for 42 of the past 51 years, was rejuvenated late in November when it provided its leader, Mr John Turner, with an overwhelming mandate to run the party his way. Until then, the Liberals had been split since the 1984 election between new and old factions, and Mr Turner’s

leadership was tenuous at best Now the old faction, headed by back-room boys from the Pierre Trudeau era, have quietly shifted to the background in the party hierarchy and have '- let Mr Turner’s younger aides take over. ; More harmful thanjhe polls or the Liberals’ recovery, however,; have been the scandals in' Mr Mulroney’s 40-member cabinet.

A Defence Minister iwais forced to resign after he was reported consorting with prostitutes in a bar in West Germany while on a tour of a Canadian peacekeeping force there, a Fisheries Minister was forced out when he approved fish for human consumption that his own health inspectors had deemed unfit, another Minister resigned when he was charged with mixing business deals with his activities as a Minister, and last month another Minister left the Cabinet in haste amid reports he was involved in a questionable multi-million-dollar land deal connected with the awarding of a Government defence contact.

The other two departures from the Cabinet involved a Minister who charged a small fortune to Government expenses while on two brief junkets to Europe, and an Attorney-General who met privately with a Conservative provincial Premier to discuss the marijuana-possession charges that the Federal police force, which is answerable to the Minister, had laid against the Premier. Still another Minister departed temporarily when he was charged with spending more than legally permissable on his 1984 election campaign. He was reinstated when his campaign manager accepted the blame. As these embarrassments have

been occurring, Mr Muironey has also seen his once-ambitious relationship with the United States go sour. He has found, as Canadian leaders before him have found, that the United States ' takes its biggest trading partner and closest ally for granted, so it is difficult to move the powers-that-be south of the border.

One of the main planks in Mr Mulroney’s 1984 election campaign platform was a freer trading arrangement with the United States. Alarmed by the growing tide of protectionism in the United States and Europe, Mr Mulroney desperately wants an agreement, but so far the Americans have seemed indifferent to the prospect Closed-door talks on' the issue between the two countries are generally described as hard-nosed, and there is no unanimity in either country; about what each side actually wants. ' '

At home, Mr Mulroney’s Gov-, ernment has produced little legislative change from the Liberal years, although later this year it is expected to announce major new poiitices regarding broadcasting, immigration, and the privatisation of Crown corporations. These changes are expected to remove some of the bureaucratic strings binding the nation’s broadcasters, and will likely toughen the country’s immigration policy, making it harder for low-income, poorly-educated people to come here, while attracting the wealthier, bettereducated type of immigrant.' Despite its problems, all is certainly not lost for the Mulroney Government. The Canadian economy is bustling as the dollar rises and interest rates and unemployment fall.