PoliticsWatch's most memorable moments of 2005  
by Romeo St. Martin

[PoliticsWatch posted 6:00 p.m. December 23, 2005]

Justice John Gomery was at the centre of many of the most memorable moments of 2005. (photo by Jake Wright -- www.jakewright.ca )

When all is said and done, 2005 will go down as one of the most interesting years in politics.   

Political junkies got to see the sponsorship scandal blow up and almost cause the government to collapse.

Political historians got to see history unfold as the parties engaged in procedural warfare in the House of Commons. 

And soap opera fans got to see betrayals and secret tapes. 

In a year as remarkable as 2005 it is difficult to come up with one big story.  

So, PoliticsWatch presents the 10 most memorable moments of a very memorable year.  

1. Secret Gomery testimony published by U.S. blogger

April 2, 2005.

"Canada's corruption scandal breaks wide open," read the headline on Captain's Quarters, a blog run by American Ed Morrissey. 

Morrissey, who had a following with conservative bloggers in the U.S. at the time, soon became well known in Canada and the recipient of calls from the national media after he published leaked testimony from the Gomery inquiry that was under a publication ban. 

Groupaction president Jean Brault had dropped a number of bombshells that were damaging to the governing party in testimony that was subject to a publication ban. 

This included how he, by hook or by crook, funnelled over a million dollars to the Liberal party of Quebec using money in envelopes and fake invoices from dollars he had received through the sponsorship program. 

Brault's testimony was the first to expose large amounts of money being funnelled to the governing party. 

But only a handful of journalists and political types were aware of his testimony for days because of the publication ban. 

Morrissey's Web site was flooded by thousands of Canadians for days until most of Brault's shocking revelations were made public. In the end it turned out Captain's Quarters got the story right. 

The event raised the awareness of the blogging community in Canada and will go down as a watershed moment when antiquated Canadian laws came up against global communications. 

2. Chuck Cadman's Last Stand

May 19, 2005

Chuck Cadman, a former Conservative MP who lost a nomination battle but was elected as the only independent MP a year earlier, rose in the House of Commons to support a budget deal with the NDP and helped the Liberals survive a vote of confidence. 

Chewing gum and looking confident, Cadman's support elicited an enormous round of cheers from Liberal and NDP MPs that reverberated in the chamber. 

The MPs were voting on a budget bill that was negotiated to included $4.6 billion in new spending proposed by NDP Leader Jack Layton in return for NDP support through the spring. 

Cadman, who was battling cancer, effectively provided a dramatic climax to what had been six weeks of relentless procedural moving in the House of Commons, where the Liberals were defeated on a concurrence motion, but ignored it. 

That move had provoked a two-day shut down of the House of Commons by the Conservatives and the Bloc, who used their control of the House to adjourn each day. 

The final vote on the budget deal was 152-152, with the speaker of the House breaking the tie in favour of the government. 

It was also the last time Cadman voted in the House of Commons. 

He never returned for votes later that spring and ended his battle with cancer when he suddenly passed away on July 9. 

Belinda Stronach and Paul Martin stun the press gallery. (photo by Jake Wright -- www.jakewright.ca )

3. Belinda defects

May 17, 2005

Reporters summoned to the National Press Theatre on May 17 were literally stunned and speechless when Prime Minister Paul Martin walked into the theatre accompanied by former Conservative leadership candidate Belinda Stronach. 

The image was shocking and seemed to give credence to the Conservatives' claims that the Liberals were trying to woo Tory MPs to cross the floor in order to survive a non-confidence vote. 

Just days after Martin and Stronach appeared in the press theatre, another Conservative MP, Gurmant Grewal, came forward with secret recordings of conversations he had with Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh and Martin's chief of staff Tim Murphy. 

Those tapes provided the public with insight on how MPs are swayed to cross the floor. Murphy and Dosonjh never make any explicit offer of appointments, but make it known that the Liberals were a party of "comfy fur" that took care of people. 

4. Martin asks Canadians to wait for Gomery

April 21, 2005

With his government facing the possibility of collapsing while trailing the Conservatives in the polls, Martin made his first televised address to the nation. 

It was the low-point for the Liberals this year, but it also seemed to define the leaders in the ensuing weeks. 

Martin looked desperate and willing to make any bargain to save his bacon. 

Conservative Leader Stephen Harper seemed to cross the line of righteous indignation allowing the media to label him as angry. 

And NDP Leader Jack Layton appeared to be wanting to take advantage of the situation, when he used his time to make demands of Martin in return for NDP support. 

Martin's decision to take to the airwaves was controversial as well. 

The last time a prime minister had made a prime time address was on the eve of the Quebec referendum. 

Many were wondering was this a legitimate national crisis or a crisis for the Liberal party? 

In the end, Martin made what seemed to be a reasonable argument that his party should not be judged until Gomery had issued his final report on the sponsorship scandal. 

It was the turning point for the Liberals and framed the debate up until the election was called in December. 

5. Mr. Dithers

February 17, 2005

The prestigious magazine The Economist puts up on its Web site a story headlined "Mr. Dithers and his distracting fiscal cafeteria." 

The story is a critique of Martin's performance as prime minister and reinforces the name opposition MPs and some members of the press gallery had used to describe the PM. 

"But 15 months after succeeding his fellow-Liberal, Jean Chrétien, 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," the magazine said.

"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'."

How much of an impact did the article have in making Mr. Dithers stick to the PM?

PoliticsWatch noted in its story on February 17 that a Google search of "Paul Martin" and "dither" showed 327 results. 

As this year-end recap is written the same search now shows 30,500 results. 

6. Wilkins Steps in

December 13, 2005

Tired of Martin using the United States as a punching bag during the election campaign, David Wilkins, the U.S. ambassador to Canada stepped into the election campaign and urged Martin to cease and desist. 

"I feel like a hanging curveball," explained Wilkins.

"It may be smart election-year politics to thump your chest and criticize your friend and your No. 1 trading partner constantly," Wilkins said in a speech in Ottawa in which he never specifically mentioned Martin by name. "But it is a slippery slope, and all of us should hope that it doesn't have a long-term impact on the relationship."

Wilkins decision to step forward was unprecedented and highlighted the tensions in Canada-U.S. relations that have been an undercurrent this year. 

Since January, the prime minister and U.S. President George W. Bush have been on opposite ends of the debate on issues such as missile defence and softwood lumber. 

Plus it seems to put to rest any hopes of Martin's Liberal leadership campaign promise to improve relations with the United States. 

They now appear to be at their lowest point in recent memory. 

7. Duceppe's Bold Prediction

December 15, 2005

During the French-language leaders' debate, Bloc Quebecois Gilles Duceppe makes the bold prediction that Quebec would be an independent country within 30 years. 

Duceppe's comments put the issue of national unity on the front-burner in the election campaign and perhaps prompted the prime minister to give a strong response in the next debate. 

"This is my country and my children were born and raised in Quebec, and you're not going to find some backdoor way of taking my country or dividing Quebec family against Quebec family," the PM said.

Martin's supporters described his speech as passionate. His critics said it was scripted. 

Later Martin perhaps went too far and said he would meet Duceppe on "any street corner" to fight for Canada. 

That provoked Duceppe - who had to stand and listen to Martin's lecture in the English debate without responding - to challenge Martin to a one-on-one debate in Quebec. 

A French-language television network stepped forward and offered to provide a forum for the two leaders. 

Martin rejected it, but Conservative Leader Stephen Harper made a bold strategic move and stepped forward to debate Duceppe, making the PM look weak in the bargain. 

A campaign that was supposed to be focused on scandal is now turned into a national unity discussion, with Harper and Martin both vying for the role of Captain Canada. 

8. Secret Mulroney Tapes

September 12, 2005

Ottawa is stunned after the Globe and Mail reports a book containing transcripts of hours of secretly -recorded conversations with former prime minister Brian Mulroney was about to hit the book shelves. 

The Secret Mulroney Tapes: Confessions of a Prime Minister by Peter C. Newman is a book that will talked about by historians for years to come.

It is an unvarnished look at Mulroney from his time as Tory leadership candidate to shortly after he left office. 

In the book, Mulroney criticizes almost every media and political figure in Ottawa in his candid conversations with Newman. 

He describes Ottawa a "sick" and incestuous city where the media, Liberal politicians and public servants all intermingle. 

His harshest words in the book are reserved for the media and what he viewed as unfair treatment. 

"Even Hitler had somebody writing one good adjective in 10 years," he said of negative Montreal Gazette coverage of him. 

"What did I do? I was a Conservative who won."

Former PM Jean Chretien tees up Justice Gomery.

9. Chretien's golf ball stunt

February 8, 2005

Former prime minister Jean Chretien returns to the political limelight at the Gomery inquiry and brandishes his collection of golf balls autographed by world leaders to mock Justice John Gomery

In an earlier interview, Gomery had described the government paying for balls with Chretien's name on them as "small-town cheap."

At the time Chretien's move was applauded by the media and even members of the Liberal caucus who spoke with reporters the next day. 

A jubilant Liberal caucus chair Andy Savoy described Chetien as "a small-town guy opening a big town can of whoop ass on his detractors."

Some Liberals even said on and off the record that the PM himself had led a cheer of Chretien in caucus after the performance, something he later denied in a radio interview. 

Credit National Post columnist Andrew Coyne to be the first member of the media to raise questions about whether everybody in the country was laughing at the former prime minister's performance. 

"On the CBC, a misty-eyed Don Newman reported that Jean Chretien had hit 'a home run.' Elsewhere it was described as 'a knockout punch,' a 'slam dunk,' and inevitably, 'a hole in one.' You get the point: It was all a game, with the press gallery in its preferred role as scorekeeper.

"If you were like me, however, and I suspect a good part of the public, you saw the former Prime Minister of Canada engaged in what in another context would be called contempt of court."

10. David Dingwall's Talks of Entitlements

October 19, 2005

"I'm entitled to my entitlements," said former Royal Canadian Mint president David Dingwall under intense questioning from MPs in October. 

Dingwall was summoned to appear before the Government Operations and Estimates committee to explain his expenses and reports of a possible severance package for voluntarily leaving a job.

He played himself as a victim of a hyper media and an opposition that twisted the facts. 

But when Dingwall left the committee room he gave the opposition parties a catch phrase to encapsulate all they see wrong with over a decade of Liberal rule. You can read more about Dingwall's appearance here.

© PoliticsWatch 2004. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of PoliticsWatch content, including by framing, copying, linking or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Public Interests Research and Communications Inc. PoliticsWatch is registered trademark of PIRCINC.