PM says taking chauffeur on trip is Pettigrew's call  
by Romeo St. Martin

[PoliticsWatch Updated 6:15 p.m. September 15, 2005]

OTTAWA  — Prime Minister Paul Martin responded Thursday for the first time about reports that Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew's chauffer traveled to Europe and South America with the minister in 2001 and 2002 even though the minister did not bring his car on the trip.   
   
"There are limitations as to who ministers can take on trips," the PM said during a press conference at the United Nation's summit in New York. "And as long as ministers are operating within those limitations, the decision as to what staffing they require obviously depends on the circumstances of the trip and the judgment of the minister. 

"I don't substitute my judgment for a minister's in that particular case. That's his or hers to make."

He may hold one of Canada's highest profile cabinet posts, but up until the PM weighed in Pettigrew appeared to have been left stranded by the powerful Liberal spin machine in time of crisis this week. 

Although, the trips occurred three or four years ago when Pettigrew was a minister in the Chretien government, the revelations came just days after Pettigrew told the Ottawa Citizen that he was opposed to the government's plan to break up the Foreign Affairs and International Trade departments into two separate departments. 

Whether or not the two events are coincidence, what is noticeable is the radio silence that had been coming from the Liberal side, which spent most of last fall defending Immigration Minister Judy Sgro and her staff for a scandal dubbed Strippergate. 

A Globe and Mail articled Thursday headlined "Pettigrew's explanation draws fire from all sides" contained "Liberal sources" and the oft quoted unnamed "senior Liberal" that often litter news stories coming out of Ottawa. 

But in this story, the Liberals sounded more like they were reading from a press release from the Conservative war room than doing damage control. 

Pettigrew told CTV News on Wednesday that his drivers played an administrative and security role when he is abroad.

"I always have two with me on the trip ... and I do believe it is important that everyone in the staff has a complete understanding of my work," he said. "They are security elements."

But Pettigrew was the only Grit interviewed in the Globe story that believed chauffeurs are needed for security on the road. 

"Liberal sources cast doubt on Mr. Pettigrew's explanation," the Globe story said. 

And the popular "senior Liberal" described the minister's defence as a "lame excuse," and another said it was "ridiculous."

This controversy may not stay in the news longer than this week, but unnamed Liberal sources doing the job of opposition foreign affairs critics will do nothing to end talk around Ottawa that Pettigrew is in the PMO's doghouse. 

Pettigrew revealed at the same press conference with Martin at the UN Thursday that his chauffer accompanied him on another trip in 1999. 

That was at the out of control World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle, which was the scene of sometimes-violent anti-globalization protests. 

"I can tell you that he had not been with me, I would not have been able to jump the wall at the Sheraton gate that allowed me to give the address of Canada's opening remarks at that meeting," Pettigrew said. 

"There was certainly no waste of Canadian taxpayers money," he said, noting that he followed Treasury Board guidelines and that any staff accompanying him on trips "do their fair share of work."

Less than two years ago, Pettigrew was one of the few former members of Chretien's cabinet to take on greater prominence in Prime Minister Paul Martin's first cabinet. 

Pettigrew was moved from trade to the dual role of heath and intergovernmental affairs minister but quickly created a minor blunder for a news cycle for the PM when left the impression while appearing before the Commons health committee that the government could be open to further health-care privatization.

"I'm saying that the Canada Health Act does not preclude delivery of services by private elements as long as there is a single public payer," he said.

The next day, Pettigrew walked out in the middle of the a Liberal caucus meeting and read a statement to reporters to clarify his earlier comments. "This government is not advocating, it is not promoting private-for-profit health care." 

After the election Pettigrew headed up the Foreign Affairs department but his department's International Policy Statement was reportedly taken over by the PMO. 

The minister also drew criticism for being in Paris during the Tsunami and the London terror bombings. 

But what may have been the final straw with some Liberals is his public opposition to the government's plan to divide the Foreign Affairs and International Trade departments in two. 

"I have yet to see a very good rationale for a split of the department. I have not seen that in the last year and a half," Mr. Pettigrew told the Ottawa Citizen in an article published this week. "I can't find out where that idea came from."

The move to divide the department in two came from the Prime Minister's Office in the early days after he took over from Chretien. 

The government's two bills to formally divide the department into two sections were defeated in a surprise move by the opposition parties earlier this year. 

At the time, Conservative foreign affairs critic Stockwell Day revealed that Pettigrew wasn't onside with the government plan. 

"If you really push Pettigrew, it may be interesting to see just how committed he was to this division. It wasn't his idea in the first place," he said. 

He suggested the changes were pushed through by the PMO, not by Pettigrew or Trade Minister Jim Peterson.

Nonetheless the Liberals have moved ahead with the division despite Parliament expressing its opposition and defeating government legislation. 

The Conservatives are threatening to call Pettigrew before the Foreign Affairs committee to explain his trips with the chauffeur when the House returns in two weeks. 

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