Canada’s Chretien hit by patronage claims

"You call who you know, and I knew the president, and I called him once or twice. He came to visit me at my home," he said in Saskatchewan, first of four provinces or territories he toured on Thursday in a mad dash for Western votes ahead of the November 27 general elections.

A group of investors, including Chretien, had sold the hotel in 1993. The government loan went to the new owner.

Canadian Alliance leader Stockwell Day, struggling to close a gap of up to 20 points in the polls with Chretien’s Liberal Party, jumped on the news. "This is horrendous," he told a rally near Vancouver.

Day denounced Chretien for using "the weight of his office for what appears to be personal gain of some sort." But when pressed by reporters on what he meant by "personal gain", Day said: "That’s what people have to decide."

"Those are not the kinds of calls Chretien should be making," fumed Joe Clark, leader of the smaller Progressive Conservative Party. Police have launched investigations into five grants in Chretien’s own electoral district for possible improprieties.

Day has hammered away at the theme that Chretien’s seven years in power have been marked by arrogance, secrecy, waste and patronage. The Alliance leader was campaigning on Thursday in British Columbia and Alberta, two of the three western provinces where his support is strongest.

Chretien called the election just 3-1/2 years into hisfive-year term in office to take advantage of what appeared to be a good showing in opinion polls.

WESTERN HOSTILITY

He retains a substantial National lead that should give hima third successive majority in Parliament, but faces such hostility throughout much of the West that he is fighting for the political survival of some of his ministers.

In the snowy Yukon, bordering Alaska — the first ofCanada’s vast northern territories he has campaigned in since 1993 — residents oppose the gun registration system, and in the prairie provinces farmers decry the low subsidies.

A knot of anti-gun-control protesters greeted him at theWhitehorse Gold Rush Hotel, where he gave his speech. Others protested his plan last month, now abandoned, to rename Canada’s highest peak, Mt. Logan, after the late Liberal Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.

It may seem a small matter but it demonstrated thealienation of a western population thousands of miles from Ottawa, which many feel tries to intrude too much.

Fortunately for Chretien, most of Canada’s population is inOntario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada, where he is strongest.

But the Liberals’ biggest fear would be for the election tobe a referendum on whether Chretien, 66, should stay. He faced questions on Wednesday about the preference of many voters for his fiscally more conservative finance Minister, Paul Martin, who is waiting for Chretien’s eventual retirement.

Chretien said on Wednesday that he intended to serve outhis mandate, and he speculated about staying for two decades. But in a television interview in Edmonton, Alberta, on Thursday he left open the possibility of stepping down in mid-term.

"I will stay for my mandate," he said, but then added: "I’MSeeking a mandate and what you do with that is in the third year, something like that, I will decide if I still want to do it (be Prime Minister) or not."

Three polls released on Thursday gave the Liberals a leadbetween 19 and 23 percentage points over the Alliance, stronger than the 12 to 16 points registered earlier in the week by two other pollsters.

During his stop in Alberta, the Alliance heartland — wherethe Liberals’ only two members of Parliament, both in cabinet, are behind in the polls — Chretien said it was extremely important for the province to be represented in the cabinet.

But in neither Alberta nor Saskatchewan, where anotherMinister is in danger, did he hold a rally, opting instead for television interviews and visits to research institutions.