Martin bets the farm

He says he'll resign if an inquiry proves he knew anything about the sponsorship scandal:

Paul Martin gambled his political life Sunday by boldly promising to resign if the facts prove he had prior knowledge of a federal sponsorship scheme that funnelled $100 million in taxpayers' money to friends of the Liberal party.

"Anybody who is found to have known that people are kiting cheques, that people are falsifying invoices - me or anybody else - should resign," the prime minister said on CBC's Cross Country Checkup. "Anybody who knew that kind of thing was going on and let it happen, they don't belong in public life."

The prime minister dropped his bombshell near the end of a two-hour session in which callers to the open-line radio show vented their outrage over a scandal that has plunged his Liberal party into disarray.

A pair of weekend opinion polls suggested the Grits had dropped to their lowest level of support in years. And that plunge was reflected in many of the comments aimed at Martin.

Martin refused to say the election call, which everyone believes was scheduled for sometime in the spring, would be delayed - but with polls showing the Liberals plunging 8 or 9 points since this scandal broke, it's hard to imagine we'll be going to the polls anytime before October.

Posted by damian at February 16, 2004 07:20 AM