For Amb (and other Canucks who may be abroad)
Just keeping you updated on the whole Chretien thing Amby! If you aren't Canadian, or at least interested in politics (British people may find this mildly interesting, or anyone with a Parliamentary system), none of the following will make a lick of sense to you :).
http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2002/08/20/saguenay020820
http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2002/08/20...n_speaks020820
The whole thing is totally comical now. Chretien supporters sent out a letter for Liberal MP's that support Chretien to sign. He ended up getting only 92 (or something like that) out of 170 MP's to sign it (these are his own party members, keep in mind). His people were trumpetting it as a sign that a "clear majority" of his MP's support him. Then a day later, five of the MP's are demanding their names be removed from the list, as they don't support him (roughly half support Martin, other two want to remain neutral). So he now has 87 MP's who openly support him, a very slim majority. And of the MP's who support him, probably half of their own riding associations (they are the ones who nominate the candidates to run for Parliament) are pissed that they did it, as they themselves are openly hostile towards Chretien.
I am loving this whole debacle, since it is Chretien's own arrogance and unwillingness to set a date for his retirement that has caused this whole situation (along with Paul Martin's ambitions). Instead of going down as one of only two Prime Ministers to win three consecutive elections, and overall a good image (balanced the budget, etc), he may now go down as one of only a handful who has been forced out of office by his own party. And all cause of his own arrogance, I LOVE it!
Of course, it sort of sucks having an essentially non-functioning government at this point, since everyone is concentrating so much on covering their asses and picking sides.
