Gagliano ordered home from Denmark- Globe and Mail BREAKING

[Screaming Lord Byron]

http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040210.wgags0210/BNStory/National/

Prime Minister Paul Martin moved quickly to curb expected damage from the Auditor-General's report on Tuesday, recalling Alfonso Gagliano from his post as Canada's ambassador to Denmark.

“The assignment of Alfonso Gagliano as Ambassador to the Kingdom of Denmark has been withdrawn,” a statement from the Foreign Affairs Department reads. “Mr. Gagliano has been asked to return to Canada.”

The former minister of Public Works oversaw the scandal-plagued sponsorship program at the centre of Auditor-General Sheila Fraser's investigation from 1997 to 2002


Out before the audit. Must be bad news to come.

[glarius]

1. I think this guy is a real crook and should be prosecuted

Martin needs to do something about him...The sooner the better...I still think Martin is going to be fine as P.M....but time will tell, of course....

[glarius]

2. I'm watching Question Period now...the Alliance (I still call them that)

are salivating over this...They actually think this will help them...LOL

[Screaming Lord Byron]

3. Too early to say what will happen until we have the report.

The key for Martin is to spin this as a regrettable incident caused by the Chretien administration. He must define his government as a totally distinct entity. If he cannot do this, this story will go all the way to the election, and could do serious damage.

[Minstrel Boy]

4. Martin's in a bind.

How much can he distance himself from the Chretien government, when for all but the last year of it he was the senior minister? He's doing what he can to distance himself from Chretien's policies, but it's those policies which most Canadians seem to favour.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

5. It's a very odd situation.

Martin absolutely has to define himself as the leader of a government that is as different from the last that it is as if there has been a change of parties, yet he cannot distance himself from events in which he had a hand. Like I said, his success, perhaps his overall success as a Prime Minister hangs on this one fact. To pull it off, he must show abilities that we have not yet seen. If he cannot pull it off, it may well ruin his hopes for the election.
We live in very interesting times.

[glarius]

6. I could be wrong, but it seems to me the problem is one minister who

misused funds that is the problem, not Chretien's policies...If Martin deals properly with Gagliano, taking the bad apple from the barrel so to speak, that will solve it...Don't you think?....:)