OTTAWA LIBERALS SHOW THE ROT OF POWER

You have to wonder if Jean Chretien's Liberals have been toking some of the
bad pot they grew in a Manitoba mineshaft.

Canada's "natural governing party" is drifting on the high clouds of
denial, incompetence, and contradiction.

Add a pungent whiff of payola to political cronies -- the opposition calls
it "corruption" -- and you've got the Liberal week from hell.

The fallout from the Groupaction advertising scandal even has some pundits
predicting Chretien's imminent demise.

Wishful thinking, perhaps, at this stage in the proceedings. Still, there
is no question the Liberals screwed up badly on the Quebec ad contracts,
outlined by Auditor-General Sheila Fraser's devastating report and
subsequent RCMP probe.

How do the Liberals respond? Attack Fraser, of course, unless you're Public
Works Minister Don Boudria, in which case you praise her. Go figure.

The bungling doesn't stop there. Look at the Liberals' screwy,
one-step-forward, three-steps-back handling of the Kyoto and marijuana files.

On the Kyoto pact to reduce greenhouse gases that cause global warming,
Chretien's cabinet jams the airwaves with more conflicting messages than
you'll hear from Yasser Arafat.

After promising to ratify the global accord and winning big concessions
from the European Union, Chretien now says "no deal" without further
concessions that will gut the accord.

He wants "credit" for 30 per cent of this country's targeted reductions
because Canada sells "clean" natural gas and hydro power to the U.S.

The idea is "very much an effort to gain special treatment," says Gerry
Scott of the David Suzuki Foundation.

"This credit will replace domestic actions to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions and would be a step backwards."

Incidentally, those who claim the science on global warming is "doubtful"
should heed the words of John Stone, executive-director of the Climate
Change and Meteorological Service of Canada.

Stone says carbon-dioxide levels in the atmosphere never went above 280
parts per million in the recent geological past. Now it's 370 ppm.

Man-made actions have altered the atmosphere, Stone says, "and unless we
take action now," further changes "could affect our environment, our
economy and our very lifestyles."

Hello, Jean?

On medicinal marijuana, the government belatedly confesses that its Flin
Flon mineshaft crop can't be dispensed because the seeds used came from 185
different strains.

Turns out the feds tried to get consistent seeds from the U.S. National
Institute of Drug Abuse, who were then handcuffed by the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Agency.

Health Canada used seeds confiscated by Canadian police. So many different
strains that the first crop of 2,000 plants is a botanist's nightmare.

The upshot? Government marijuana that was supposed to be distributed in
January to eligible patients won't be going out until . . . who knows?

The government has to find the correct seeds, you see -- something it
didn't do before signing the $5.7-million contract.

Meantime, the Prime Minister's Office prevents a vote on second reading of
B.C. MP Keith Martin's bill to decriminalize marijuana.

Yesterday, 80 opposition MPs petitioned Speaker Peter Milliken to
reintroduce the bill, calling the interference a bad precedent.

"It could become the method by which the government prevents a vote on
those things they'd rather not have the House vote on," said the NDP's Bill
Blaikie.

Abuse of power, broken promises, pork-barreling. After nine years in
office, the Chretien regime is smelling a little high.