OTTAWA, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Paul Martin takes office as
Canada's 21st prime minister with a vastly changed Cabinet on
Friday, determined to put a new face on a decade-old Liberal
reign as he prepares for an election next spring.
Replacing the man his forces effectively drove from office,
fellow Liberal Jean Chretien, he has pledged to make government
more responsive and less prone to scandal.
The message he is giving the new Cabinet that is being
sworn in on Friday morning is to perform like stars and get
ready to go to the polls soon after April 1.
"We were told these were four-month appointments," said one
member of Parliament who was getting ready for his swearing-in
at Rideau Hall -- the residence of the governor-general, the
representative of Canada's head of state, Queen Elizabeth.
Martin served as finance minister for nine of Chretien's 10
years in power and therefore finds it particularly challenging
to argue that he will be an agent of change.
But it is for that reason that he felt no compunctions in
sweeping out most of Chretien's Cabinet.
Several of the top posts will go to current ministers but
ones who had been allies rather than Chretien loyalists.
He picked Westerners for the two most powerful jobs --
finance and deputy prime minister -- in a switch from
Chretien's era, when they were always held by people from the
central or eastern provinces of Ontario and Quebec.
WESTERN ALIENATION
Martin's goal is to cut into Western alienation, a
phenomenon that has fed the main opposition party, the
conservative Canadian Alliance, headquartered in Alberta.
Arguably the top post under Martin is the finance
portfolio, which Public Works Minister Ralph Goodale will take
over. Goodale is a no-nonsense, homey figure from Saskatchewan
who shares the fiscally conservative wing of the party.
Alberta's Anne McLellan, currently health minister, becomes
deputy prime minister and in charge of a new portfolio,
internal or national security, intended to mirror the U.S.
Homeland Security Department.
She won election to Parliament by a narrow margin in 2000
and at least part of the thinking is that her re-election
chances will be boosted by extra profile.
Foreign Minister Bill Graham keeps his job.
Canadian media also reported that David Pratt, chairman of
the House of Commons defense committee, would become defense
minister. He had stood out against the government's opposition
to the war on Iraq and has called for more military spending to
boost what many see as Canada's dwindling influence abroad.
Martin feels that Chretien had unnecessarily angered the
United States, and he intends to put a high priority on the
world's largest trading relationship.
A surprise move is the elevation to the powerful industry
portfolio of Lucienne Robillard, currently president of the
Treasury Board, which sets guidelines for spending.
Many in Ottawa think she has underperformed as minister,
but Martin faced a particular challenge of finding strong
candidates from his home province of Quebec and of naming
enough women to his cabinet.
Martin will take over as a senior citizen, aged 65, from
the 69-year-old Chretien. A former shipping tycoon, he has
succeeded in grasping the brass ring where his leftist father
failed. Paul Martin Sr., made a strong run for prime minister
in 1968 but was beaten by the flashier and younger Pierre
Elliott Trudeau.
(Additional reporting by Gilbert Le Gras and David
Ljunggren)
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