Paul Martin to officially step down as leader

It is now official that Paul Martin will not continue as leader of the Liberal Party past March 19, 2006. This means there is no possibility of him leading the party into the next election. Although I have defended him through much of the past election, I believe it is time for him to move on. Canadians usually take time to forgive a leader they punish so if he stayed on as leader, it would have only hurt the party. It is only in the last few years that people have started to think more fondly of Brian Mulroney so it will probably take time for Martin's image to recover. However, I believe history will record him as one of the best finance ministers ever. How he will be noted for his short-term as prime-minister is still debatable. Some may argue he was caught in bad circumstances, therefore he really never had a chance to do anything. Others will argue his term as prime-minister was a failure. I don't think he did an outstanding job as prime-minister, but he was caught in a very bad situation. While he had a majority government, he was rocked by the sponsorship scandal and therefore spent more time fighting the allegations of corruption than actually focussing on his vision. In hindsight he may be should have done what Chretien did and just said so what and then focused on his vision. Once he was reduced to a minority government, his only chance at recovering was if his poll numbers recovered enough that the opposition parties would have no interest in having an election, however this never happened. The Conservatives saw their best chance at coming to power (which they achieved), the Bloc Quebecois was hoping to have their best showing ever (which they thankfully failed to achieve) and the NDP saw an opportunity to have one of their best if not best showing ever (they fell short of Ed Broadbent's record of 43 seats, but still greatly improved their vote and seat count in relation to the most recent elections). With the opposition ready to take down the government at any moment, he spent more time worrying about how to prevent his government from falling than actually governing.

Anyways, in closing I wish Paul Martin and his wife Sheila Martin all the best in their future years. Although Bill Graham likely won't lead the party into the next election, should the government fall early, he will. I've always been impressed with him as a parliamentarian and therefore fully support him should the government fall early.