WHY COULDN'T IT HAVE HAPPENED ON CHRETIEN'S WATCH?:

Funding fracas ends Martin's honeymoon: Canada's prime minister, Paul Martin, and his Liberal party are suffering a major slump in support over a financial scandal. (Anne McIlroy, February 23, 2004, The Guardian)

It wasn't much of honeymoon. Paul Martin had waited 14 years to become Canada's prime minister, only to see support for his Liberal party plummet just weeks after he had reconvened parliament.

The stunning slide, which included a drop of more than 10 percentage points in one day alone, leaves Mr Martin at risk of winning only a minority government should he call an election, as expected, this spring. Depending on which poll you read, support for the Liberals currently stands as low as 36%.

The sudden drop in the party's popularity has been triggered by a scandal over the misuse of public funds in a programme put in place in Quebec.

The programme was introduced after separatists came within a whisker of winning the 1995 referendum on sovereignty, and was designed to boost the federal presence in the predominantly French-speaking province.

The amount of money involved was relatively small - less than $75m (£40m), but the fact that it appeared to go directly into the coffers of communication companies with Liberal ties - companies that appeared to have done very little, if anything, to earn the cash - sparked outrage amongst Canadian voters.

The auditor-general, Sheila Fraser, used the word fraud in her report detailing what had happened.

See what happens when you try to buy French love.

Posted by Orrin Judd at February 23, 2004 1:52 PM