'Twas the Day Before Gomery

Tomorrow the Gomery Report will be issued, and no doubt we will be treated to some fireworks and damning allegations. Have we heard the worst already? I'm inclined to believe so. Paul Martin will probably be exonerated from many of the barbs tossed at him by his Conservative opponents, and the people who deserve to get the book thrown at them most certainly will. There may be some findings that put Chretien-era Liberals in trouble, but I don't believe that the party itself will be found to be guilty of much of the mudslinging that it has been on the receiving end of since this whole mess began. The ad agencies and Chuck Guite, not a Liberal but a senior bureaucrat, will be the ones who are found most at fault here. Because it happened while the Liberals were in power, there will be some blowback, but not to the extent that we will wake up on Wednesday morning with polls showing the Liberals in Campbell Conservative territory.

This will be Martin's greatest test, and we will see if he's got a Teflon suit in his closet. We know that Chretien had them in every colour, it is time to find out if Martin does as well. As I said, I don't believe that Gomery will come down hard on either him or Chretien, and that should permit the Liberals to move on and move forward. With the scandals of a bygone era now revealed and resolved, Martin's time to shine is on the horizon.