| Aug. 14, 07:49 EDT PM faces humiliating ouster: backbenchers 'If he doesn't go by October, we're in for a bloodbath,' one Liberal MP says Jim Brown Canadian Press OTTAWA ? Prime Minister Jean Chr?tien should face the fact that he can't win a Liberal leadership review in February and start planning to step down or face humiliation, say some of his backbench MPs. And they're ready to deliver that word in person when the parliamentary caucus gathers for a three-day summer retreat next week in Chicoutimi, Que. "The message has to be given to the prime minister that, even if MPs were to vote for him, there's no way the grassroots membership would follow," said Nick Discepola, a Montreal-area MP. "My read of things is that he would be humiliated in a review vote. So why put the party through that?" Jim Karygiannis, a onetime Chr?tien defender who has turned against the prime minister, offered a similar assessment. "If he doesn't go by October, we're in for a bloodbath," said Karygiannis, who claims to have signed up more than 9,000 new party members in the Toronto area willing to back former finance minister Paul Martin for the leadership. Karygiannis would prefer to see Chr?tien exit gracefully before the review vote set for the next Liberal convention in February. "I really hope he does. I've got a lot of respect for him ... I certainly would not want the prime minister to get embarrassed." Discepola and Karygiannis are among an outspoken group of about two-dozen Martin supporters who have been ratcheting up the public pressure on Chr?tien for weeks. But some colleagues who have held their tongues until now are also speaking out in advance of the Chicoutimi caucus meeting. "The party is hungry for a transition," said Derek Lee, whose suburban Toronto riding is next door to Karygiannis. "This caucus meeting will clearly make that known. No one should be leaving Chicoutimi without a sense of that." Even some Chr?tien loyalists warn they can't necessarily deliver the rank-and-file in their constituencies. "The prime minister has worked hard with me and helped me along in my first term in Parliament," said Andy Savoy of New Brunswick, whose riding will benefit from a $400-million project announced Wednesday to widen the Trans-Canada Highway in his region. "I certainly owe him my loyalty. But this is a grassroots decision and we'll leave it in their hands." Some of Martin's backbench lieutenants, like Joe Volpe and Dan McTeague, have called on Chr?tien to announce a timetable for departure in Chicoutimi. Others say they don't really expect that to happen. But they are keeping up the pressure in hopes it will eventually persuade Chr?tien - likely sometime this fall - that he can't win in February and ought to call it quits. There was a hint of a potential exit strategy Wednesday in published comments by 91-year-old Mitchell Sharpe, a onetime Liberal minister who mentored Chr?tien when he first arrived in Ottawa in the 1960s. Sharpe said he considers the chances "slight" that Chr?tien will seek a fourth term in power and suggested he just wants to "complete his work that he has before him and then leave in a graceful way." Some other Chr?tien loyalists have said the same privately. But Chr?tien himself has repeatedly insisted he will fight and win the February review and has refused to rule out a fourth term. He says he will not decide until later in his current mandate whether to lead the party into another general election. David Smith, a Liberal senator and key player on the Chr?tien defence team, said the game plan hasn't changed. "I respect Mitchell Sharpe, and he is very close to the prime minister, but I think he was speaking for himself," said Smith. Steve Mahoney, a former Ontario caucus chairman who is backing Chr?tien in the leadership review, suggested the running battle with Martin has gone too far for the prime minister to back down now. "I suspect that however he worded it, and whenever he worded it, the media would claim that he was run out of town." Karygiannis said that to avert a showdown Chr?tien would have to do more than just declare he won't seek a fourth mandate. He would have to set a specific time for his departure. For example, said Karygiannis, the prime minister could say this autumn that he plans to step aside after he celebrates his 40th anniversary in Parliament next April. The party could then cancel the February review and replace it with a full-fledged leadership convention in May. McTeague, however, was skeptical that Chr?tien is thinking seriously of giving up the battle. He contended the prime minister's real goal is to block Martin from succeeding him. "I'm convinced they want anybody but Paul," said McTeague. "If they want a fight, fine, we're ready to fight." |