OTTAWA - Some Liberals suspect Paul Martin's supporters are planning to make Jean Chretien's life so miserable the Prime Minister will quit long before next February's vote of confidence on his leadership.

The Minister of Finance has vowed that his forces have no intention of trying to humiliate Mr. Chretien in the leadership review. But Chretien loyalists see that as a hollow promise given that Mr. Martin's supporters seem intent on ensuring the Prime Minister does not stick around that long.

Over the past few weeks, loyalists contend there have been signs the Martin camp is orchestrating caucus discontent and flexing its organizational muscle within the party in a bid to destabilize Mr. Chretien's hold on power and persuade him to leave politics. And they have been surprised at how little effort the Martin camp has made to disguise its strategy.

For instance, this week, several of Mr. Martin's most ardent caucus supporters openly helped opposition MPs mount an attack on Liberal whip Marlene Catterall, alleging she was strong-arming backbenchers into supporting the Prime Minister's choice for chairman of the finance committee.

New Democrat Lorne Nystrom and Tory Scott Brison held a news conference to say Ms. Catterall had threatened to strip Liberal Sophia Leung of her post as parliamentary secretary if she did not back London, Ont., MP Sue Barnes over Roy Cullen, a Toronto MP.

"Before I went to [the press conference] I talked to two Liberal MPs on the telephone to make sure that the Sophia Leung stuff was confirmed," Mr. Nystrom said. "They knew what I was doing. I asked whether or not they would speak off the record to certain journalists. They said yes."

In the foyer outside the Commons, Mr. Nystrom openly advised journalists to speak confidentially to Albina Guarnieri and Nick Discepola, both ardent Martin supporters, to confirm his version of the story. Mr. Discepola was conveniently nearby and was immediately mobbed by reporters, in full view of his colleagues exiting the Commons.

Mr. Cullen, himself a strong Martin supporter, also essentially verified the opposition story.

Mr. Nystrom acknowledged it was "very bizarre" to be enlisting the aid of Liberal backbenchers to dump on the government. He interpreted the dispute as evidence of "a classic power play" between Martin and Chretien forces.

Senior Liberal insiders were furious about the gang-up on Ms. Catterall, whom they argue was just doing her job to promote female MPs to positions of authority and to ensure that Liberals endorse the government's choices as committee chairs.

 

And they see it as part of a pattern of ardent Martin supporters giving grief to their own government. They point to a series of public statements by MPs such as Toronto's Joe Volpe, who in the past few weeks has criticized the government's eight-year delay in replacing Canada's ageing fleet of Sea King helicopters and has called on Mr. Chretien to prorogue the House and not return until he has an agenda in the fall.

"This is just being orchestrated to further destabilize the party," one senior Liberal fumed.

The none-too-subtle agitating has upset a number of Liberal MPs. Toronto MP Sarmite Bulte was "very upset" by the attack on Ms. Catterall: "I don't like it when colleagues go after one another. I just think that we need to get back to governing."

The finance committee scrap took place in the midst of the more explosive public brawl within the Liberal caucus over party membership restrictions recently adopted in Ontario at the instigation of the Martin camp.

That battle was sparked when the Martin camp openly defied Mr. Chretien and reneged on a compromise deal struck this month to remove the restrictions. Mr. Martin has admitted the membership rules will work to his advantage in a future leadership contest but insists it has "nothing to do" with next year's leadership review.

However, Chretien loyalists are doubtful. They believe the move was designed as a warning shot across the Prime Minister's bow, a not-so-gentle reminder that Mr. Martin controls the party apparatus and that, under the circumstances, it might be wiser for Mr. Chretien to retire this fall rather than risk a leadership review.

On a smaller scale, the same type of pressure tactic appears to be going on across the country at the provincial and riding level.

For instance, Mr. Martin's organizers in Alberta recently orchestrated the defeat of Beth Lennard, president of the Liberal association in Calgary Centre, because they didn't deem her to be sufficiently pro-Martin.

Ms. Lennard said Mr. Martin's organizers offered to support her for re-election provided she agreed the riding association needed to be run by an entirely pro-Martin executive that would be ready for Mr. Chretien's presumed retirement in the fall. However, the organizers backed another candidate after she told them she thought rumours of Mr. Chretien's retirement were premature and that all Liberals should be focusing on winning the upcoming byelection in Calgary Southwest, not on leadership issues.

"They did offer me the support and I felt I couldn't take the support under the terms that were given to me," she said.