Max's Mewsings

The Prime Minister will not, however, prorogue Parliament, resign or call an election in the address. Instead he is expected to play up what he has done and will do to fix the alleged Liberal corruption unearthed at the Gomery Inquiry into AdScam as well as give a dressing-down to the Opposition parties he believes have effectively shut down Parliament.

The PM's five minute speech will be followed by a response from Opposition Leader Stephen Harper.

The announcement of the address comes after today's weekly Liberal caucus meeting. During that meeting, many Liberal MPs complained their side of the story has not been getting out to Canadians. They believe the media have not been giving them a fair shake and asked the PM to go over the heads of reporters and speak directly to the public.

The decision, however, also comes in the same week the Martin Liberals - who were elected on a platform to give Parliamentarians more power - muzzled the MPs by cancelling Conservative 'opposition days' and postponed a vote on the Budget in order to avoid a non-confidence motion.

The PM's speech and the cynical attempt to hold onto power by messing around with the legislative calendar are further signs of the siege mentality that has gripped the Martin Government. They know they are in trouble and that they are likely to lose an election, but are doing everything they can to avoid the reality of what's coming.

One cannot help but wonder what former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and his elite team of political operatives would have done faced with the same circumstances. My guess, is team Chrétien would have engineered their own defeat in the Commons on a issue about which they could win an election. It might not have worked, but it would not have had the pathetic air of desperation that now characterizes the Martin Government.