OTTAWA - You can take the man out of politics, but you can't take the politics out of the man.
Paul Martin, ostensibly on hand to preside over the official launch of his memoirs, transformed the genteel, wine-sipping literary soiree with a feisty stump speech Monday night.
Not surprisingly, he cast himself in a starring role and the present government as the villains in a cautionary tale of how to cope with global economic turmoil.
"It makes absolutely no sense that the $12-billion surplus that we left to the Canadian people when we stepped down from office has now been virtually gutted and people are saying we're going to go into deficit next year," said Martin.
"A government that governs for tomorrow, and not just for today, makes sure that you don't go into deficit, that you leave yourself a cushion so that doesn't happen."
The crowd of about 400 -- nearly all Liberals and most to them long-time Martin loyalists -- ate up every word as he recounted his years as finance minister under Jean Chretien and his brief term as prime minister of a minority government.
Without ever mentioning the word Conservative, or speaking the name of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Martin starkly contrasted Liberal past with Tory present.
He mourned the loss of the federal daycare strategy crafted by the Grits -- "it was a national program, and it was in place, and it was abandoned."
He regretted the demise of the Kelowna accord his government signed with aboriginal leaders, accusing his successors of "turning their backs" on native people.
He pined for the days when government played an activist role, rather than a laissez-faire one, in social and economic development.
The partisan salvos echoed many of the assessments delivered in Martin's memoirs, entitled "Hell or High Water."
The book berates the federal Tories for holding a "pinched vision of Canada" and accuses them of trying to "turn the clock back on the achievements of previous governments."
It also describes the friction with Chretien that finally drove Martin from the finance portfolio to launch his long-postponed drive to capture the Liberal leadership.
Martin admits in the book to being angry with Chretien for leaving behind a "time bomb" in the form of the federal sponsorship scandal that ultimately cost the Liberals their grip on power.
Three was, however, no verbal sniping at Chretien or other fellow Grits on Monday -- just a frustration with the Tories and a firm belief that Liberal views will one day triumph again.
"There was a program that we laid in front of the Canadian people and was accepted by them," said Martin. "And it's a program that I believe governments should carry through."
