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OTTAWA, July 26, 2002 (LSN.ca) – Paul Martin, frontrunner in the Liberal Party’s unofficial leadership race, has promised parliamentary reform including less concentration of power in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO)—seen as a direct attack on Jean Chrétien’s autocratic methods.  Martin has reportedly asked Tony Valeri, a senior M.P. and personal loyalist, to draft plans to be unveiled prior to the Liberals’ August 21 to 22 caucus meeting in Chicoutimi. “We have to empower the Member of Parliament again,” said Valeri, M.P. for Stoney Creek. He said the government caucus is all but ignored by Chrétien and his coterie of unelected advisors. The result is policies out of step with public and backbench opinion, such as the Kyoto climate change treaty. “I mean, what a mess. Kyoto is an important policy development and yet the government is not on the same page as the [elected] caucus.”  Coupled with free votes on some issues other than confidence and budgetary items, Valeri said, greater importance must be given to private member’s bills to decentralize power. Most private member’s bills never make it to a vote in Parliament, for example—something the opposition Canadian Alliance tried to amend earlier this year but which Chrétien’s Liberals have kept rigidly in place. Valeri noted that under Chrétien, the PMO has final say on all spending, appointments and every level of the bureaucracy.  To read National Post coverage see:  https://www.nationalpost.com/home/story.html?id={4C420FCE-A2A3-4565-AB3B-024BC968F1CF}