Shuffle, leadership rivalry split Grits as election nears
Baker 'very unhappy' as Tobin supplants him in Cabinet


Robert Fife, Ottawa Bureau Chief
National Post

OTTAWA - Jean Chrétien is facing bitter divisions within the Liberal party over his handling of yesterday's Cabinet mini-shuffle and a decision to bar the president of his own party's youth wing from the election campaign plane.

Just five days before the Prime Minister dissolves Parliament for a Nov. 27 election, the animosity in the Chrétien camp toward Paul Martin, the leader's heir apparent, is festering and is damaging the party's effort to present a united front to voters.

Véronique de Passillé, who won a second term as Liberal youth president by a vote of 86% in March, told the National Post she has been banned from Mr. Chrétien's campaign plane because she is a Martin supporter.

In past elections, the party youth president has travelled on the Liberal plane. Ms. de Passillé, 25, said: "People were saying I'm in that [Martin] camp but with the election in the air, that was all behind, that's what I thought."

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But one of Mr. Baker's closest confidants had an entirely different interpretation of the Cabinet intrigue, saying Mr. Baker is "not happy" the Prime Minister forced him out to help Mr. Tobin's leadership ambitions.

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