Headaches galore for Canadian Prime Minister after election blow

It wasn't supposed to be this difficult.
When Paul Martin took over as prime minister of Canada in December from fellow Liberal Jean Chretien, he had a healthy majority in parliament and predicted his agenda of radical change would keep him in power for a decade.
But Martin - badly distracted by a patronage scandal - was unable to deliver on the many promises he made. Voters took their revenge in a June 28 election, leaving the Liberals angry, weakened and relying on minor parties to govern.
So the man who had little success running Canada when the odds suited him must now do so in much more trying conditions.
"His first six months as prime minister were shockingly bad; he lacked focus, he lacked vision, he lacked coherence," said the Globe and Mail newspaper.
"Minority status means (Martin) must prove himself in the most difficult of circumstances. This is not a bad thing; if he slumbered with a majority, a minority may jolt him awake. With luck, his government will last six months, a year, perhaps longer."
Martin faces three main challenges - keeping his administration afloat, trying to heal Liberal divisions and ending the deadlock caused by changes he made to the machinery of government.
The Liberals have only 135 of the 308 seats in parliament and Martin, who must court not one but two opposition parties to stay in power, will most likely govern issue by issue when legislators reconvene in September.
"Perhaps this will be more disciplining than the preceding six months in that there has to be a move away from the breadth of the agenda toward the focus of delivery of some key priorities," said University of British Columbia politics professor Allan Tupper.
Martin campaigned on promises to improve the creaking universal health care system and create a national child care network - measures that he is confident will be backed by many opposition legislators.
But his prospects are more uncertain over contentious issues such as whether Canada should take part in a controversial planned US missile defence system - an idea deeply unpopular with the left-leaning New Democrats, whose support is crucial if Martin is to stay in power.
Success in pushing through more unpopular measures will rely in large part on how well Martin works the back rooms of parliament and cajoles legislators into supporting him.
Liberal insiders say this means Martin's top aides - whose direct and unsubtle approach has won them few friends among cabinet members or legislators - will have to start listening to the parliamentary caucus.
Many Liberal members of parliament blame Martin's team for exacerbating existing divisions between supporters of Martin and Chretien as well as for the decision to call an early election despite polls showing voters were angry.
"If they stick to their old methods and order people around, they're going to find Liberals telling them 'Sorry, I won't be in parliament for the next vote of confidence'," said an unhappy aide to one Martin loyalist in cabinet.
"We want to see some humility. These people think we won the election, whereas in fact we suffered a major strategic defeat. If they don't change their tune, things will fall apart very quickly," he told Reuters.
Martin rules out firing any of his aides and insiders say his position as party leader is safe for now.
"There will not be an immediate challenge to his leadership. We're still in power and there are no obvious contenders," said one influential Liberal. The next leadership convention is scheduled for 2005.
Martin's first task is to reshuffle his cabinet to replace the six ministers who lost their seats in the election. Aides say a new cabinet will be named on or around July 19.
Party insiders say they will be watching to see whether Martin - who sacked many of Chretien's top ministers when he took over - reaches out to supporters of his arch rival.
Then Martin has to start governing. Officials admit that one reason he achieved so little in his first six months was the decision in December to dramatically increase the number of special cabinet committees.
"Government ministers will be telling Martin that the structure of cabinet needs radical surgery. Ministers don't have the time to do their jobs; they're always in committee meetings," said one senior Liberal.
Martin's one consolation is that his main rivals are also under fire. There are questions about the future of Stephen Harper, leader of the opposition Conservatives, whose party's haul of 99 seats was much less than had been predicted.
And the chief of staff to Jack Layton, leader of the New Democrats, quit suddenly last week because of major policy differences.