Canada's Martin plans to stay on as finance minister

OTTAWA, Canada (Reuters) -- Canadian Finance Minister Paul Martin, the lead contender to replace Prime Minister Jean Chretien when he retires, said Thursday he would stay in his job as long as Chretien wanted him there.

Martin's future came into question after Chretien's crushing electoral victory Monday, which seemed to strengthen the 66-year-old leader's hand against any of those -- such as Martin's backers -- who would like him to go.

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Chretien's defied many pundits by substantially increasing the majority of his Liberal Party in the House of Commons, going to 172 seats from the 161 he had before the election. A bare majority is 151 seats.

Asked if the results assured Chretien of the absolute support of the Liberal Party and the Liberal caucus in Parliament, he said: "Oh, absolutely." He said the mood in the cabinet, which just met, was "very, very upbeat."

Some sources close to Martin had said this summer that the minister would decide whether he wanted to stay, given that there was little sign Chretien would leave office.

Martin is the architect of Canada's balanced budgets and recent tax cuts, and if he would go, the conventional wisdom is that it would seriously jeopardize Liberal election chances.

Asked how long he would stay as finance minister, Martin said: "I guess as long as the prime minister keeps me in the job." Asked if he was willing to stay as long as Chretien kept him there, he said simply: "Yes."

Chretien told reporters the day before that he wanted Martin to stay in his present post. The prime minister has to make some adjustments to his cabinet -- two members were not re-elected -- but Chretien said Thursday he was not sure when he would do this.

Martin said his first legislative priorities will be to advance a mammoth bill on overhauling the financial services sector, proposing looser regulations on bank mergers and ownership limits. He will also move legislation to implement October's mini-budget which scheduled tax cuts of almost C$100 billion ($65 billion).

The financial services legislation died when Chretien called the election on Oct. 22. The original intent had been to try to get it through the House of Commons by Christmas and the Senate by February, but Chretien said Thursday Parliament would not be brought back before the New Year.

Martin said the bill would have only minor changes.

He said he would also be meeting "very, very soon" with the Bank of Canada committee that is selecting a replacement for Governor Gordon Thiessen, who is stepping down at the end of January.

The finance minister also left open the very unusual possibility that he would deliver only an economic statement this spring, instead of the usual annual budget, in light of October's mini-budget.

"There'll have to be a decision made as to when we will be bringing down a...budget or an economic statement," he said.

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