TORONTO, Aug. 2 (UPI) -- Who said summer doldrums made politics slow?
Probably the same person who said politics is theater.
Prime Minister Jean Chretien embarked on a 'show and tell' trip full of photo ops this week, but the welcome hasn't always been warm.
In Vancouver, hecklers marred his meeting with hundreds of people from the city's Chinese community.
They not only booed him, but bore signs calling for his resignation.
Minutes later, police swarmed a man reportedly holding a threatening piece of pie.
They apparently feared a messy repeat of when Chretien was creamed by a protestor's pie two year ago.
Not exactly the reaction you'd expect after almost 10 years on the job. But then again, Chretien's locked in a pitched battle to save his job.
His former finance minister, Paul Martin, has set off on his own cross-country tour before a mandatory Liberal leadership vote in February.
Chretien refuses, though, to say if he plans to step down.
"I've been elected by the Canadian people for five years," he said. "I have to fulfill my mandate and that's what I'm doing."
Observers see Chretien's trip into a Liberal stronghold as a sign he's gearing up for a showdown.
Martin, for his part, seemed to be laying low during the prime minister West Coast journey.
It turns out he was in Vancouver just a month ago and got a rousing welcome from his Chinese hosts.
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Canada's premiers and territorial leaders are trying of prime minister's partisan woes.
While meeting in Halifax -- appropriately at the other end of the country -- this week, they demanded Chretien convene a first ministers' health conference.
Oh, and they also want more money plowed into Canada's socialized health care system.
"We are having difficulty sustaining what we are doing now," said Nova Scotia Premier John Hamm. "We need to build a health-care system for the 21st century."
The premiers' main complaint is the provinces have seen their share of the cost of health care rise dramatically. They say they've spent an additional four billion dollars or so per year over the last five years.
Premiers now plan to launch an ad campaign they hope will encourage Canadians to support their bid for more bucks.
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And finally, claims of political interference in the prime minister's personal life
Chretien's 33-year old adopted son, Michel, has been charged with sexual assault by Royal Canadian Mounted Police in the Northwest Territories.
He's accused of attacking and assaulting an 18-year old woman at his apartment, after the two spent the night drinking heavily with another friend.
The victim's mother contacted the area's Liberal MP, hoping to contact the prime minister and tell him about the incident.
Instead, the woman claims Ethel Blondin-Andrew, Canada's secretary of state for children and youth, urged her not to press charges against the younger Chrétien.
This isn't the first time the prime minister's been dogged by his adopted son's behavior.
In 1992, Michel Chrétien was convicted of sexual assault for tying up and sodomizing a woman in Montreal.
Word of the incident came as the prime minister ran for Liberal leadership in 1990.
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