Canada's love affair with Paul Martin got a boost this week as our politicians headed back to Parliament for what can only be described as a bizarre legislative session.

A poll of 1,000 Canadians revealed that some 70 per cent believe Martin, the Liberal leadership frontrunner will win the next election.

Close to sixty per cent think he has a strong vision for the future, 50 per cent believe things will change under him while 48 per cent consider him a man of the people.

But there is a another number that Martin's campaign people are not playing up.

Some 30 per cent of the people polled said they do not trust him.

This lack of trust, partly built by a Chretien-led Liberal legacy of lies, has its roots in Martin's success in the business world.

While the Martin family owns scores of businesses in a complex web of companies and holdings the biggest issue lies with Canada Steamship Lines (CSL). Before announcing in March 2003 that he would relinquish control of Canada Steamship Lines to their three sons, Martin and his wife Sheila owned all of the company's voting shares.

Although CSL is privately held and therefore not required to publicly disclose its financial records, CanWest News recently reported that CSL controlled assets worth upwards of $693 million and had annual revenues of $283 million.

The CSL Group operates 37 bulk carriers across the world under the banner of Canada Steamship Lines and CSL International based in Massachusetts. According to company literature, it's "the largest fleet of dry bulk self-unloading vessels in the world." Paul and Sheila Martin also own 50 per cent of CSL Equity Investments Ltd which in turn owns a broad portfolio of property in Alberta, Quebec, Ontario, Arizona and Colorado, including condominiums, office buildings and property. The company also controls shipbuilding and ship design companies on the Great Lakes.

The Martins, among other things also own the Dunbar and Varsity cinemas in Vancouver.

In short, the prime minister in waiting is a tycoon whose business tentacles reach all corners of the world, let alone Canada.

As such the question is if he will be able to make decisions impartially so as not to benefit the family coffers or leave an impression that they will. Martin's track record on issues pertaining to doublespeak and potential conflicts of interest is less than stellar.

There is no doubt that the former finance minister had taken every tax break available setting up companies in tax havens like Liberia and Barbados.

Remember this is the same guy who in his 1994 budget speech lamenting the flow of tax dollars away from Ottawa said: "certain Canadian corporations are not paying an appropriate level of tax."

Ottawa's ethics watchdog Howard Wilson, who is actually more of a Liberal lapdog, does not seem to have a lot of problems with Martin's business interests intersecting with the affairs of the state. The so-called 'blind trusts' set up and modified by Martin seem to be enough of a wall to separate the two, according to Wilson.

To give you an example of how blind these trusts can be - Wilson sat in while Martin as finance minister was briefed on major events in CSL Group's life, including a coal-shipping contract with an Indonesian power station partly owned by a company linked to the Suharto family.

There are other such incidents in the life of Martin the businessman and finance minister.

But as the coronation nears, Martin and his handlers say a more stringent blind trust will not permit briefings, akin to the coal shipping contract 'given the special position of Prime Minister."

Martin's past is not the only issue that is sparking questions of trust.

His invisibility on some of the major issues on the current Canadian political scene like the controversy over the same sex marriage and his connections to the country's power brokers is also raising some questions.

Heritage minister Sheila Copps, the only serious contender in the Liberal leadership race calls her rival the 'invisible man' adding that it's pretty hard to have a debate of ideas with somebody who's not around.

Martin's popularity and affinity with the country's power brokers has also raised the spectre of just what he would do to help those who help him now. So far Martin has tallied more than $9-million in Liberal leadership campaign contributions, more than twice the party's spending limit, after he raked in huge donations from some of Canada's biggest tycoons. This places Martin's campaign firmly as the richest in Canadian history.

In contrast, Copps has reported only $406,000 in campaign donations.

Among the latest to line the Martin campaign coffers are donations of $100,000 from Izzy Asper's CanWest Global, $100,000 through four companies controlled by media tycoon Conrad Black, and $100,000 from Robert Lantos's Alliance Communications, now merged into Alliance Atlantis. Vancouver businessman Michael Chin's AIC Ltd. gave $100,000.Toronto businessman Gerry Schwartz's American Farm Inc. donated $75,000, on top of $75,000 earlier donated by his Onex Corp.

Despite the warts in his political career, Martin has won the admiration of the vast majority of Canadians for his stewardship of the nation's finances. He is also showing a genuine passion for the country's top job and has sworn not to make decisions in his private interests, but in the public's interest.

Martin is asking for the public's trust by placing his business dealings in a blind trust.

He will be well served to always remember that the public's trust is never blind.