If PM PM wants to keep his job, he needs to turn the sponsorship scandal to his advantage, says the Toronto Star's James Travers, who goes on to explain how.

An excerpt:

If — and it's a big if — there is a way out of this labyrinth, it is hidden in, of all places, the scandal. Instead of repeating that he is the brush that will scrub government clean, the Prime Minister needs to start fixing problems that no one in Ottawa needs Gomery to name.

By introducing sweeping reforms — and, in a kind of political judo throw, challenging the opposition to support them — Martin could use the scandal's growing weight to his advantage. Without waiting to learn what happened to the sponsorship money or why, this administration should, as a start, reinforce whistleblower legislation, give mandarins power to resist political pressure, make merit paramount in appointments and enforce contracting transparency.

Convincing Canadians won't be easy. His own judgment lapses and yesterday's appearance of Liberal campaign co-chairman David Herle and Martin confidant Terri O'Leary before a Commons committee investigating contracts unrelated to the scandal, compromise the Prime Minister as an ethics crusader.

Still, late is better than never and the alternative is inescapable. If the coming election is fought over the ethics of Jean Chrétien's Liberals, Paul Martin's Liberals will lose.