OTTAWA — Will Ralph Goodale's reputation as Mr. Clean save or sink the Liberals' election prospects?

That's the big question as a mid-campaign insider trading scandal threatens to derail Prime Minister Paul Martin's hopes for victory in the Jan. 23 election.

Martin is clearly relying on his finance minister's rock solid reputation for integrity and honesty to defuse a bombshell revelation.

The RCMP said this week it has launched a criminal investigation into allegations that Goodale's Nov. 23 plan for income trusts was leaked in advance, prompting a sharp spike in trading of the trusts and related stocks in the hours preceding the announcement.

Goodale, Martin declared Thursday, "is a good and he is an honest man. He is a person of the greatest integrity and he will not be stepping down.''

Indeed, Goodale was one of the few politicians to emerge from the sponsorship scandal with his reputation not only intact but enhanced. As the former Public Works minister who suspended the corruption-riddled program in 2002, he earned a rare rave review from Justice John Gomery in his report last fall into the fiasco.

Gomery praised Goodale for ending "the abuses'' that were rife in the program within 24 hours of taking over the Public Works portfolio.

"These elementary measures should have been applied from the beginning,'' Gomery wrote.

Although they are now baying for his resignation, few opposition politicians actually take issue with Martin's characterization of Goodale as a paragon of virtue.

"I like Ralph Goodale very much. He's a very nice guy, a decent guy,'' Conservative finance critic Monte Solberg said in an interview.

Nevertheless, the opposition parties are turning Goodale's very reputation for honesty and integrity against the Liberals, arguing that the latest revelations prove the stench of scandal has permeated the government so thoroughly that even the squeaky clean finance minister is not immune.

"I don't think it helps the Liberals very much when one of the people who's supposed to be their cleanest minister gets wrapped up in something this ugly,'' said Solberg.

Goodale's image as a straight-shooter stems in large part from his refusal to indulge in the partisan theatrics and fiery rhetoric that are the stock in trade for most politicians.

Over his 12 years in cabinet, the one-time Saskatchewan Liberal leader has developed a reputation as a non-politician politician, a serious, earnest man who likes nothing better than to explain, in eye-glazing detail, the minutiae of government policy.

"In front of the camera, what you see is the ebullient Ralph,'' jokes former aide David MacInnis, now president of the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association.

Behind the scenes, MacInnis said, Goodale is even more dull, often dodging events where he's required to shmooz in order to plunge more deeply into his briefing books. He has, however, been known to burst occasionally into song -- show tunes are his particular forte -- around the office.

Goodale may never "set the world alight with charisma'' but, MacInnis said, his reputation for quiet competence and scrupulous honesty will enable him and the Liberal party to ride out out the income trust storm.

"The fact that it's Ralph, people will absolutely believe that he's going to clean it up,'' MacInnis maintained.

Solberg doesn't doubt the Liberals will draw heavily on Goodale's personal political capital but he warned it's already been seriously depleted. Indeed, since taking on the finance post 18 months ago, Solberg said Goodale's credibility has been repeatedly "sandbagged'' by the prime minister's office.

Only days after scoffing at the New Democratic Party's budget demands last spring, Goodale was forced to rewrite his budget, axing corporate tax cuts and adding billions in new social spending in order to secure NDP support in propping up Martin's minority government. Goodale was left gamely defending the new budget while admitting he "would have preferred my original plan.''

In the run-up to the election in the fall, Goodale embarked on another PMO-driven spending spree that left business and taxpayers groups gasping in outrage and the government's reputation for fiscal prudence in tatters.

Only days before announcing his plan for income trusts last month, Goodale insisted he wouldn't make a final decision until January, after completing consultations. Under apparent pressure from the PMO to settle it before the election call, the announcement was rushed amid confusing signals from Goodale's parliamentary secretary.

"He's a very loyal soldier, but loyal to a fault,'' said Solberg. "He's burning up that well of capital pretty quickly.''

But if Goodale's reputation isn't enough to defuse the scandal, Liberals believe the fact that the criminal investigation was revealed in the dead zone between Christmas and New Year's Day, when few voters were paying attention, will save their electoral bacon.

"There is a God after all,'' chuckled one Liberal MP.