— Musings —06.05.2010 08:37 AM
Personally, I always want Chretien to come back
Here, however, Jim Travesty sets up the biggest straw man ever so that he can try to knock it down, and thereby meet his Saturday column obligations.
What a load of bollocks. But, that said, it sure would be awesome, wouldn’t it?
We’d dispatch the Reformatories in a single afternoon.
Respectfully disagree,
Chretien would not play well here in Quebec.
Frank McKenna on the other hand……..
While the return of Chretien is complete tosh, I did agree with Jim’s assessment that the Liberals win from the center. That center is out there waiting. The Reformatories have given up on the political center and retreated to their comfortable base of angry elderly white men and shut ins. The way I see it a fourth minority government for Mr. Angry shows he just can’t get the job done. It won’t be too long after that the long knives will be out in the Cons.
Please do not make the mistake of assuming Harper has given up on the centre just because he allows a few bones to be thrown to the so cons here and there. Did you learn nothing about him over the course the last two elections? He *will* have trinkets to appeal to the centre, just like GST cuts and soccer / sports program fee credits and other such treats have been aimed at the centre.
The way I see it, Harper gets a majority because Liberals have continued to let Canadians down in election campaign after election campaign starting with Martin’s first. Will Ignatieff follow the same road? Certainly seems so at present.
Bring on a mini crisis and who are people going to turn to? The visiting professor? Or the guy they don’t really like personally but seems to be getting the job done?
Based on present circumstances leading into an election anytime between now and October, banking on a fourth minority Conservative government is wishful thinking.
I’m with you Warren, but failing that it would be nice to use a Chretienism if the “nervous nellies” would stop the ongoing litany of inane announcements that no one gives a shit about and grow some balls. Listening to Goodale waffle on “the House” this morning was enough to make me want to barf. If Liberals can’t mount a campaign that exposes Harper for what he is we deserve to be in the perpetual purgatory of opposition or worse.
Yeah,I saw Travers’ article this morning. I agree its a bit of a strawman argument and it allows the media to engage in their favourite sport of “whos trying to stab the Liberal leader in the back?”. But in the wake of the ongoingtalk about dismal polling results, coalitions and self-inflicted wounds like this past Wed’s immigration reform mess and the Party’s indecision over what to do with the omnibus budget bill (it should be defeated) the media smells blood in the water. The only way to start “changing the channel” is to get on with developing policy and getting Ignatieff to start building a plausible narrative of what it is Liberals stand for and what he would do as PM.
Exactly, Christian, Exactly. You hit the nail on the head. Make some decisions, develop some policies and create a positive narrative of what it is that we stand for. Elsewhere here on Warren’s blog I have called for Ignatieff to step down. If he could make these decisions, develop these policies and create that narrative, I would have to admit that I have been wrong on that call. But I just don’t think he has it. Not based on the evidence on record to date.
And the costs of waiting to find out if he can deliver are way too high for the Liberals and for the entire country.
Testify!
Warren,
Let me get this straight: this is Comments — on Travers’ piece. Right, OK, ah, have a good weekend.
Oh, so that’s what he’s doing.
It’s a discouraging article, thanks for putting it in perspective.
And, I would love to see Chretien in QP with Harper – after all the time he’s spent watching and listening, without the distractions of daily politics.
Chretien was not a good opposition leader. Even his most diehard fans concede that.
He must have been good at something. He appears to have succeeded in getting out of Opposition.
Why are none of the Liberal spokes people pushing back on this propoganda ? Mr Apps used the figure ” Harper won power with 20 % of the vote ” on The House radio interview .
Take number of eligible voters as 100 %
Take number of eligible voters who actually voted as 59 %
Harper won with 37 % of 59 % of voters vote or 22 % of eligible voters .
Could the problem be voter apathy for any product offered ? Who would form a coalition to boost Harper’s 22 % mandate ? Common baby , light the voter’s fire .
Bwahahahaha! I gotta disagree…Chretien would get crushed. The CPC would get the Martin gang and your crew scrapping in no time. Actually, they never stopped, so it would just be a bloody massacre.
Hey Warren, a little backward wishful thinking is fine but don’t you think its time to support Iggy as the fall appears to be an election time frame. I think iggy is playing the cards he has quite well
DavidA : The truth hurts please censor it ?
Kidding thanks for the best blog post since Sponsorship rebuilding started in 2006 .
The best option would be for Chretien and Broadbent to become interim leader/deputy-leader of a combined party until the ratification of the merger and the election of a new leader is complete.
Sure Joseph. Just what Canada needs two grumpy old men.
Firstly, the Reformers split the PC vote, as did the Bloc. Mr Unite-the-Right merely swooped in and assimilated the remnants of what he busted up in the first place. Secondly, I can imagine a post-election arrangement, but a merger with the self-righteous conscience of politics, stuff orange in everybody’s face at a non-partisan protest NDP is not to be trusted. They are holier than thou, and certainly too holy to be trusted to stick around.
Where is Chretien with his nervous nellie reminder of the days when he wasn’t even supposed to win his own seat in Shawinigan?
Liberals, take a pill and chill please?
The “we hate Rae” coalition in the party is the only thing holding back the LPC.
This is the BEST thing about you Liberals, Warren.
You always think you’re one leader away from past glory. That you’ve starting musing about going back in time to draft a geriatric is especially hilarious.
Chretien. Chretien. Oh, please. The guy won three times because there wasn’t another team on the field. With the Reformers splitting the other team down the middle, my cat could have won those elections. That left little Jean to count up his votes and then sit there and do nothing until the next election came along. He had a free ride that anyone could have had at that time in our history.
Just a bit of a correction — that’s Harper’s story, not Chretien’s.
I think the problem goes beyond leadership at this point. Even if Iggy were replaced with Chretien, Rae, Mckenna or Lester Pearson reincarnated; they would still be polling around 26% after the first salvo of ‘not a leader’ type attack ads.
We need money so that we can mount a defense, because right now the public is only hearing one side of the story.
We’ve needed money for 5 years now. If you can’t figure out how to do it after 5 years, ya otta quit.
Cretin? Give me a break, Harper would mop the floor with him. Just imagine hauling in front of these parliamentary committees on the golf course or adscam. Cretin had it easy as he had a party on the right that was split. Once they got together and got their act in gear, he was out of there.
The flaw in Traverse’s piece and in spinning this nostalgia stuff assumes that the liberal gene pool is a tad dry in the current and future Liberal leader gene pool. I sure hope that that is a wrong assumption on this fractured fairy tale.
Hey Warren – Saw Rock of Ages today – very well done. Ahhh, the raunch and in-your-face ’80s! It never gets old.
The only result of Chretien becoming leader is a conservative majority. Chretien may be a hero to those like Warren in Liberal la-la land, but the sponsorship scandal has forever tainted him in the rest of Canada.
I am still fine with Iggy, but if that doesn’t work out it’s time to skip a generation and find someone younger than Harper, in his or her early 40’s. Compared to the UK and the US our leadership is increasingly creaky.
Skip a generation?
Yeah, I think you are right, the Liberal Party and centrist / centre left political influence will be decimated for at least a generation if not permanently so, at least until someone finally decides to re-arrange the pieces. Good luck trying to come back from that, with tight donation rules and a likely elimination of the electoral subsidy. [1]
40 seats, mostly in urban Ontario, a sprinkling in Atlantic Canada and precious little left elsewhere is probably what is going to happen if Mr. Ignatieff trundles on down the path, humming `let’s try this again the same old way we always do` tune.
[1] The only truly bright spot about eliminating the electoral subsidy is this next contest will be the last election we see Elizabeth May and the Green Party of Canada. Green politics should be coursing through the blood of any truly modern party, not splitting votes to no purpose at all.
Warren, you can’t always get what you want