04.08.2013 05:58 AM

Your morning JT news

Right here.

Um, except:

1. Alf Apps? Alf Apps, he of Ornge fame, is the voice of renewal? Seriously? Can we get Chris Mazza in to oversee fundraising, now?

2. The “no old factions” stuff isn’t, well, true. I was told that one camp’s senior guys are very involved – and I know that another camp aren’t, so much. A choice has been made, which they’re entitled to do. But don’t pretend a choice hasn’t been made.

3. My old pal Ibbitson wrote this to be nice. He doesn’t believe it for a minute. The Big Shift, etc.

You’re welcome.

26 Comments

  1. Cath says:

    You’re right. There’s also no evidence yet of a building of grass roots or a purging of old boys. I seem to remember a clear call from the masses on both of those. It’s early goings yet. We’ll see.

    • Hmm, methinks you are wrong on both counts. Approximately 300,000 new supporters on the grass roots thingy, and a very forceful declaration that every single seat will have an open nomination kind of speaks to both points. (lots of new supporters for example). Not that the second point is guaranteed to sweep out the old guard, but it is a smidgin of evidence.

      • Cath says:

        Uh, but anyone can sign on to be a supporter dude. Even we NDP and Conservative types. Fun with numbers doesn’t translate to votes or even taking a walk to a polling station.

        • That`s where you are wrong. Supporters are already contributing impressive resources to the Liberal Party, and the current intake will have evolved into a lot of members volunteers and yes, voters over the course of time.

  2. Cath says:

    By the way. Justin’s interview with Global’s Tom Clark was hilarious. “I’m not going around citing Pi to the 19th decibel.”
    Perhaps Justin’s camp needs to purchase one of your books……any one.

  3. It wasn’t a bad article. One thing that caught my eye. The fate of the Provincial Divisions. I will bet that a lot of Liberals are still pretty attached to their Provincial Divisions, but that is no way to structure a Party that actually wants to win national Elections. Being new to the Liberal Party, I am wondering aloud just how attached to the Provincial divisions Liberals are, and whether there will be a lot of push back if and when genuine centralisation kicks into gear. It is a corrollory of `big data`politics that the whole darned shooting match has to be directed centrally. The more data Liberalist collects, the more discrete and geographically distributed you target groups get. More targeting means more refined messages. More refined messages means better quality research is needed. All these things mitigate in favour of centralised control, but again, that assumes the Liberal Party has followed the implications of actually winning elections through effective use of data, and are prepared to downgrade the relevance of PD`s.

  4. Brachina says:

    John’s numbers are wrong, its less then 219,000 people who can vote.

    its closer to 127,000 roughly.

  5. frmr disgruntled Con now Happy Lib says:

    “The new guard will have little patience with a constitution and infrastructure that still places considerable power in the hands of the provincial wings of the national party, overseen by local warlords.

    Expect all of that to be swept away, replaced by a centralized organization devoted to recruiting a national base of mass support using the most sophisticated tools of communication and fundraising.”

    M. Trudeau, you could not do this fast enough for me. The provincial wings of the Federal Party are nothing but another redundant layer of bureaucracy, a repository of hacks that suck resources and give very little back in return……

    • Bill Case says:

      Justin has given notice that he intends to purge the party of all the old veterans in the Liberal caucus when he said this in his Hope & Hard Work speech:

      “We need to be a party of community leaders, devoted to community service. That’s why I am calling for open nominations for all Liberal candidates in every single riding in the next election.”

      No protected nominations for 2015 and Justin emerges as a strong leader willing to sacrifice the old failed veterans and replace them with “community leaders”. Generational change is gonna be bloody and brutal within LPC ranks! Justin G. Khan is gonna make Harper look like a grandma Moses!

      • frmr disgruntled Con now Happy Lib says:

        M. Trudeau said no such thing with that statement.

        Sorry to burst yer bubble of a Liberal implosion Billl….but ANY sitting Liberal MP would win their riding nomination with ease……they didnt win their ridings as members of a third party by being lazy, laggards, or unpopular…..

        What it will do is encourage folks to run for nominations who would not otherwise because in times past, they felt “the fix was in”……

  6. james curran says:

    That piece was too short to involve Alf. I’m sure he’ll pen something lengthier himself.

  7. ray says:

    I can’t believe (yet) that any new Liberal boss will be different than any old boss and as I like Justin and loathe Harper but

    he IS a child of privilege, the next great white hope
    but if you smash the mirror and blow away the smoke
    you can see that old gang of mine
    lining up behind the latest light that blinds
    anxious to get back to cutting up the cash
    from just below the surface of the dirt beneath the shine

  8. Bill Case says:

    Day One of JT’s leadership will be interesting to say the least!

    He will be sitting in the front row in the corner of the HOCs and behind him will be the ragtag 30-odd Liberal MPs with 18 MPs having the title of “Honourable” prefixing their surnames. It will appear “incongruous” with youth leading the aged. And then the newly-minted Liberal leader Justin Trudeau asking his first question of PM Harper. Gonna be interesting.

    Justin’s Hope & Hard Work speech interestingly says this:

    “We need to be a party of community leaders, devoted to community service. That’s why I am calling for open nominations for all Liberal candidates in every single riding in the next election.”

    Does that mean the 33 Liberal caucus MPs do not have their nominations protected? Does that mean Justin intends to clean house and bring in new faces into the Liberal party? Will the generational change be immediate or gradual going into 2015? I suspect many of the older Liberal MPs will chose to retire rather than being shoved out unceremoniously.

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