So what else is new. Lilley has deets, here.

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“Guaranteed” he wouldn’t raise taxes.

Did.

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Someone told me these maniacs would be my fave mop tops in 2012.  I think they’re right.

Also, don’t knock punk rock riots, Moms and Dads.  They’re a load of fun, once you get the hang of them.

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Had the columnist bothered to check, he would have found Chretien never attends policy conventions.  He attends the leadership ones.  Among other things, he works.

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OTTAWA — Hey! The Liberal party isn’t dead!

If the vitality of a political party can be measured by bums in seats, then the former Natural Governing Party is the picture of rosy-cheeked health.

More than 3,300 Grits converged here for a policy convention this past weekend. That’s remarkable because policy conventions tend to be pretty dull affairs.

The Lib turnout was remarkable for another reason: The weather. Can you think of any other place you’d rather be than Ottawa — one of the coldest national capitals in the world — in the middle of January? Can you understand why thousands would risk life and limb to travel in the middle of a big winter storm to get there?

I sure couldn’t. About 1,500 delegates would have been a success. But more folks turned out than the governing Conservatives and the official opposition New Democrats got at their most-recent policy conflabs — combined. The Tories and Dippers present this weekend as observers looked shocked by that, and they should be.

Not bad for a party that many gave up for dead back in May 2011, when Michael Ignatieff led it to its worst election showing in history — a third-place rump in the House of Commons.

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Newly-elected Liberal Party president reacts with shock when he hears that Warren has said nice things about him.

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…too bad I totally hate my bandmates, however.

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He should stick to polling, however.

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Last night at the Former Liberal Staffers mob scene at D’arcy McGee’s on the Sparks Street Mall, a young woman (whose name I did not catch) took me to task for being critical of the Liberal Party of Canada.  She was quite upset, and she gave me Hell, and I told her I appreciated the fact that she did so.  Most of the toughly-worded stuff I get comes in the form of anonymous emails.  So I applauded her saying what she had to say face-to-face.  I invited to do so when we meet again, but not in a noisy bar when folks have been drinking.

She seemed to be upset that I was opposed to Bob Rae leading the Grits into the next election campaign.  That’s fair. In response, I told her that I was and am a war room guy.  What I do, in campaigns, is relate critical information about our opponents.  The problem with Rae, I told her, is that there is a mountain of critical information in his past – and his past cannot be erased.  It is part of who he is, and it will present a big, big problem.

At the time, neither of us knew that the spot below had been released – according to the YouTube info, just the day before.  Tellingly, it’s by the National Citizen’s Coalition, which Stephen Harper once led.  I believe it provides a pretty good sense of what the Reformatories will say about Rae in 2015.

Will people be motivated by ads like this?  My youthful critic would say no.  Looking at this, I can’t say my view has changed one bit.

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Heading out of Ottawa, which this morning – like yesterday – was about a billion degrees below zero. And, Your Honour, I verily swear that this post was not written as I drove my VW back to TeeDot.

Here are some impressions of the weekend, which is worth what you pay for them:

1. It was a very, very successful convention. Though just a boring old policy convention, and though it was virtually impossible to travel to Ottawa in the Arctic-like temperatures, 3300 Liberals showed up. That is 2000 more delegates than the Official Opposition party had at their recent policy convention, and a 1000 more than the government’s party had at theirs. By any standard, that is a huge success.

2. After his speech on Friday night, many Liberals – from across the country – were asking if Dalton McGuinty could ever be persuaded to run for federal Liberal leader. I told them what I believe is the truth: he’s just been re-elected to a historic third term, and that’s the job he’s going to do. That said, I too was energized by his speech, which reminded me quite a bit of the speech given to the Democratic party convention in 2004 by a certain young senator from Illinois.

3. On the policy front, I was pleased (even though I am a republican) to see the resolution about severing ties to the monarchy sidelined. I was unhappy (as a democrat) about the ridiculous decision to empower just anybody to vote for the next Liberal leader. I foresee special interest groups (such as the homophobic, anti-choice groups which were very active in seizing control of riding associations in the 1990s) attempting to manipulate the situation to their advantage – and/or Conservatives and New Democrats flooding the leadership selection process to rally behind the weakest choice.

4. It was wonderful to see how many young Liberals were in attendance and active – as well as the large number of people who told me it was the first time they had ever attended a political convention. Its these people who will make the Liberal Party of Canada relevant again.

5. Contrary to what I predicted Sheila Copps didn’t win the presidency. Congratulations to Mike Crawley. Here’s hoping he learns from the mistakes of his predecessors Apps and LeDrew – and that he doesn’t interpret this as a license to bring back the bad old days of 2003-06.

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