I carry no brief for the Bob Rae – see below – but this “decision” of the Liberal Party’s functionaries is a joke.  It’s simply an anti-Rae missile dressed up as something else.

In particular, the thought control part of the diktat – that you can’t even discuss cooperation/coalition/merger with another person – is extraordinary.  Will they now ban unauthorized gatherings of more than three Liberals, too?

Anyway, it sure is a good thing we still have Alf Apps in charge.  He did such a great job in the election campaign, and he’s now doing a terrific job of bringing everyone together!

UPDATE: They’re not fooling anyone, either.  See here and here.

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Geert Wilders is human garbage.

It was a mistake for the Harper government to let him into Canada (when they had previously, and appropriately, made things inhospitable for George Galloway). It is an even greater mistake to allow a federally-funded facility play host to this asshole.

I know folks at PMO – and James Moore – read this site regularly.  They should do the right thing and ensure that this bigot spews his venom elsewhere.

If they don’t, they risk Wilders’ stink enveloping them, too.

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Now, neither left nor right, the once-great Grits are at a crossroads. Lots of big decisions loom. One of them: With Ignatieff now back to academe, who will replace him, short or long-term?

For an interim leader, the job description is pretty straightforward: Bilingual, to keep the Libs relevant in Quebec (for the inevitable NDP caucus stumbles). Good on their feet in the House (which is where all the action will be for the next four years). And will focus on keeping the Liberal brand alive (because the brand still has value — and, in fact, Liberals still govern in our three largest provinces).

Rae carries steamer trunks of baggage from his time as Ontario’s NDP premier. Tory strategists would be giddy to have him in their sights in the next election.

But if Rae promises, in blood, to be only an interim leader, and not run for the top job when the leadership race commences? Then he’d be fine.

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A guy just came up to me to say hi, he reads the web site, etc. Asked me about the chances of an NDP-Liberal merger/cooperation thing now.

Said I: “It’s a good idea, therefore it’s dead. Ottawa is where good ideas come to die.”

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It’s a beautiful sunny morning in Ottawa, to which I have returned for the first time in many months. I’m here to give a speech about the Canadian political future with the Cons’ Tim Powers and the Dippers’ Brad Lavigne.

It’s a closed-door session, so I won’t give away what I intend to say. It’s Top Secret!

But on the issue that needs to be settled this week – who should be the Grits’ interim leader until a full-time one is selected by party members – here’s what I think:

1. Bob Rae is fine, but only if he pledges to be interim, and he doesn’t run for the full-time post. I get the impression he doesn’t want to agree to that, which will sink him.

2. Stephane Dion is an awesome choice, since he’s (a) been leader and (b) he’s a Quebecker – which is the place where we have the greatest potential for growth, as the Dipper Kiddie Kaucus continues to stumble.

3. Ralph Goodale doesn’t speak French, and is therefore not a good idea.

There you go. That and fifty cents will get you a cup of coffee.

Have a nice day, Ottawans. Enjoy the calm before the storm.

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What does it mean?

In the hours after the political earthquake hit on Monday night, Canadian pundits, pollsters and politicos quietly slid into chairs, turned on their computers, and stared — blankly — at the blinking cursor thing.

Wordless. Flummoxed. Terrified.

What the hell just happened? A Reform Party-in-disguise capturing a majority? A socialist party, comprised of vacationing students and America-hating conspiracy theorists, making up the official opposition? The (formerly) most successful political machine in Western democracy, reduced to a rudderless rump?

How?

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Warren Kinsella, Toronto lawyer and Liberal consultant well known for his own punk-rock past, agrees that musicians have an innate reluctance to self-affix any political labels.

“Most musicians are outsiders. They’re very suspicious of mainstream institutions, like political parties,” Mr. Kinsella says. “Political parties often stand for the things musicians hate – conventions, caution, homogeneity. Punks, in particular, despise politics. But they’ve started to come to see it as a necessary evil.”

So, as Mr. Kinsella adds, “tons of bands now donate songs and shows to help very specific candidates and causes. It allows them to help out, but hold onto their grimy, safety-pinned souls.”

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Along with others, my pals Jane and Linda have stories out this morning about the Liberal defeat, here and here, respectively.  (I note that there’s one name that is common to both stories.)

There’s five points I’d make about this crap.  Take them for what they’re worth.

1.  The country utterly repudiated us federal Liberals – and not just the leader, either.  All of us. Self-justifications and anonymously-sourced back-biting, post-apocalypse, are as destructive as they are transparent.  It’s the sort of behaviour that got us where we are, and it’s behaviour that’s been getting worse since the leadership wars of the past decade or so.  And I say that as one of the warriors, too.  It has to stop.

2.  This one ain’t a temporary setback, Liberals.  It’s a decade or more in the wilderness; perhaps it was an actual death warrant, like the one sent to the Bloc, but not (yet) as comprehensive.  Canadians don’t like how we did business.  Case in point:  “How can I trust them to run the country, when they can’t even act unified and/or disciplined, for more than ten minutes at a time?”

3.  Regulars, here, know that I favour unifying progressives – but they also know that, with the NDP as strong as it is, I think Jack Layton would be crazy to give us even a moment of his time.  He doesn’t need us to do what he wants to do.  So, for the next while, Liberals need to focus on riding-by-riding rebuilding.  Post-election-subsidy, it’ll be hard, but it’s the Number One job.  Whomever your interim leader is won’t be as nearly as interesting to the media or the public as you currently think it is.  Near-total obscurity generally has that effect.

4.  Obscurity, in circumstances like these, isn’t a totally bad thing.  The country has said to us – very clearly – they want us to go away, for a long time, and get our shit together.  I welcome the opportunity, personally.  The only reason some media are still writing about us is habit.  They’ll move on, soon enough, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

5.  I haven’t repeated my little pledge since before the Liberal rout – so, in case you think I chose discretion over valour, I still intend to take a shot at a Liberal nomination somewhere in the Toronto area.  Call me crazy (and plenty do), but I think it would be fun to try one more time.

Anyway, that’s what I think after reading the morning papers.  Now, it’s off to a wedding that’ll be attended by lots of Liberals, and then it’s up to Ottawa to give a speech about politics.  Have a great day.

 

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It’s his fortieth or something, and his takeover of SFH is now complete.  So, come celebrate.

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…I got shit supreme from some federal Grit friends when this column came out.  Reading it now, I guess it wasn’t so far off the mark.  (I completely missed the NDP surge, however.  I am comforted by the fact that I wasn’t alone in that regard.)

Wish I had been wrong.

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