05.31.2010 08:03 AM

Silly season is upon us

…and, with it, speculative stories about Liberal leadership that (in this case) contain one (1) anonymous source who advises against a change, and one (1) former member of the Liberal Party given front-page treatment for his views on the, um, Liberal Party.

Summer must be imminent.  Silly political coverage is upon us.

23 Comments

  1. Joseph says:

    Draft Jean Chretien.

  2. Patagonia says:

    Should he stay or should he go now?
    If he goes there will be trouble
    And if he stays it will be double
    Well come on and let us know…

  3. JH says:

    What about the Angus Reid Poll out today? There’s your answer Warren. It says an NDP/Liberal coaliton government will win, if it’s led by Layton! The reason being that Quebec will desert the Bloc and vote for the NDP if they think it has a chance to win. So why not proceed with the coalition plans as Bob Rae and others wish, make Jack the leader and force an election. Everybody’s happy! Well, excepting Mr. Ignatieff of course

    • Marc L says:

      Don’t you have any principles? You want to make Jack Layton PM just to get back into power? Watch investors flee Canada’s new corporate-bashing socialist Prime-Minister. But hey, no price is too big to pay to get a few Liberal cabinet posts….

      • James Curran says:

        I highly doubt JH is a Liberal. NO Liberal would EVER suggest Jack leads a coalition. Even Jack thought Stephane Dion was a better leader than him back in ’08.

  4. William M says:

    As I’ve said before, Ignatieff lacks the populist and killer instinct to win.

    Shame because these Reformacons are ruining my Canada

  5. I agree. When former Liberals complain about the Liberal Party, it should not be news.

    • James Curran says:

      When current Liberals complain Jason, you don’t hear them either. That’s why we have guys like Chris Dodd sitting on the sideline pissing in. Guys like you that think their concerns should fall on deaf ears.

      I seem to remember our host of this thread having a couple of complaints prior to re-engaging. At least Dodd knows nothing can be done from the outside and is diving back in. Unless, of course, you petition for his membershipr to be recinded Jason.

      • “Guys like me”? You mean the people whose manner of expressing dissent is respected enough within the party to earn election and responsibility by the membership at large? And don’t suggest that I never complain – nobody thinking rationally will believe you.

        • James Curran says:

          Yes Jason, guys like you. How did you put it last weekend at the Exec Board? Oh yes, “guys like Jim Curran are ruining this party”. You won a vote somewhere Jason? I’m pretty sure you were annointed. Tell us Jason why, at the same exec meeting you rallied against an amendment tot the agenda that would allow the grassroots to discuss the problems in their ridings? Tell us why you got up to the mike Jason and cried about “how YOUR presidents” weren’t there to vote (speaks volumes of your leadership by the way) against said motion.

          Tell us how then the motion was virtually unanimously passed by the grassroots in attendance and how you and the management committee were defeated on the motion that YOU strenuously opposed and accused the members at large of “ambushing” the meeting. Tell us Jason of your concerns for the common Liberal. Tell us!

          • Ah yes. Jim Curran, the genius who wants to discuss a private business meeting on a public website. The best part is that you didn’t even attend, yet you pretend to know what happened!

            Just to correct the record, I said that the presidents from Toronto and Central regions (not “my” presidents) weren’t there. When the room went from around 30 Firday night to 100 Saturday, I think my point was proven.

            If you were there and actually interested in listening to others, you would know that I said I believe the whole “problem” argument is a red herring. There always are problems and there always will be problems. Progress is progressive and you do a few things at a time. Once you’re done, you’ll need to do more. Instead of adding a nebulous agenda item about “problems and solutions”, I prefer specific agenda items on specific problems and solutions. I would have said the same thing at any meeting about any subject, whether I was on management or attending for my first time.

            As for election, I won about 66% of the vote in Nov 2007. I did such a good job that nobody chose to run against me in Feb 2010. I’m quite proud of that. How much did you lose by in Feb 2010, James?

            I expect James to respond with some further misleading, inaccurate and potentially libelous accusations. Just want to warn readers that I have no intention of responding to them if he does.

          • James Curran says:

            I believe it was an Executive Board Meeting. Of which I am not a member. No need to attend something I am not a part of. Presidents attend for free Jason, so all of them should be there. As in ALL of them. Private business matter? This is a democratic party last time I checked. And YOU never had a problem blogging about so-called private business matters as a blogger did you Jason.

            Typical of you to constantly dismiss others viewpoints and turn them into something they’re not though.

  6. e says:

    former liberal party member now CPC propagandist team member say such and such, gosh

    in other words, the media is reporting a conservative as speaking for the liberals… how bad is that?

    someone has to seriously talk to editorial boards and ask them to stop letting conservatives/NDP speak for liberals.

  7. Josh says:

    Jesus, these people stirring up trouble are total cowards. The waters get a bit rough and everyone goes scrambling for the life boats. You think Harper would have ever been elected if his party called for his head every time he dipped below 28% in support? Harpers numbers stagnated for two years down there before he started getting any traction.

    The parrots in the Ottawa press were all convinced that harpers leadership was doomed. When I talk to people in my hometown, they tell me they havent been paying any attention to politics, and have zero idea what is going on in Ottawa. Like usual, the inside the bubble crowd is making more melo drama to occupy themselves.

  8. Doug says:

    Mr. K, is this an ironically mischievous post?

    • Michael Watkins says:

      Speaking of irony, the Hill Times article says Dodd quit the party, “tore up his membership card”, over how Michael Ignatieff was chosen, you know, having been “selected” and all by the party machinery.

      The irony? In 2008 Dodd was still the riding president for Ottawa West-Nepean, when the very same party machinery “selected” a candidate for his riding. Apparently Dodd had no problem with the process then, presumably because he got a result he liked.

      Dodd, 2008, from the linked article: Dodd said there hadn’t been time for such a meeting. He insisted the process was nevertheless fair and transparent and involved all the prospective candidates. “All the cards were on the table. Everybody understood the urgency of moving forward,” he said.

      At the CBC http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2008/09/05/ot-pratt-080905.html#ixzz0pXdAFAJ2

      It is legitimate to complain about undemocratic moves made by a party or a government, but only if you are consistent about such things.

  9. Andrew says:

    The reality is that Canadian politics made up of two rather homogeneous parties (Tories and Liberals) and as long as Canadian voters can not make any substantial distinction between the two, nothing will change in the polls.

    That being said, as the economy gets better, more will pin the turn around in the economy on the Tories.

    The NDP experiment in Ontario still has a bad taste in Ontario voter’s mouths. The thought of any party building a coalition with the NDP makes my skin crawl.

    • Ronald O'Dowd says:

      Andrew,

      Paragraph Three: Well said. It’s no wonder there is no greater coalition booster in Canada than this Prime Minister. It’s his ticket to ride in the direction that most of the rest of us dearly dread. Fortunately, Canadians are not gullible enough to allow him to actually get there!

  10. Ottlib says:

    You have to ask whatever happened to the discipline of the Liberal Party?

    Certainly they had their disagreements in the past but they rarely became public and when they did the Party quickly rallied around the leadership and helped reduce any fallout.

    My how things have changed.

    Mr. Harper is a pathological control freak but the discipline he imposes on the Conservatives have put them in good stead for the last 4 years. The Liberals could learn from that, although they should not need an iron hand to maintain discipline. You would think that they would be able to make the logical connection between the crap we are seeing from some loudmouths and the current Liberal fortunes and practice a little self discipline.

    I have said it before, if it were not for the fact that the Conservatives are lead by a bunch of neo-cons that cannot be trusted with the absolute power of a majority government, I would gladly see the Liberals spend the next four years sitting helplessly opposite a Conservative majority. Without any chance of a sniff of power for at least four years the Liberals could shed all of the hangers on and hacks that have invested the party in the last 15 years and get on with doing a proper job of renewing themselves.

    • James Curran says:

      Renewal as in the guidelines set out in the “Renewal Commission”, the “Change Commission” and the Red Ribbon Task Force? Or, whatever other commission the Liberal Party continues to form that will not be recognized anyway by the leadership of the day? Or do you mean the end to the practice of totally alienating the entire grassroots of the party?

  11. JD Kryk says:

    Maybe Dodd is just a Liberal in Exile…TM

  12. Michael Bussiere says:

    I must really be getting old, because history is actually serving my perspective. I remember an era when Ed Broadbent was considered the best person to be PM, when Mulroney’s Tories were in 3rd place during his first mandate, and when Kim Campbell was 30 points ahead of my guy Jean. Or am I just imagining all of this!?

    • Michael Watkins says:

      Good memory.

      But today isn’t yesterday. There is no change in leader on the government side, and more to the point there won’t be an outgoing, often hated, conservative leader and an incoming untested leader with a new election team to screw up the show. And it would seem there won’t also be a regionalist split in the conservative party also simultaneously landing in the lap of the opposition as they make a bid for something other than opposition.

      And M.I. ain’t no J.C.

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