The Liberal Leadership Campaign

Bring on the Farce

2006-09-26T14:49:00.000-04:00

While you were wrestling with the idea that had Belinda not dropped out of the Liberal leadership race, Tie Domi could have ended up serving cucumber sandwiches at 24 Sussex drive as the first-spouse, the campaign fell even further into the realm of farce.

As Jumpin' Joe Volpe was about to enter a news conference to defend his ethics-challenged campaign, he was chased down the street by two "ghosts," wearing white sheets and signs reading, "Volpe Has Spirits." This spectacle at least got Joe some national TV. And it's good to see that David Herle has found a work again.

Both Volpe and Igantieff have been accused of bringing out the dead - and signing them up for Liberal Party cards. Now I know what I'm doing for Halloween.

And then there's Eddie Goldenberg. He's packin'. Yeah, you know what we mean. He's packin' a mean grudge against the Martinites and let's er rip with his new tell-all. We say: buy the book.

Finally, there is Hedy Fry, a candidate who was not chosen as first, second or third choice for leader by any of the 1,000 respondents to an EKOS Research poll. "She literally got zero. I have never seen that in over 20 years of polling," said EKOS's Frank Graves. But Rae welcomed her to the lefty fold.

Are you kidding me??

2006-09-21T14:14:00.000-04:00

Bob Rae donated money to NDP candidates this year.

And this guy thinks he should lead the Liberal Party.

People, are we losing our minds? Stop the insanity. Can someone please get the Anyone But Rae movement going.

Is Iggy Fading?

2006-09-20T11:11:00.000-04:00

A new poll from the Globe and Mail shows the Liberal leadership battle is a tighter race than many expected. Although anointed early as the heir to the throne, a gaffe prone Michael Ignatieff has not walked away with the race.

Now the Globe poll puts Iggy only 2 points ahead of Bob Rae and 6 points ahead of Stephane Dion. The second tier candidates are Kennedy and Dryden, both with 9% support among Liberal Party members who will vote to select delegates. The remaining candidates each have less than 3% support.

While the poll is useful, it doesn't reflect the GOTV machine that Iggy and the other candidates have assembled and which may make the difference on a riding by riding basis.

But with conventional wisdom dictating that Ignatieff has little room for growth on second and third ballots, this must be troubling news for the Iggy camp. And it must be great news for Rae and his fellow travelers.

But the dark horse remains Stephane Dion. He's the only candidate who has exceeded expectations in a disappointing and lacklustre race.

SHOCKER! Bennett is Out

2006-09-18T11:46:00.000-04:00

So apparently Carolyn Bennett was running for the Liberal leadership.

Did you hear about this? Anyway, she's dropped out and endorsed Bob Rae. Some of her immediate family members have followed suit while her other supporters left the phone booth they occupied to join Stephane Dion's campaign.

She made the decision after the surprising realization that she had no chance to win. Good-bye Dr. Bennett, we hardly knew ya.

Ignatieff no longer in love with George W. Bush.

Brison's tax policies make sense.

The surprisingly effective Martha Hall Findlay gets the Globe profile treatment. Do you believe in miracles? Well, neither do we but she has set herself up as someone to watch. Rock on Martha.

Iggy at 30% Support?

2006-09-12T11:38:00.000-04:00

Will leadership candidate Michael Ignatieff pull off a convincing win on "Super Weekend"?

Ignatieff has far and away the most caucus support with 35 MPs and seven Senators onside. But has his sometimes faltering campaign truly connected with Liberals at the constituency level? Some pundits say yes, Iggy has the support of 30% of Liberals.

We'll find out the Sept. 29 weekend when close to 5,000 delegates will be elected. If Ignatieff does well on the Super Weekend, we are sure to see some of the second tier candidates make a move. But to who?

Bob Rae differs with his former friends in the NDP. Despite some weasel words about "re-evaluating the mission", Rae says we should stick to our guns in Afghanistan.

"But we can't just snap our fingers and say this week that we lost too many troops and we have to come home," Rae said.

He said he opposes arbitrary deadlines for either curtailing or extending the mission and called the New Democratic Party position that Canada should pull out now "incoherent."

Iggy's Relaunch

2006-09-07T11:37:00.000-04:00

Michael Ignatieff relaunched his floundering campaign last night by unveiling his Agenda for Nation Building: Liberal Leadership for the 21st Century. More policy documents are expected in the run up to the convention. This is an attempt to shore up Iggy's policy credentials and remove the focus from his recent gaffes.

Of course, sucking up to soft nationalists in Quebec by saying Quebec should be called a "nation" won't help on that front. He says he won't offer new powers to Quebec but thinks cheap semantic tricks like this should resolve that pesky separatist problem.

Ignatieff remains steadfast in his support for Canada's role in Afghanistan. At least he's not being spooked by the Great Appeaser with a Mustache, Jack Layton, who wants to sing Kumbaya with the Taliban. While Layton has always been despicable, he's now clearly a coward too.

Speaking of New Democrats, Bob Rae wants to raise taxes and hire more bureaucrats! OK, maybe not. He actually said something about healthcare.

The Globe and Mail continues their profiles of the candidates. Today Roy MacGregor takes a look at Scott Brison. While written like an overwrought "after school special" it does highlight the positive fact that an openly gay MP from rural Nova Scotia is a credible candidate to lead the Liberal Party.

Dryden Goes Big

2006-09-06T11:59:00.000-04:00

Liberal leadership candidate Ken Dryden unveiled his policy platform yesterday, calling for a "Big Canada" defined by peace, love and oooh baby baby...

Dryden is in favour of education, fairness and the environment, in addition to some other bold policy initiatives. Or so we are told, we dozed off part way through the newser. But check it out for yourself. Dryden is a thoughtful guy.

We've said it before and we'll say it again: how can a man so qualified to be leader be so lacking in charisma? Sure, it works for Harper but c'mon...

The Ignatieff bashing continues full bore. The jazz man Paul Wells tackles Iggy's pronoun problem.

Gaffe du jour?

2006-09-01T09:08:00.000-04:00

The Iggy gaffe watch continues. In today's edition, the putative Liberal leader said that he wanted to "avoid civil war" in Quebec.

While this is a noble proposition, and one that echoes another great thinker, Axl Rose, Ignatieff's remarks are viewed through the media Gaffe-watch filter. Every thing he says or does will now be interepreted as either a gaffe or not a gaffe. That will be the extent of the analysis.

The Iggy camp are wisely trying to get off the gaffe train by not "apologizing" for the remark while portraying it in the context of his full comments. This a rational, thoughtful approach which means the media will have none of it.

Ignatieff better not drop a football or wear a funny hat in the next few days. He could be done.

Er, What Ignatieff Meant to Say

2006-08-31T08:12:00.000-04:00

Brison called it.

Ignatieff is an "error prone amateur".

While Ignatieff may feel, or may actually be, two-feet smarter than everyone else in the campaign (except for Dion), he's learning that book-smarts only take you so far in the bizzaro world of party politics. Time and time again, Ignatieff creates problems for himself by wandering off message with throw away comments that land him in trouble.

In a campaign team as slick and experienced as the one Iggy has assembled, this must be a cause for grave concern as the campaign reaches its final act.

And of course, when Ignatieff said "it depends on who's the leader" if he'll run again, he meant that "Let's be clear: I am planning to run in the next election in Etobicoke-Lakeshore. I love being an MP and I've enjoyed it enormously and I'm looking forward to doing it again."

Anyone else having disturbing Paul Martin flashbacks with Iggy's campaign? Is the Board on board?

Iggy May Take His Ball and Go Home

2006-08-30T11:22:00.000-04:00

Michael Ignatieff may not run again as a Liberal if he doesn't win the leadership campaign.

"Depends who's leader," Ignatieff said yesterday when asked at a meeting with the Toronto Star editorial board if he would run for the party in the next election if he loses the leadership vote in early December.

Oh Iggy. Bad idea jeans.

Your credibility as a Liberal is only slightly better than Bob Rae's, so saying you're only here for the top job - although undoubtedly true - doesn't exactly paint you as a loyalist.

Yes, we know you worked on Trudeau's campaign, you've mentioned that several thousand times. It's the intervening 30 plus years that give us trouble.

Valpy on Ignatieff

2006-08-28T07:48:00.000-04:00

You don't have to be a sophisticated shrink to see that the Globe and Mail's Michael Valpy may be projecting his life's disappointments onto Liberal leadership Candidate Michael Ignatieff.

In a very long, sometimes interesting piece, Valpy slips the dagger into Ignatieff again and again. Of course, Iggy opened the door with his "sensitive man" shtick:

“I think there are people who would say I've been very ruthless in my life. I am someone who has worried greatly about the price my ruthlessness has inflicted on others. I have worried about that. I do worry about that."

Suck it up princess. It takes stones to be the leader (regardless of gender). Don't cry in your cappuccino.

But this hatchet job was really about Valpy. Ignatieff was a reporter with Valpy some 40 years ago at the Globe. From there, Ignatieff has gone on to high profile media and academic success as is considered by many, especially those outside of Canada, as one of our country's greatest contemporary intellectuals. Valpy derides his career changes as the mark of a dilettante rather than an active mind. He accuses Ignatieff of “recreating himself” to suit his greedy purposes. The inclusion of the quote on Madonna is no accident.

Not content to limit himself to debunking Ignatieff’s professional achievements, he delves into his family life to come to the shocking conclusion that Iggy was mean to his little brother and that his marriage broke up, with unhappy consequences. Apparently Ignatieff is to be judged a sociopath for this behavior.

So Valpy sees his former peer, lauded as a great mind and author, now on the cusp of becoming leader of the Liberal Party and perhaps prime minister. Meanwhile, Valpy’s potential lies behind him. He’s in the twilight of his career in a fading industry. So he lashes out with a personal attack that offers little to the public debate about who should lead the Liberal Party.

And the Globe and Mail let him.

Ask Valpy why any of this matters today at 1 pm.

Ugly!

2006-08-24T09:49:00.000-04:00

It's been a ugly few days all 'round for the Liberal Party.

Toronto MP Borys Wrzesnewskyj's remarks criticizing Israel cast fresh light on the apparent divisions in the party on Mideast policy. Gerard Kennedy, who Wrzesnewskyj supports, was put on the defensive and forced to issue a statement confirming his opposition to Hezbollah.

Under pressure, Wrzesnewskyj resigned his post as associate foreign affairs critic. But damage has been done - witness the satirical websites that have already sprung up. Expect the Conservatives to exploit this "soft on terrorism" theme at every opportunity. And witness what this perception has done to the Democratic Party in the U.S.

Then there is the Anyone But Iggy movement, complete with its own website and poorly photoshopped images. The Party is scrambling to investigate whether party membership lists were improperly provided to send out anti-Iggy letters. The Igantieff forces are complaining that some candidate has violated an agreement that the lists would not be shared with a third party. So which campaign provided the info? Someone should get busted for this bit of sleaze.

The latest fundraising numbers are in and it appears Bob Rae has extended his financial supporters beyond his immediate family.

Kennedy's Hezbollah Problem

2006-08-23T12:04:00.000-04:00

The Liberal caucus meetings are underscoring divisions about the Party's Mideast policies.

The latest furor over the summer's hot-button issue of the Mideast war came after Toronto MP Borys Wrzesnewskyj, associate foreign affairs critic, said he doesn't understand why the government can't "communicate" with Hezbollah, even though it is on the list of terrorist organizations. On a trip to Lebanon organized by the National Council on Canada-Arab Relations, Wrzesnewskyj (Etobicoke-Centre) also accused Israel of "state terrorism."

Wrzesnewskyj is a supporter of Gerard Kennedy, who refused to criticize him for the remarks.

Meanwhile, the Conservatives compare Hezbollah to the Nazis.

Iggy's Carbon Tax

2006-08-21T12:23:00.000-04:00

Michael Ignatieff releases his environmental plan today in Vancouver. A key plank is what is effectively a carbon tax. Somewhere, Stephen Harper is smiling. OK, probably not smiling, let's not go that far, but he is surely happy. Iggy is also admitting Canada can't meet its Kyoto targets but is offering a new set of targets. Great message discipline. That should clear up that otherwise complex issue...

Iggy was also making friends in the Maritimes. He visited PEI where he donned an Anne of Green Gables wig and sampled the potatoes. Before leaving with a wooden lobster trap on the roof of his Lexus, he also told the Charlottetown Guardian that Upper Canada was through with handouts for the poor cousins on the East Coast. Can you feel the love?

Bearded Mulroney apologist/bag carrier Norman Spector takes a run at explaining why Dion can't win. Maybe these guys are getting scared of Stephane?

Can Dion Win?

2006-08-17T14:43:00.000-04:00

With Michael Ignatieff failing to gain momentum, and, according to some, actually losing it, is mercurial Quebecer Stephane Dion the one to watch?

While Rae scores some buzz points for the Maurizio endorsement, he has not fired up the party's grassroots. Instead, his support is confined to a group of senior citizen party elites, fondly remembering the Trudeau era over mint julips at their summer homes.

Of course, most Liberals don't use "summer" as a verb and it still seems unlikely that Rae can sufficintly demontrate his fealty to the party to assuage their concerns.

Dion, meanwhile, continues to gain credibility. Turns out that being smart, but not arrogant, may actually count for something. Toronto Star typist James Travers labours through his analysis of the Dion factor.

And of course, Dion's faustian deal with David Orchard may deliver key votes from the Saskatchewan tractor driving set. Or it may just be a laughable miscalculation. Or maybe it's just another useless Orchard deal. Time will tell.

Campaign Awakens from Slumber

2006-08-16T16:30:00.000-04:00

Maurizio Bevilacqua's decision to drop out and throw his modest support to Liberal arriveste Bob Rae seems to have awoken the campaigns from their nice summer nap.

So whither Ignatieff? The presumed front-runner has generated recent mindshare largely through a series of gaffes. Surely it's not possible he's losing ground to Rae?
Iggy to Brison: What cabinet post would you like?

Of course, with a large number of candidates meaning a larger number of ballots, anything can happen. That's how Joe Clark became PM...not an encouraging thought.

Bob Rae is a pure opportunist. So what does that make Maurizio?

We're Back! Maurizio's Out!

2006-08-15T12:06:00.000-04:00

Internet service at the LLC's summer family compound is spotty so we took a few weeks off. Not that much happened in the slow moving trainwreck that is the Liberal Leadership race. Yawn.

But wait, there is news. Maurizio Bevilacqua finally saw the handwriting on the wall and withdrew from the race, throwing his "support" to Sideshow Bob Rae. It is surely a tough move for Maurizio who was a loyal Martinite during the tough days, only to be rebuffed when Martin came to power.

So in a summer of no news, Maurizio's move may actually have an impact. And with no fundraising and no public interest in this disastrous campaign, who will be next to bow out somewhat gracefully? We're looking at you Mr. Volpe...

'I was born a Liberal, I just came out a few years ago,' says Brison...um, OK.

Sentaor Michael Kirby is stepping down a decade early. The industrious Senator's hard work on issues like healthcare almost makes up for the complete uselessness of his colleagues in the chamber of Sober Second Thought. We'll miss you Senator Kirby.

New Endorsements

2006-06-22T08:22:00.000-04:00

Nixon loves Rae! Former Ontario Liberal leader Bob Nixon, that is, not the guy pictured above.

Gerard Kennedy has the support of 24 Ontario Liberal MPPs.

Maurizio Bevilacqua finally gets some press.

Wake Up!

2006-06-21T08:31:00.000-04:00

Sorry we haven't posted for a few days, we fell asleep during the Moncton Liberal leadership debate and just woke up.

Sounds like Liberals across the country are in the same doldrums. The Star says Liberals are exhausted and frustrated.

"This isn't an unusual problem for the Liberals. They always tune out the grassroots until they are out of power and need them," said Ottawa consultant Jamie Deacey, who co-chaired Paul Martin's leadership campaign in 2002/03. "What makes it so egregious this time is the problem on the other side of the aisle — Stephen Harper."

Meanwhile, the Globe reports on the abysmal performance of Liberal MPs. They seem to be a dispirited, disinterested bunch who are letting Harper have his way in the Commons. Brutal.

Some of the Young Turks in caucus -- the enthusiastic, newly elected Liberals -- have muttered about interim leader Bill Graham's performance and his lack of passion during the daily Question Period.

Mr. Graham is well liked, but he is a lame duck, admitting in meetings that he cannot make decisions that could tie the hands of the future leader, a senior Liberal said.

The frustration also has MPs feuding among themselves. Recently, behind the curtains in the House of Commons, one Liberal MP accused a colleague of laziness.

Gee, maybe Tobin should have run for the leadership. We hear his next gig is examining municipal pet bylaws in Lethbridge.

Brison Going Back to Hali?

2006-06-16T13:27:00.000-04:00

Phone lines are buzzing between Ottawa and Nova Scotia today with word that federal Liberal leadership candidate Scott Brison may drop out of the race and enter the campaign to be the next Liberal leader in Nova Scotia.

Current Liberal leader Francis Mackenzie, who did not win his own seat in the recent vote, is not expected to make it to the party's first caucus meeting next week, despite, or perhaps because of, some bizarre trial balloons about a coalition government with the Opposition NDP.

Brison seems to enjoy leadership campaigns. The provincial leadership in Nova Scotia would be his third.

One question to Scott: R U Happy?

Liberals Suck - Sun

2006-06-15T11:41:00.000-04:00

Apparently, every single candidate in the Liberal leadership campaign sucks. That's the conclusion of a carefully researched, thoughtfully written editorial in the Edmonton Sun.

You know, the Sun. The newspaper for people who don't read. Oh, and Myron Thompson too. Yabba dabba do.

Read the piece for yourself. As always in the Sun, it won't take long and no words are more than two syllables, so, you know, your finger won't get tired.

Of course, with Iggy raising the specter of a new NEP through some ill-defined carbon tax, the Western antipathy could be expected. Way to shoot yourself in the foot Iggy.

Anyone But Iggy?

2006-06-14T09:01:00.000-04:00

The nascent Anyone-But-Iggy meme got a boost from John "Ibby" Ibbitison in the Globe. He says:

"Michael Ignatieff is the one to beat, and the way to beat him is by tarring him as an American conservative who would hijack the Liberal Party. The question is: Who, if anyone, could do that?"

Who indeed?

With no clear alternative available, the only hope for preventing an Ignatieff victory may be an anyone-but-Iggy contract, in which several candidates agree in advance to support whomever among their number does best in the early ballots at the convention. Such coalitions rarely succeed.

During Saturday's debate, not one candidate was prepared to celebrate and defend the legacies of Jean ChrÃ©tien and Paul Martin. The Liberal Party appears to be ashamed of its own past, or at least of the past five years. It's a dangerous thing for a political party to feel ashamed of itself.

Surprisingly well said. Candidates take note. We can't wear the hairshirt forever and there is much to be proud of.

The Bob Rae caucus support bandwagon continues to roll with the power of an out of control freight train. No fewer than three, yes three, MPs are supportingg the Liberal arriviste.

The Tories and the NDP push forward new campaign financing rules to muck up the Liberal leadership campaign. That's not playing nice.

Farewell to Nova Scotia.

Debatable Results

2006-06-12T08:24:00.000-04:00

The first Liberal leadership campaign debate, held Saturday in Winnipeg, failed to produce any knockout punches but it was clear to all who watched that other candidates view Michael Ignatieff as the frontrunner. They took several tough shots at the Professor including:

Liberals don't want [Stephen] Harper Lite - Bob Rae

and

made in Washington and Republican - Joe Volpe

"I'm flattered by all the attention," Mr. Ignatieff joked in an interview yesterday, although he seemed exasperated by some of the criticism. "They're entitled to any characterization of me that they want. I have a profoundly Liberal approach, and a profoundly Canadian one."

The increasing animosity suggests the battle is, finally, truly joined.

The not-at-all tiresome Chantal Hebert slammed Ignatieff's performance.

Having set the bar at a certain level, Ignatieff then spent the afternoon failing to reach it.

She also went after Ken Dryden, saying:

Ken Dryden's performance confirmed that he can articulate complex ideas, but only in English. Since John Crosbie in 1983, no serious candidate has bid for the leadership of a major national party on the basis of so little knowledge of the other official language. As opposed to Crosbie, Dryden also lacks a gift for repartee in either language.

Birds of a feather (i.e. failed socialist premiers) flock together. Former BC New Democratic Premier Ujjal Dosanjh, and current Liberal defence critic, is throwing his support behind Bob Rae. This doubles Rae's caucus support.

Iggy Ready to Rumble

2006-06-10T15:02:00.000-04:00

Presumed frontrunner in the Liberal leadership campaign Michael Ignatieff took some pointed shots at poor old Joe Volpe.

“I think any candidate for the leadership of this party has to safeguard not only his or her reputation but the reputation of the party,” Ignatieff said in a telephone interview from Winnipeg.

“And there is no way to avoid the fact that Mr. Volpe’s campaign difficulties have caused reputational damage to a party that I’m sure he loves as much as I do. Mr. Volpe must draw his own conclusions.”

Geez, Volpe is toast already. What's to be gained by this unseemly piling on? Or is Ignatieff trying to prove he has the stones to play in the big leagues?

Can the Liberal party re-invent itself? Should it?

Linda Diebel takes a thoughtful look at what is needed to turn the party around after the Martin "government" debacle.

Bob Rae Will Save the Poor

2006-06-07T11:48:00.000-04:00

Liberal arriviste Bob Rae unveiled his platform in Toronto yesterday.

His priorities include focusing on education, spearheading a research and innovation strategy, replacing or refurbishing roads, bridges, sewers and other infrastructure projects, and lowering income taxes for those who most need relief.

Innovative stuff to be sure...Yawn.

Acknowledging the heavy baggage he carries from his disastrous turn as premier of Ontario, Rae said: "I've had high points. I've had low points," he said. "I'm not afraid to say I've learned from experience. I'm not afraid to say that I'm smarter today than I was 20 years ago."

Rae also rebuffed suggestions his campaign is faltering.

"It's not a sprint. It's a marathon. It's a long race," he said.

The fallout from the Volpe fundraising mini-scandal continues. His campaign was rocked by the loss of Liberal MP and personal friend Sukh Dhaliwal.

Dhaliwal, a crucial link to the Indo-Canadian community that plays a major role in Liberal leadership campaigns, said his B.C. constituents don't support his continued involvement in Volpe's bid.

Over at Maclean's, home of last week's news next week, the Jazz man weighs in with his thoughts on Volpegate. Yawn.