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Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Dion’s fate sealed: Phase one of Iggy/Rae takeover complete
(Cross-Posted to Flaggman's Canada)
(Pic h/t National Newswatch)
Before today's decision to prop up the Conservative minority government, there seemed to be two schools of thought in pundit land on what the Liberals should do: a) avoid defeating the government to "fight another day" until the party's fortunes under Stephane Dion improve; and b) trigger an election, and use the expectedly-poor results to justify the removal of Dion as leader.
Neither scenario made much sense. The Liberal Party, in every region of the country save for Toronto proper, is literally imploding under Dion. More time means more destruction. And to trigger an election knowing the results will be a dramatic loss of seats would be, for a party already strapped for cash, absolute suicide. No, the backroom boys in the Liberal Party had neither of these scenarios in mind. They have a third, which seems to have been put in motion in the wake of the Outremont debacle, that will see both an election avoided, and Dion gone.
Here's what I believe is happening: the back-room masters have decided to allow Dion to make himself look so bad - through his crumbling inner circle, his lack of caucus support, and his bizarre justifications for letting the Throne speech pass - that the party will have no choice but to call a quick leadership review, dump him, and hold a Bob Rae-Michael Ignatieff battle to move on to a new era with a spring 2008 election under the new leader.
Just look at Iggy's sly mug. He's been looking like this for days, as he's bounced from camera to camera, telling anyone who will listen that "Canadians don't want an election" (the familiar call of a party that knows it's going to get its ass kicked). And hey, what do you know - Bob Rae (whose brother, John, happens to have been recently reinstalled as the key man in the Liberal Party's back-room) has been bouncing around from camera to camera saying the same thing!
I don't think they're in collusion - but I do think they understand well the dynamic that needs to play out for their party to have any life whatsoever in the next several years, and for themselves to have a viable party to lead. They each want to take over the ship, and they each realize that they need to do so with a reasonably-sized caucus. So, they each needed to make sure Dion did what they wanted - avoid an election that could reduce them to Tories-circa-1993 levels.
So it goes - phase one, the survival of the current caucus, is complete. Phase two - the removal of Dion - starts tomorrow. BEFORE he has a chance to vote the government down on the crime bill next week.
Posted by Neil Flagg on October 17, 2007 | Permalink
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Comments
Harper might do well not to dilly dally before getting the election started with Dion still at the helm. Canadians are just stupid enough to vote in Iggy or Ray in the belief that the Trudeau days can come back.
Can there be a leadership review if Dion doesn't want one. Surely he has enough ego and stupidity left in him to want to run for the PM office at least once.
Or maybe he has enough vindictiveness in him to set up a scorched earth scenario for his muggers Ray and Iggy.
Posted by: John | 2007-10-17 11:09:03 PM
Anyone who would be looking for the return of the Trudeau days knows little about what he did to the country with his freaking Charter. We're struggling with much of his handiwork and will continue to unless we make constitutional changes.
The Liberals are less interested in policy than winning power. They'll put up some smiling jackass spewing platitudes, promising the moon and all things to all people just to get power. Charisma over substance, that's the Liberal way.
The folks in Ontario may not be so keen on Rae either, those who recall Buffalo Bob and Rae days.
Puffin Iggy may have lost his enthusiasm. At this point his sights are turned on Dion, he'll then have to deal with the Power Corp gang. In the end he may toddle back to Boston.
Posted by: LizJ | 2007-10-18 5:32:47 AM
Anybody got a copy of Linda Drivel's Book "Dion"
ranks up there with "What Men Know About Women"
which comprises 500 blank pages. Harper made mincemeat out of the Red Machine this week. Dion is
looking for a position at the University of Moncton NB teaching "political tactics" or "what I did on my
summer vacation" Macleod -laughing in Moncton or
should I say, Monckton New Brunswick
Posted by: Jack Macleod | 2007-10-18 6:07:46 AM
Interesting you use the "Iggy-Rae" tag team inference...when the leadership coup is over, they will run as a team...they are old school mates, kindred spirits where statist socialism is concerned and they are both tight in the Powercorp king maker structure.
Powercorp scores a double whammy with its 2 native sons running as PM and deputy PM..or leader and deputy leader.
I like to see this develop...it means the Librano organization still has its fate tied to the fortunes of insider corporate patrons...it means they still have these patrons agendas to sell over that of the will of the people...it still means they think they can "fool" voters...that they don't need substantial vision and platforms that address Canadian concerns.
It essentially means these corporate fascists are still facile amoral patronage brokers and devoid of the ethics, vision and statesmanship that voters are now demanding after being screwed over by 3 decades of tweedle dum and tweedle dee partisanism delivering debt, tax and broken social contracts.
Posted by: bill | 2007-10-18 7:27:32 AM
It's so pathetic to see them vying for the leadership of the nothingness that's left of the Liberal party, they have no clue what's ahead of them. They have to first unite the factions from the back rooms to the front benches and that means they'll be happy to sit in opposition for the foreseeable future.
By the look of the lot of them, they're clueless and scrambling for one tough assignment, eager to fill the shoes of the first of the sacrificial goats of the Liberal party, the party of great divides.
Posted by: LizJ | 2007-10-18 9:24:19 AM
Venerable Liberal Party of Canada is not designed nor would accept dual Leadership -the Party was specifically created for the sole purpose of winning elections. The once Mighty Red machine will select
Ignatieff, not Rae -The Harvard Professor with his political connections in Academic circles in Nova Scotia and Ontario was specifically brought back to Canada to lead -not play second best to a fool like Dion or perennial looser Rae. If Trudeau returned and was asked to select a new Liberal Leader he would pick Stephen Harper, the only politician in Canada who could match Trudeau's
intellect. Liberals are desperately searching for another PET, but allowed their Party to be high jacked by Perverts and Ragheads -but they still pose a significant problem for PM Stephen Harper and his new Conservative Government, especially when one considers the average voter in GTA Ontario and traditional Liberal bastions like London ON,and Windsor ON - all Liberal Federal seats in NB are vulnerable - Macleod
Posted by: Jack Macleod | 2007-10-18 9:47:22 AM
Confirmation in this morning's Toronto Star: Dion wanted to go to election, but Rae & Iggy convinced him not to:
http://www.thestar.com/News/article/268106
Posted by: Neil Flagg | 2007-10-18 10:43:08 AM
"the Party was specifically created for the sole purpose of winning elections"
Then they should not have adopted the whacky proportional ballot that yeilded a lame duck like Dion on a first ballot of 17%
Incidentally the same ballot system that gave OLP that dud McSlimy instead of the popular choice.
Posted by: bill | 2007-10-18 11:05:16 AM
Slovenly Liberals allowed their Party to be hijacked
the fact is they are gradually destroying themselves
-despite big city media and their bought and paid for "Journalists" the Canadian public ain't as stupid as Liberal spin doctors think. Liberal political support for the first time in my lifetime
is fragmented, Perverts and Liberal political conservatives plus a horde of unsolicited immigrants
particularly among Muslims have formed an alliance which Canadians will simply not accept. Give that rascal McGuinty a few months and the already festering Liberal decline will accelerate. There are too many un elected Liberal hacks like Donolo
Kinsella, Brennan, Duffy and Travers deciding on Liberal political strategy -guy whose idea becomes popular for more than a week gets a chance to spend a week with Taber visting theToronto Zoo and Ontario Place - Macleod
Posted by: Jack Macleod | 2007-10-18 12:19:30 PM
Much has been said about Ignatieff looking smug in this shot. I've talked to Ignatieff and can tell you that he is smug and arrogant by nature. This photo is not some kind of telling sign of his intentions although the analysis is most likely true.
On a side note, Ignatieff's stated solutions to solving Toronto's Jamaican gang violence problem is to tell gang members that "guns are not cool." That's a quote.
Posted by: Cynic | 2007-10-18 8:49:03 PM
Lord... please make Stephanie stay. i promise i'll eat all my vegetables.
Posted by: shel | 2007-10-18 8:57:07 PM
According to Duffy yesterday things are looking up for the Libranos in Quebec. Stephi has seen the light and has GIVEN a safe seat to Astronaut Garneau and a new Liberal was born thanks to Justin and Sophi Trudeau. Maybe by the time the child grows up the Liberals will be ready to govern.
Posted by: LizJ | 2007-10-19 5:52:51 AM
shel ~
"Lord... please make Stephanie stay. i promise i'll eat all my vegetables."
You are a gem! And may all your prayers be answered.
Posted by: obc | 2007-10-19 7:06:50 AM
obc,
It does not really matter whether it is Iggy or Steffi. They both are a smorgasborg of delight as far as we are concerned. Should Iggy take the seat--we will have one more duffus to toss tomatoes at--and he will open the door with the inability of the Liberal platform to give honest answers in our nation, where the people are going through an identity crisis.
Plus, the fact that the entire party lacked the leadership to select a leader, is evident that they just do not have it as a whole--let alone in part.
Remember the formula: a + b = b + a
"a" stands for Dion--cause he's a shallow mouthed pawn-- I mean yawn.
and "b" stands for Iggy--cause he's a yawn of a pawn.
Neither have what it takes.
And, the fact that they will have to go through their leadership at this point, is a demonstration of their instability--at the grass roots and at the top. The old group--that of Trudeau and his people, are gone. The last of the Jokerhekans left--and left a big mess--and there is no one but a bunch of sheep, left to try and make their way up a slippery slope, to where they cannot go, with the platform they have.
Fact remains, the last leadership stole the conservative platform, and ran with it. No doubt--people see that it worked. Now that there is no one there who understands this, people are saying they are going to vote for the conservatives--because they like the new strong economy. And they attribute the poolicy to being conservative--borrowed from the conservatives--and that now the libs are trying to define themselves away from the conservatives--to what the people really do not want.
So, the Liberals are going to go down the tubes--even farther than before--ever before for that matter.
What we need to worry about and be concerned about, is not attracting too many Liberals--because that would dilute our platform. We need just the right mix--and a majority in the next election. Right now, it would be a slam-dunk for us. The longer they keep going around with those heavy fully loaded nappies, the easier it will be in the next election.
Meanwhile, our Prime Minister Stephen Harper, is continueing to prove, over and over again, that he is excellent--most outstanding leader. He is not what the fear-mongerors said he was. he is much much more than even I expected. When I see him going around doing what he does, I feel relaxed and better able to concentrate on what I do in life. So, I pray that the almighty continues to bless him, his loved ones, his causus, so that we all may continue to benefit.
Take care obc and keep up the great work.
Posted by: Lady | 2007-10-19 11:29:56 AM
Lady: you're right, it doesn't matter whether it's Iggy or Steffi. But it does matter if it's Bob Rae. He's a real pro, with no principles, and an engaging personality. He's the only one the Harperites fear.
Posted by: flaggman | 2007-10-19 11:49:52 AM
flaggyman,
You may be right about the "pro" and the "no principles".
There is insufficient time for any political diffusion to the contrary.
Odds are, if a leadership race ensued, the damage they would do to their party--through the leadership race (man are we ever going to have a party at their expense), would last at least two--maybe three years.
By the time they had a leader who was a "pro"--they would have insuffient time to do a convention to modify their platform, and diffuse that, and an election would be on us all.
The mutterring and stuttering that began with Martin, is doomed to continue to take effect for at least five years--perhaps even more. And that is because it will take them that much time to remove the scum they have, that is controlling the switches at every single level--if that is even posible. And this I base on the analysis of the current situation. Liberals are uncomfortable in their own shoes. They lack a means of articulating what a Liberal position would be at this point in time, due to the current crisis in the Canadian indentity. And, until that is resolved, there is no way in which, "pro" or no "pro", a Liberal political position can be more than an opportunity for us conservatives to watch them put their liberal be all to all feet into their mouths. They literally lack the intestinal fortitude to digest the issues of today--which is why we are totally blessed with PMSH--because he can and does.
Posted by: Lady | 2007-10-19 12:30:43 PM
BTW, flaggyman--keep waving that flag--you are on the mark!
Posted by: Lady | 2007-10-19 12:34:01 PM
This man went through hell, but there was no charge because health care in Canada is FREE!!!
"Hospital had to send man to Montreal for surgery"
Ambulance got 'lost' on the way after no doctors found here
When Dany Bureau's stomach started to hurt last week, he figured it was just because of something he ate.
So the 21-year-old Gatineau student went to bed, thinking he'd feel better by the morning. But when he woke up the next day, the pain was still there, and it was getting worse.
He headed to Gatineau Memorial Hospital, thinking that doctors would soon figure out what was ailing him and take care of it. It was 28 hours before surgery was performed in Montreal. Dany's appendix had burst, a complication that required a longer hospital stay.View Larger Image View Larger Image
Dany Bureau, 21, and his father, Robert, from Gatineau, can't believe the ordeal they went through to get Dany's appendicitis taken care of. It was 28 hours before surgery was performed in Montreal. Dany's appendix had burst, a complication that required a longer hospital stay.
He never imagined the ordeal that would follow: The young man was turned away from five hospitals, got lost in an ambulance and, 28 hours after he was diagnosed, he had a burst appendix removed -- in Montreal.
Because Wakefield's Gatineau Memorial Hospital does not have surgical capacity, the doctor who diagnosed him with appendicitis last Friday started looking around for one that did. Usually, patients from Wakefield are sent to Hull or Gatineau, but on that night, there were no available beds at either.
Posted by: obc | 2007-10-19 2:30:18 PM
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