The Hypocrisy of Mario Dumont

Vincent Marissal had a great blog entry yesterday describing Mario Dumont's 180 on municipal mergers and his political opportunism in general - disgraceful is a word he uses. He echoed my own sentiments on Dumont's support for the mergers and his recruitment of Mr. One Island One City Pierre Bourque in 2003.

The thing that I really don't understand is what is going on with Maria Tutino, Mayor of the Town of Baie d'Urfe. Maria was the most vocal opponent of the municipal mergers that I have the pleasure of knowing. Her Blue Ribbon campaign spread throughout Montreal, and with some help, to suburbs of Quebec City. For the past two months, she has been encouraging West Islanders to vote for the ADQ, appearing at a press conference with Mario Dumont back in January. I learned today that Mayor Tutino and her city councillors distributed a letter to residents of Baie d'Urfe, encouraging them to vote for the ADQ. Now either Maria is unaware of Mario Dumont's linkages with the hated mergerites (Bourque in particular) or she is so deadset on punishing Charest's Liberals that she doesn't care. Either way, the fact that anyone as opposed to municipal mergers as the formerly non-political Maria Tutino is supporting the ADQ is simply appalling. Especially given the demographics in her town. Put simply, the ADQ treats the Anglo community with disdain. A Mayor who would sell out her constituents like this really needs to re-think this whole thing - or at least do her homework. Can she really be ignorant of the ADQ's past?

Quebec Advance Polls

Vote early. Vote often. And vote LIBERAL

Ordre du Jour: Intolerance

By now everybody and their dog has blogged about Boisclair's remarks. He has refused to apologise, blamed a linguistic gap and is now being backed up by Dumont and Charest. Ok, so maybe it is part of his regular vocabulary, but does that make it right? Regardless of meaningless attempts to gloss it over by Boisclair's rivals and further exacerbation of the situation by the PQ's communications director, Shirley Bishop, it should not be a matter of 'if' he should clarify/ retract/ apologise, but 'when'.

To add to an already abysmal week, Boisclair now says that even a minority PQ government would hold a referendum. Desperate, desperate, desperate.

The Intolerance Party of Quebec (aka ADQ) is now attempting to pander to the Anglo community. After stating that school boards should be scrapped - a move that would irreparably harm English-speaking Quebecers - he now informs us that English schools are safe. Maybe I'm a bit of a cynic, but as an Anglo nothing about Mario Dumont and his vision for Quebec makes me feel safe. His desperation to shore up West Island Anglo votes is further evidenced by his claim that he would scrap the glom councils. What I'm sure many of my West Island neighbours would really like to know is how he felt about the mergers in the first place. I encourage my fellow square-heads not to fall for this line of pure, unadulterated bullshit.

The Federal Intolerance Party of Canada has ejected media from its campaign bootcamp in Toronto. In light of their tax-payer-funded espionage on Stephane Dion, I find this particularly rich.

Friday: Partisan Bits and Bites

It has been a thrilling week in Liberaland. It started early Sunday morning at the U of M with policy platform outreach with the candidate for Willowdale. Martha engaged Montreal-area Liberals in French and English. Naturally, among Quebecers the environment was a huge topic, but I will not say more given the number of Conservatives who frequent this blog -we all know how they like to steal our ideas and especially my wise counsel on their neck props.

In the afternoon, Martha engaged Eastern Townships Liberals at Bishops University in the Compton-Stanstead riding. She was equally well-received there and made a very good statement on the importance of electing more women. Lots of great ideas came out of these two sessions and I encourage anyone who cannot attend a session with Martha to send your ideas to outreach @ liberal.ca

Meanwhile in the same riding on the same day, Compton-Stanstead Conservatives turfed party heavy-weights Brian Mitchell and Dany Renaud aside in favour of low-profile nomination candidate, Maurice Gagné.

In other Conservative entertainment, I would encourage everyone to visit the website of Senator Michael Fortier. Not too sure about the rest of you, but I find the fact that this unelected senatorminister cash-dispenser has opened two so-called constituency offices and now claims to be acting as the MP is quite bizarre. Now, I know democracy is not the CPC forté, but I am quite sure that Vaudreuil-Soulanges has an MP. Her name is Meili Faille, by all accounts she is a good MP and she was duly elected. Does the arrogance ever end, I wonder. If you peruse the photo gallery, you will notice that he also has interesting taste in ties - especially for someone who has not been elected.

Dryden in Darfur

The MP from York Centre has spent part of the parliametary break in Sudan. The Star reports on it:

For the past week, he has been travelling hard to dangerous places. But he exhibits the enduring stamina of the star goaltender who helped lead the Montreal Canadiens to six Stanley Cups.
"Sudan is an important part of the world and its Darfur region has a big, big problem," he says after returning from Darfur.

"Like the majority of Canadians I would like to do what I can," he says, when asked why he is here – alone, visiting for the first time – exposing himself to what the United Nations calls "the world's worst humanitarian crisis" and the U.S. government brands "genocide."
"And like the majority of Canadians, including those in positions of governmental responsibility, I don't quite know what the best way is. But I would like to try to find it."

More here

English Verboten?

It's an hour into the Quebec Leaders' debate and not one word of English has been spoken. M. Jean (ne John) Charest boasted of an improved education system, with a focus on a high level of French and the ability of students to communicate in English. I know he can, so why hasn't he?

Similarly, Mario Dumont was educated at Concordia, understands and speaks English, is courting the disgruntled West Island vote, but has yet to prove he has any respect for Anglo Quebecers.

M. Boisclair, decidedly unable to attract many Anglo votes, of course, has not uttered an English phrase, notwithstanding the media. On the other hand, he was framed by Dumont as promoting a federal Liberal vision and - despite his assertion that there will be a referendum under a PQ mandate - has the most federal Liberal - friendly POV of the bunch. Strange bedfellows, indeed.

Bad or good news?

CanWest is reporting that 12 Liberal MPs won't seek re-election. This is bad news in that we will be losing a lot of cumulative parliamentary experience and this fuels speculation about a lack of confidence in the Liberal's electoral fortunes.

On the other hand, this frees up a number of ridings for M. Dion to make good on his promise of one-third women candidates in the next election. Given that incumbents are 'protected' from nominations, we believed that PEI would not have the benefit of a female Liberal candidate. With Liberal MP Joe McGuire retiring, it looks as if this will open up a spot for a female candidate on the Island.

Given that all 12 ridings - including Outremont - are obviously 'winnable' what an ideal opportunity for women. I want to take this opportunity to encourage all Liberals to promote women's candidacies in the bulk of these freed-up safe/ winnable ridings. I have met the majority of would-be Liberal candidates in Ontario and Quebec and they are certainly a meritorious group. I don't think any Liberal would have any problem with any of these candidates being appointed in order to maximise election readiness - unless, of course, they have ulterior/ self-interested motives.

Friday's Partisan Bits and Bites

In honour of International Women's Day, I'd like to draw your attention to this bit by Janet Bagnall in today's Gazette which features an interview with our fun, tireless and indefatigable Me. Linda Julien. I especially appreciate the bit about nominations vs. appointments. Well done, Linda!

A sweet, if belated, bite is that Jean Charest finally sees things my way: Too right: ADQ = no friend of the Anglo Quebecer.

And thinking about the fun M. Dion, Compton-Stanstead Liberals and I had at the Cabane in Bulwer on Sunday last .... This coming Sunday we will finally learn just who the candidate is for Boss Harp's (or is it Peter MacKay's?) CPC in Compton-Stanstead.

A bit of circumspection is in order

First, I want to wish all Liberals, women and other interested parties a very Happy International Women's Day. The Quebec Women's Liberal Commission celebrated Friday evening at the Queen E - what a great event with the gang all there. Even a massive snow dump didn't keep people away. Congrats to my talented colleagues who organised the evening, as well as the wonderful musicians who entertained us.

Now on to some more serious business. As susan.com points out in her two posts today, some serious blabbering is going on and it's not helpful. And it's not just a matter of reports 'accidentally' going astray and fellow Grits criticising the Leader. Blabbering bloggers are a big part of the problem. There are the bloggers who - while supposedly being Liberal - gleefully point out every negative media piece on Stephane Dion with a kind of 'I told you so attitude'. There are bloggers who feel the need to describe exactly where they believe the Leader is going wrong and providing public tips. For frig's sake, if you're all as 'well-connected' as some of you like to allude, you'd know where to direct your input, rather than posting on a public blog and being all self-congratulatory about the supposed response. There is a certain blogger who likes to report on his blog about tidbits he's gotten from his friends on the Electoral Commission. If they can't keep their yaps shut, perhaps they are too immature to participate. Then there's a rather prominent blogger musing openly about what he perceives as our relative powerlessness to set any agendas. Should he really be chairing a session on election readiness at the LPCM AGM?

Watch and learn, kids.

Watch and learn.

In the middle of a brutal Quebec cold snap (ducking at friends in the Peg!), I found this page was helpful in beating the winter blues. I find video clip #15 especially masterful.

Facts? Who needs FACTS?

Certainly not Canada's New Government. And especially not the PM.

Yesterday during QP, Boss Harp levelled charges - in both official languages - against two Montreal Liberal MPs. He stated that Lucienne Robillard (Westmount-Ville-Marie) and Marlene Jennings (Notre-Dame-de-Grace-Lachine) were guilty of patronage because former and current spouses had been appointed to the Immigration and Refugee Board. Indeed, he even charged that Me. Jennings had made the appointment herself. At the time it sounded completely outrageous. And it should have because the allegations are simply false. As Susan Delacourt reveals in the The Star today, Mme. Robillard's husband was appointed by former PC PM Brian Mulroney and Me. Jennings's spouse was appointed before she was ever elected.

I guess Harp believes that mixing up timelines will take the public's attention away from the spate of resignations at the IRB. Meanwhile the smear campaign against Liberal MPs continues....

UPDATE: Ralph Goodale is asking for a retraction. Van Loan, of course, refuses.