Iggy Campaign to Senate and Grassroots: Your Voices Don't Count

The Ignatieff braintrust has been lobbying hard today for a caucus vote to select a new leader. Last I checked, the full Liberal caucus includes Senators, however Team Iggy doesn't think our esteemed caucus members from the Upper Chamber deserve a say. They're in good company, however, because Team Iggy doesn't think individual Liberal Party of Canada members should have a say either. A lot of people are horrified by this but it makes a certain amount of sense given the hunger for power Iggy and his team have not even taken pains to conceal over the past two years. Seems only 10 of 58 Senators back Iggy with the overwhelmingly majority backing Bob Rae. And 50 of 77 MPs support Iggy according to his campaign. You do the math.

As for the grassroots.... Well. Given that it is these hardworking Liberals who fight elections, donate money, and all that non-elitist stuff, one might imagine that they were clearly baffled by Iggy's tepid reaction to any coalition. Why wouldn't we seize any opportunity to get back into power - even with Dion as temporary leader? they are no doubt wondering. Good question, that.

So, if Iggy has his way he will be selected by less than 1% of the party base, with only 2 Liberals between Toronto and Vancouver having the franchise. Brilliant.

'Crass Political Opportunism' Et tu, Guy Giorno?

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081129.WBwblogolitics20081129113605/WBStory/WBwblogolitics/

Bob Rae for Prime Minister

This time around, I've decided to support Bob Rae as leader of our great Liberal Party for several reasons:

1. Bob is a principled man with a strong grasp of all major policy issues.

2. Bob has a great deal of integrity as he's demonstrated in his long career in Canadian public life.

3. Bob is a natural born politician with a great sense of humour, fantastic people skills - he does well in any crowd in both official languages. And he kicks @ss in the House.

4. Bob is the only candidate who can unite both the party and bring in people from other parties.

This is going to be a great race and Rae is the man for the Liberals and all Canadians.

A Blog Worth Checking Out

Steve at Far and Wide has compiled a list of Liberals who would like to see Stéphane Dion remain as leader of the Liberal Party. The various blog posts he links to are very interesting and telling, but I highly recommend the comments section, which is now up to 70+ comments and features some thought provoking discussion. I also want to encourage all Liberals who are disgusted with what has gone on this week vis-à-vis so-called insiders calling for our Leader's head (and shopping for support for other would-be candidates) to write to the Party to express themselves. If anyone should be gotten rid of without further delay, it's these people. And it's no secret who they are. While I actively supported another candidate for the leadership, I - along with my candidate - got behind our Leader from Day One. I only wish the saboteurs who would rather let Harper destroy the country while they orchestrate another leadership race had done the same. Rest assured that I will be writing my own letter to my friends at LPC and to our Leader.

PS: While I'm at it, I also want to encourage Liberals to stop watching politics shows on CTV. No longer will it be a toss up between Duffy and Newman in the PM and my Sunday QP ritual is no more.

Stéphane Dion is a leader....

.... and he is our Leader.

Oh yeah!

I've missed this wonderful sight over the past several years at LPC and LPC(Q) events, notwithstanding his show-stealing performance at Leadership 2006. But I didn't miss it last night. Rock on, Majority Man!

Gazette: Taxpayers shouldn't pay for Tories' boasting.

The Montreal Gazette is on to the Conservatives. As has been noted on this blog quite recently, Harper's Conservative government is acting inappropriately with its tactic of turning government announcements into highly partisan events.

Today, the Gazette published an editorial suggesting that the Conservatives should reimburse taxpayers for their blatantly partisan and self-congratulatory announcement on the GST.

A small, but telling, excerpt:

'But this ad certainly blurs the distinction between the government and the political party in power. For starters, the "less than two years," as it happens, coincides precisely with the tenure of the Conservative government.

And with a minority government in office, and another election widely expected within the next few months, and almost certainly sometime this year, this kind of chest-thumping proclamation of virtue seems to us to be particularly odious.'

The full text of the editorial can be found here.