I found the article that blogger refers to in the Toronto Star. Oh yes! This is Deja-Vu and it looks like Iggy is being pushed out the door and that he is pretty much alone in supporting the HST in Ontario and B.C.. Sound familiar? It should...it's exactly how the Liberals treated Stephane Dion. Dion had no support and then was kicked to the curb.
It's about time Iggy left. He pulled this shit with Dion; this would be Karma. Besides that and more importantly, he will never improve his numbers for the Liberals. He was never a suitable leader and certainly, not quite PM material.
Stevie and Harpercon scandals, like checquegate/logogate and torturegate: Unpopular measures like the HST and their blatant lack of interest in the environment as well as failures like the unrolling of the H1N1 vaccine should not only have sent their numbers plummeting, but should have raised the Liberals' numbers. While the NDP made some gains, they certainly weren't significant enough to lower Harpercon numbers to well below majority territory.
Had the Liberals had a stronger, more suitable leader Harpercon numbers would most definitely have plummeted and the N.D.P. numbers would have remained more or less the same.
Angelo Persichilli, the author of the above mentioned Toronto Star article even predicts that we will be hearing about Iggy resigning before the year is out. Already, Iggy has been incognito as of late. However, it seems that yet again, the Liberals are going to select another former runner up of 2006, simply because he's there. Although, to hear some party members tell it, they seem to honestly believe Rae is the only one they can trust in that party. Oh boy, this is not going to turn out well for them; in fact, it would be suicide. No, they should take the time to find someone suitable; someone who can beat actually beat Stevie but actually get a majority; with or without the popularity of the Bloc Quebecois.
If Bob Rae were to lead, he wouldn't be able to win Quebec or Ontario outside of Toronto; two provinces that actually make governments. Steve has proven to be quite effective with the art of attack ads against Dion and Iggy. The ad against Rae would be something along the lines of "Don't let him do to Canada what he did to Ontario" and other ads to remind Canadians of Rae's baggage.
This would most certainly let Stevie loose with a majority.
I saw that Persichilli also hints at other potential leaders like David McGinty and Justin Trudeau. If Rae, McGinty and Trudeau would be our only choices to lead the party and potentially become prime minister, I would pick Trudeau, simply because he would be lesser of the evils; the only one who could potentially send Stevie packing.
I had reservations about Justin Trudeau leading the Liberals and I still do, but I have to hand it to him: he did something most of us in Quebec never believed he would be able to do: unseat Vivienne Barbeau, the popular Bloc MP in Papineau riding, a riding made up of folks who either haven't a clue as to who his father was or those who still hate his father. My reservation is that he still hasn't passed enough tests and he still needs more political experience, but who knows? Maybe if the Liberals can unite and stand behind him, it might work. Unless he really screws up big time; worse than Iggy even, Trudeau would already be a step up.
Also, if we were to follow Liberal tradition, they should pick someone who is French speaking from Quebec. Excluding Dion, this has proven to be a formula that worked for the Liberals in the past, like Louis St-Laurent, PE Trudeau and Jean Chretien. Hell, it even worked for stint under the former Progressive Conservatives with Brian Mulroney. Say what you will about him and yes, he was not a great PM but he was the most successful Tory PM for Quebec. Even Liberal PM, LB Pearson could only garner minority governments.
I had read in the past various musings about Martin Cauchon potentially taking over. Someone with more experience than Justin Trudeau. He was justice minister and was instrumental in putting forward legislation legalizing same-sex marriage; something that should appeal to progressives. However, I can see two potential roadblocks: that Denis Coderre temper tantrum awhile back and he doesn't hold a seat yet and wouldn't be able to do so until the next general election.
Forget Denis Coderre, his temper tantrum proved he didn't put the interests of his party first.
I don't think the Liberals should shop for any outsiders at this time: no time for political experiments here.
I only hope they do the right thing and there is competition to go up against Rae.
Liberals, choose wisely this time: you can't afford another dud for a leader. Do this before Stevie and the Harpercons turn us into Bush era America.
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6 comments:
The way you talked about J. Trudeau was exactly what they said needed to happen with Ignatieff. The Liberals need to stop squabbling over leaders and actually focus on connecting with Canadians or else they'll be doomed. It's really time to abandon that ship and put efforts behind a party that's actually putting forward progressive policies.
But Ian, that could backfire. The NDP never did govern and that was with a good leader and a more progressive generation preceding even myself. The NDP has a far less chance of governing.
Iggy going away will be a great idea: he's a lost cause and I think that's even what Peter Donolo has in mind, quite honestly.
The NDP's numbers going up are at the expense of the Liberals and not so much with the Harpercons. This could very well mean the frightening: Stevie and the Harpercons come up through the middle with a majority.
I think no matter who the next leader would be, an NDP and Liberal merger could be something to think about.
Last year's proposed coalition got a lot of Canadian's knickers in a bunch, in spite of the fact it got us much needed stimulus money Steve was going to mostly earmark for the war in Afghanistan. Had it not been for that proposed coalition, there would have been no stimulus dollars.
A merge would avoid that mess with the coalition, which may have been inevitable in the future then next time Steve tries to hang a hard right
There have been responses/refutations to AP's opinion piece from Glen Pearson, Rae, & Carolyn Bennett. Angelo hates Ignatieff & the Libs & his columns have been outting the Libs & Iggy down for months. Take what he has written with a grain of salt. I wouldn't buy into it. There is always some "grumbling" within Opposition Party's & you can be sure there is also some in the Con Party as well - only they are so afraid of Harper it's spoken of in secret. I'm not happy, either, with how Iggy ascended to Leader position but now is not the time for a Leader change. If that happened you can be damn sure Harper would engineer an election as the Libs would certainly not be ready for one. And I think you can figure out what would be the result of that - our worst nightmare come true.
The word "outting" was a typo & should have been "putting".
Yikes, HST facts: curious as to who you are. I clicked your name and not very much about you. Are you from big business lobbying for this?
Or, are you one of Stevie's disciples?
Penlan: unfortunately, this falls under the heading of damned if they do; damned if they don't:
Now is probably the best time for a leader change, and quite frankly, I believe this is Donolo's plan.
Assume Iggy were to stay; there is nothing to stop Stevie from engineering an election due to Iggy's low oh so low numbers.
The way I see it is that a change in leader sooner can't really bode much worse than if Iggy stays.
As I pointed out; all the misdeeds and scandals of Stevie and Harpercons should have sent Steve's numbers plummeting; they held steady.
NDP moved up somewhat but not even enough to achieve minority status. Their numbers are up at the expense of the Liberals and not the Harpercons.
There is nothing to suggest that Iggy's numbers will improve anytime soon or in the future.
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