Defending Liberal leadership candidate Michael
Ignatieff is not on the top of my priority list, but, the recent
deliberations of the federal Liberal Party of Canada against his appeal
in the matter of the British Columbia super weekend boondoggle is, at
the best, entertaining.
Basically, if you remove the legalese and the
political posturing, what¹s left in the party¹s decision is this: the
Liberal Party of Canada, does not have the resources to certify the
legality of the procedures of its convoluted voting system, hence, Mr.
Ignatieff, shut up and Š just shut up.
Twisting and loosely interpreting an already vague
statute, the party not only discounted the request from the Ignatieff
camp, but it also discounted the evidence of wrongdoing that came
directly from Bob Rae¹s camp. In fact, the chair of Rae¹s campaign in
British Columbia, because of the allegations, resigned.
The committee didn't like the "inflammatory tone" of
Ignatieff's application, which alleged "systematic fraud," forgery, and
misconduct by Rae's team in British Columbia (and maybe elsewhere). They
say that the "numerous allegations of fraud....[Get ready for
this]...even if proven, would have been entirely irrelevant.² The three
guardians of the party's reputation were concerned that the actions of
the Ignatieff campaign had caused damage to the reputation to "a number
of individuals, campaigns and the party.² Was this a shy way to chastise
Iggy¹s campaign, and the Liberal Party, for what they did to Joe Volpe
in Quebec?
Suddenly, the Liberal Party¹s Appeals Committee is
concerned about the party's image and raps the knuckles of those who
state the obvious as well as what¹s already in the public domain in
order to level the playing field.
If anything, this leadership race has confirmed
reasons why the public has lost confidence in Liberals: it¹s because
they have no (moral) compass and are fratricidal.
Iggy and Bobbie are new to the party so they don't
know any better and still want to lead this wreak. Volpe should know
better. Rather than ask him why he's still in the race, I wonder why he
still wants to be a member of this party.
The entertaining ruling, however, gives a clear idea
of the chaos the Liberal Party is in at this time. In fact, it¹s not
even a party, it¹s groups of individuals sponsored by the Liberal logo.
Start with the leadership race that was supposed to
be the prelude to a policy convention.
During the first debates there were so many
candidates on hand and so few people to listen that they almost had to
put the crowd on the stage and the candidates in the audience.
When they were able to reduce the number of
candidates to a bus load and when they were ready to debate programs and
ideas, the only issue they were focusing was the recruiting of new
members, dead or alive, and unloaded tons of mud on each other,
targeting one of their own: Joe Volpe.
Now that the party has confirmed that it cannot
guarantee the legality of the election of each delegate for the Montreal
convention and left it in the hands of the candidates to fill the
blanks, turn to the issues.
Take Afghanistan, for example. After the Liberal
government sent the Canadian Forces there, the question now is: do you
want them back? The Liberal answer: we want the debate. But they haven¹t
debated it yet in the leadership race.
Take the crisis in Lebanon, for example. The only
Liberal leadership debate we witnessed concerned the statement from the
Prime Minister Stephen Harper about his ³measured² reaction from Israel
against the Hezbollah. ³No² most of the candidates yelled at Harper,
³it¹s not measured.² Okay, the question is what kind of reaction would
have been ³measured?² No answer from the front-runners. The only one who
had the guts to give an answer was Ignatieff. The problem is that he was
so gutsy that he gave too many answers, trying to keep everybody happy.
Then there¹s the environment. The Liberals confirmed
their support for the Kyoto Protocol. The problem is they did not tell
us how to implement it. In fact, their government, signed it, but did
not respect it.
We are still waiting to hear about their plans for
the economy, immigration and Quebec. Oh right, sorry, don¹t talk about
Quebec. It¹s in the best interest of all Canadians if they stay put on
this subject.
So, forget about the leadership race and focus on the
activities in the House.
Acting Liberal Leader Bill Graham, who looks like a
policeman at a crossroad with the stoplight out of order, is trying hard
to direct a traffic of drunken drivers. Nobody pays attention to him
and, lately, he¹s trying not to be hit by a car.
A few weeks ago, he was asked by somebody to put some
order in the party during the selection of the delegates. His answer was
that he had no control over the party.
He has also tried unsuccessfully to have the
unanimous support of all candidates for the leadership about some
national and international issues, such as Afghanistan, Lebanon, and
Quebec. But he had to give up.
Lately, the only politician who dared to share the
stage with him was Bloc Québecois Leader Gilles Duceppe on Environment.
New Democratic Leader Jack Layton prefers to be seen publicly fighting
with Prime Minister Stephen Harper then agreeing with the lonely Graham.
It is in this context that Liberals are getting ready
to go to Montreal at the end of the month to elect the new leader. Who
is going to win? I believe Stéphane Dion. Why? Well, after talking to
many Liberals in the last few months, I have rationalized their votes as
follow: if they want to spite the chances of Denis Coderre to run for
the leadership next time around, they would vote for Stéphane Dion; if
they want to spite the Liberal Party they would vote for Bob Rae; and if
they have doubts about Canada they would vote for Micheal Ignatieff. So,
considering that all the Liberals love this Canada and most of them
don¹t hate (for the time being) the Liberal Party, Dion is going to win.
