I didn't attend Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff's speech in Toronto last week and, after reading about it, I don't regret my decision. Basically, Ignatieff said that whatever good is happening in Canada is credited to the Liberal Party of Jean Chrétien and whatever is bad is the fault of the "mean-spirited" Prime Minister Stephen Harper. What he didn't say is that Chrétien was pushed out of the government by the Liberals (but he couldn't know that because at the time he was not in Canada) and the "mean-spirited" Harper is by far preferred to himself as leader of this country. But that's beside the point. Afterwards I spoke with many Liberals attending the dinner and all of them had one word to describe Ignatieff's performance: flat. Their comments, contrary to what was used a few years ago with other leaders, were not mean-spirited or adversarial. "We really want him to succeed because we know we can't change the leader before the next election," an MP told me the day after the speech, but there is an increasing sentiment among Liberals who believe Ignatieff and his new team will perform worse than Stéphane Dion in a long campaign and—as Liberal strategists confirmed last week—"if he goes lower than 25 per cent in the polls, the future of the Liberal Party might be in jeopardy."
A Conservative majority would be a huge set back for the Liberals. They believe that with Harper in government for another four to six years and moving his party more towards the centre, it will only take the NDP to be more aggressive with policies of some interest to the progressive Liberals to marginalize the once-powerful natural governing Canadian party in an area, the so-called radical centre, where they were used to dominate.
The effect of the leadership of Ignatieff on the Liberal Party is more damaging than that of Dion. In fact, if Dion destroyed the Liberals' chances to get back in government any time soon, Ignatieff's leadership is destroying even the hope of rebuilding those chances. And that mood was reflected in the comments of the many Liberals that attended last week's Toronto speech. And, believe me, I wasn't talking to people belonging to the group against Ignatieff because there are no groups at this time in the Liberal Party; what you have now is only confused people looking around hoping to find some leadership that is nowhere to be seen.
By now they have realized that Peter Donolo is not the guru they thought he was and, I hope, that Donolo himself has realized there is a huge difference between the task of being the director of communications to Chrétien (as if he needed one) and being the chief of staff to Ignatieff.
A director of communications is like a microphone, the chief of staff is the conductor of the orchestra, and the leader is the singer. At the present time the Liberal Party is only a microphone without a singer or a conductor of the orchestra. In fact, there is no orchestra.
This was painfully clear last week in Toronto where the present Liberal leadership was not able to capitalize on the Herculean task performed by the president of the party, Alf Apps, who succeeded in filling the room with almost 1,000 people to give Ignatieff the opportunity to spell out his plan to bring the Liberals back to 24 Sussex Dr.
According to sources, last year Liberal MPs were able to sell more than 300 tickets at $500 each. This year they sold less than 35. And this gives you an idea of Apps' difficult job. Unfortunately for him, his efforts were not sufficient enough to give a boost to the party because the people present at the event realized that, after the highly-promoted policy conference in Montreal, the only sophisticated strategy the Liberal Party of Ignatieff and Donolo have been able to come up with is the hope that Harper will make a mistake.
Of course, it remains to be seen what comes first, Harper's mistake, or the 25 per cent in the polls.
Afterwards I spoke with many Liberals attending the dinner and all of them had one word to describe Ignatieff's performance: flat. Their comments, contrary to what was used a few years ago with other leaders, were not mean-spirited or adversarial. "We really want him to succeed because we know we can't change the leader before the next election," an MP told me the day after the speech, but there is an increasing sentiment among Liberals who believe Ignatieff and his new team will perform worse than Stéphane Dion in a long campaign and—as Liberal strategists confirmed last week—"if he goes lower than 25 per cent in the polls, the future of the Liberal Party might be in jeopardy."
A Conservative majority would be a huge set back for the Liberals. They believe that with Harper in government for another four to six years and moving his party more towards the centre, it will only take the NDP to be more aggressive with policies of some interest to the progressive Liberals to marginalize the once-powerful natural governing Canadian party in an area, the so-called radical centre, where they were used to dominate.
The effect of the leadership of Ignatieff on the Liberal Party is more damaging than that of Dion. In fact, if Dion destroyed the Liberals' chances to get back in government any time soon, Ignatieff's leadership is destroying even the hope of rebuilding those chances. And that mood was reflected in the comments of the many Liberals that attended last week's Toronto speech. And, believe me, I wasn't talking to people belonging to the group against Ignatieff because there are no groups at this time in the Liberal Party; what you have now is only confused people looking around hoping to find some leadership that is nowhere to be seen.
By now they have realized that Peter Donolo is not the guru they thought he was and, I hope, that Donolo himself has realized there is a huge difference between the task of being the director of communications to Chrétien (as if he needed one) and being the chief of staff to Ignatieff.
A director of communications is like a microphone, the chief of staff is the conductor of the orchestra, and the leader is the singer. At the present time the Liberal Party is only a microphone without a singer or a conductor of the orchestra. In fact, there is no orchestra.
This was painfully clear last week in Toronto where the present Liberal leadership was not able to capitalize on the Herculean task performed by the president of the party, Alf Apps, who succeeded in filling the room with almost 1,000 people to give Ignatieff the opportunity to spell out his plan to bring the Liberals back to 24 Sussex Dr.
According to sources, last year Liberal MPs were able to sell more than 300 tickets at $500 each. This year they sold less than 35. And this gives you an idea of Apps' difficult job. Unfortunately for him, his efforts were not sufficient enough to give a boost to the party because the people present at the event realized that, after the highly-promoted policy conference in Montreal, the only sophisticated strategy the Liberal Party of Ignatieff and Donolo have been able to come up with is the hope that Harper will make a mistake.
Of course, it remains to be seen what comes first, Harper's mistake, or the 25 per cent in the polls.
