Sunday, December 7, 2008

Ignatieff and Rae to Circumvent Leadership Entirely

A formal pitch has been made by Team Ignatieff (read Steve MacKinnon) to circumvent leadership entirely. The plan would call for the caucus members to vote for a permanent leader of the Liberal Party of Canada.

That would be 77 votes for 308 riding associations across Canada. That would be the voice of a mere 25% of the ridings in the party. I suspect that clearly wouldn't represent the will of the grassroots of the Liberal Party of Canada. The 58 Liberal Senators would also be a part of the decision.

Ignatieff and Rae hinted the party was trying to head in this direction today.

16 comments:

Mike said...

Rae has spoken out clearly against this, he was on QP this morning saying all the membership should get a vote. I'm sure LeBlanc and Ignatieff will agree, there's no way caucus will decide this. Rae and LeBlanc will dig in their heels as they should and Ignatieff wil agree to a membership wide vote. MOST of Ignatieff's supporters I'm sure prefer that as well. They don't want a pyrhic victory here.

Sinestra said...

Correction: the Iggy camp does not want Senators included in the caucus vote.

Beijing York said...

Ignatieff is a creep who will help hasten a Conservative majority. He will act like the quisling that he is to prop up Harper thereby giving him a mandate to rule with a majority (an unofficial coalition of the right). He will do this because he knows he can't even win a minority government if Harper demands an election.

And if you're like many of the Canadians who saw the spineless, defacto support that best described the LPC performance in the last session, you'll probably be disgusted with the LPC. Last time around, Harper managed to ram some pretty horrible pieces of legislation. This time around, he will go for the jugular with LPC support. And Harper will use Ignatieff's cooperation to his advantage, as is his way.

Chrystal Ocean said...

Well said, Beijing York.

Re the caucus making the leadership selection, the unfairness of it to the majority of LPC members goes further than what has been considered so far:

People who are not members of the LPC - some supporters, even perhaps members, of other parties - will have been given greater say in the choice of the LPC leader than the bulk of LPC members. How? By virtue of those people having voted for those 77 caucus members in the last federal election.

As is the case with all parties, few of their supporters translate that support into taking out a membership. Further, it's known that in some ridings which were won by LPC candidates, supporters of other parties voted for the LPC in order to stop Harper.

Therefore, for this reason in addition to the others already discussed, the caucus selecting the leadership would be grossly unfair to the majority of LPC members.

Babylonian777 said...

Of those 77 seats...........how many were from Toronto and Montreal?

I am sure the numbers won't bode well with other Liberals across the nation.

RuralSandi said...

James, perhaps you would know - CTV is saying LeBlanc has dropped out - true?

If so, sorry to hear that. I was wondering why we hadn't heard a word from him on the recent events.

S.K. said...

Well I certainly won't be voting Liberal for some time if that happens.

S.K. said...

I'm not even sure the Liberal Party should exist anymore. This kind of garbage from people who did nothing but backstab the democratically elected leader from two years, would cement that opinion, probably permanently.

I'll just live with Harper and perhaps work within the Conservative Party to moderate policy.

These people don't deserve to be elected by anyone. They care nothing for a democratically elected leader or constitution.

sjw said...

I certainly won't be voting Liberal for some time if that happens.

And if Ignatieff takes the leadership I too will likely return to my traditional voting home. Jack Layton or no Jack Layton.

A Eliz. said...

Is this all because of Ignatieff. I sam sure there are just as many , who say, not Rae, anyone but Rae.
Is this what is too become of the Liberal leadership again..divided like it was before? Why is it, we can't respect both men who are running?

Beijing York said...

How can you support a leadership contender who is back tracking on what was considered unanimous support for a coalition?

Ignatieff is a political opportunist first and foremost and not a team player. And that, frankly, is NOT A LEADER. 2+ years of a PM who is NOT a team player has gotten us into this situation.

Ardvark said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ardvark said...

Sorry to interrupt your internal party crisis but is this type of scenario where Iggy gets to be leader without Liberal members approval or say not the same as what the coalition wants to do without the approval or say of the Canadian public?

And some of you wonder why the public was getting so angry about the coalition.

(sorry typo in previous comment)

Darth Vader said...

Why should the membership get to vote. There is a financial crisis looming!

Give your heads a shake. Just put in Iggy and be done with it. Besides you can't really tell who the membership would vote for.

Darth Vader said...

Another thing you people are forgetting, you had better let the Bloc have some say in all this. After all Duceppe has to work with whoever you pick! What kind of message are you giving Canadians if you don't let the Bloc decide who is Liberal leader.

And if you still can't figure it out just ask the GG. After all she is the Supreme Ruler of Kanada

wilson said...

Did Jack and Gilles ok the new coalition leader?

When is the official coalition
re-signing ceremony?
Photo op?
Can't go to the GG without a signed committment from Iggy.