Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Come On Now

I have this image of CTV's Bob Fife spending his entire day running around trying to find fresh Liberal dirt to talk about, in between telephone calls with Lapierre (is he the only Liberal source in Quebec?). This is just a whole lot of nothingness, made to look provocative:
CTV's Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife said the Liberal party obtained the injunction Tuesday night, and will be in court with Montreal's La Presse newspaper at 2:30 p.m. ET Wednesday to find out whether it can keep the list out of the public eye.


Fife, calling it a "bizarre" story, said Quebec Liberal boss Senator Celine Hervieux-Payette boasted recently there were 50 Liberal candidates, including 12 "star candidates" slated to run in the province.


However, the list, which was leaked to a La Presse reporter, only had 32 names on it. When the reporter called the party looking for an explanation, officials moved forward with the court action, Fife said.


"The explanation we're being told by the Liberals here is there are these great 12 star candidates, but they don't want their names released because it could affect their jobs," Fife told CTV's Canada AM from Ottawa.


"I guess that may be the explanation but clearly what's going on is this is more of the war inside the Quebec Liberal party in the federal wing."


He said Jean Lapierre, a former Liberal cabinet minister who headed the party's Quebec efforts, said the situation is unusual because the party usually rushes to publish the names of candidates as soon as possible, before they change their minds.


I guess that might be the explanation? Sounds pretty reasonable, at least enough of an explanation that Fife shouldn't immediately use it as further evidence of the "war" in Quebec. What Fife does here- and he uses the always mischevious Lapierre as cover- is he basically suggests that the Liberals are lying to him, there are no star candidates.

Yes, if there is one thing Dion is, it's a LIAR. I mean, look at all the examples, the man is clearly morally challenged. This is not "evidence" of infighting, as Fife suggests, in fact that is a stretch of the highest order, to fit into his lazy thesis. What a hoot, Fife finds ghosts everywhere on the Liberals, but when Cadman broke, a story with incredible implications, his first kneejerk reaction, "I don't see anything here".

The king of inference, the duke of doublespeak, the prince of unfounded inneundo, I give you Robert Fife.

UPDATE:

For contrast, here is a relatively fair report:
OTTAWA — The federal Liberals are in a Montreal court Wednesday trying to block a newspaper from publishing a list of party candidates lined up to run in Quebec.

The party says some of its star candidates won't run in the next election if their names are prematurely disclosed by Montreal's La Presse.

Leader Stéphane Dion says some people who've agreed to run for the party don't want their names revealed until an election is called.

His Quebec lieutenant, Senator Céline Hervieux-Payette, says some of the would-be candidates are professionals and public office holders who can't announce their candidacies without jeopardizing their current jobs.

She says some of them have told her they won't run if their names are prematurely leaked.

That makes perfect sense- but don't buy it for a second. Did Iggy leak the list?

15 comments:

Steve V said...

My only beef was not having candidates in place, if they are there, but they choose to keep them secret, I have no qualms.

Loraine Lamontagne said...

You should read the Le Presse article. They are talking about candidates and 'candidats pressentis' - potential candidates. To publish the names of potential candidates would be a breach of their privacy. This is a very serious affair - potentially criminal - theft? I doubt the person who leaked the list was authorized to do so.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like something form the Duplessis era.

Anonymous said...

LPC(Q) just dropped the injunction.

The names will appear tomorrow or at the La Presse website.

My first reaction is that there needs to be blood to be paid here. I don't know who to start with.

bigcitylib said...

OT, but:

"The latest Canadian Press Harris-Decima survey suggests the Tories have 32 per cent support, with the Liberals at 30 per cent, which is within the survey’s margin of error..."

Do that polling voodoo only you do like you do, Steve.

(source: Nat. Newswatch)

Anonymous said...

I heard that the list was assembled by reporters using press releases from the libs.

Anonymous said...

News Flash! This just in: the Quebec wing of the Liberal Party of Canada has revealed that their efforts to keep the names of their candidates secret was primarily aimed at protecting the identity of two very prominent people by the name of Clinton and Obama.
Bring on the three stooges!

Steve V said...

I heard that too joe, which is a strange development. And, I hate to say it, but the reaction may denote some worrying paranoia.

BTW, I actually watched a few minutes of Duffy to see what was said on this issue. Duffy was full of belly laughs, and guess what? Lapierre and everyone's favorite anti-Liberal Montreal columnist Ian MacDonald were both present to pile on. Maybe they should ask Bob Rae to comment on the prospects for the NDP? My goodness.

Fife was rather sheepish actually, he kept looking into the camera and stuttering as he was trashing the Libs. Maybe he is starting to get some feedback for his one-sided reporting. It was certainly striking, something was up.

Möbius said...

The G&M ran an sickeningly sweet piece on Bob Rae yesterday.

I don't believe in media conspiracy, just that they want interesting and juicy stuff to write so they sell papers/ads and don't lose their jobs.

Steve V said...

"The G&M ran an sickeningly sweet piece on Bob Rae yesterday."

They used to do that ALL THE TIME for Dion, during the leadership race. Give it time ;)

liberazzi said...

Lapierre is a rat in my opinion and his statements should not be given as much credence as they are by CTV. Remember that he used to be a member of the Bloc. Since Dion is responsible for the Clarity Act I am sure Lapierre has an axe to grind. CTV in particular seems to love to pile on with respect to the LPC, whereas the CBC seems to have a more balanced approach, especially on Newman's show. Moreover, CTV in my opinion seem to engage in more tabloid type journalism with respect to Canadian politics, whereas CBC seem to deal with the issues more. I.e. Duffy and his famous Blackberry. Gimme a break.

liberazzi said...

Back in the Trudeau glory days around 25 years ago the LPC used to clean up in Quebec. However, Chretien primarily won his majorities by cleaning up in Ontario, so why all the hangwriging about Quebec? Lapierre is a former seperatist and Macdonald is a former Mulroney speech writer. How are these two credible to speak about LPC fortunes in Quebec?

Karen said...

liberazzi...what took you so long?

Duffy, Lapierre, Macdonald?

History man, history.

liberazzi said...

Quebec is not as important as the so-called experts make it out to be for the LPC. That ship seems to have sailed for the time being. However, the Quebec Wing needs to start cleaning up their act and please do not repeat what they did today. Stupid indeed. The election date moves farther away by the day.
Regardless, of how stupid the LPC acted today, Lapierre and Macdonald are insufferable. I must remind myself not to watch Duffy anymore, except for the dueling duo.

burlivespipe said...

Fife?
There should never be a reference to this Tory stooge without mention of his trolling on behalf of Harper and Doris during the Maher Arar case... He preferred to promote the angle that the Liberal gov't of the day were interest in protecting the 'rights of an accused terrorist' as opposed to insuring that a Canadian's rights were protected.
He's hoping to be the Bob Novak of Canadian reportage. And he likes all the little perks of being a CON stoolie.
Barney would bring integrity to the job. Bob Fife? Not so much...