Saturday, May 17, 2008

"My sense is that things are coming together.""

The above, is the real story for the Liberals, but it gets lost in Ivison's perpetual leadership race story, which apparently means a more attractive front bench is somehow bad news for the Liberals. Iggy usurped by Rae, the "polished" one, with everyone jockeying behind Dion the temporary:
The apparent disenchantment with Mr. Ignatieff on the part of a number of MPs I spoke with, coincides with the arrival in the Liberal caucus of Bob Rae -- and it is perhaps no coincidence that the stock of the deputy leader is falling as that of the former Ontario premier is rising.

Ivison posits the usual scenarios, but then offers this quote, which completely undercuts the idea of large rifts:
He's working hard doing a lot of fund-raisers for candidates at the leaders' request," he said. "My sense is that things are coming together." Even so, the impression remains that...

No need for "even so", I think we can stop at coming together. I have no real evidence or reference to support my gut feeling, but I have sensed a change in the aftermath of last Quebec Liberal blowups. It seems as though there is a more coherent strategy moving forward, and people are much more focused on getting ready for an election, energized for whatever reason, developing policy and replacing this government. I would argue that Dion is probably at his most secure, right now, than at any time since the convention afterglow. Again, no "source", but I've come to my own independent belief that things do seem to be coming together. There's a gameplan, and that is where the attention lies.

What Ivison does, and I seriously doubt he has the ear of many Liberals, given his own bias, is continue with an old storyline, even if it has clearly waned. I would also add, with a busy summer planned, Quebec MP's "blanketing" every riding, Dion and company out selling the "plan", the last thing I see manifesting itself, outside of the fringe, is anyone elbowing to be a successor. Actually, for the first time I can remember, it seems Liberals are truly focused on the tasks at hand, a sense of real direction.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

If the battleground is Quebec, the need for a carbon cap and trade policy is already understood there. The Tories, as usual, will use summer for attack ads/disinformation campaign on Dion. The press doesn't give prominent coverage to Dion's speeches/events (e.g. Bali Conference, major speech on poverty), so who will be ahead at the end of the summer?

Steve V said...

Normally, I'd agree that the opposition leader gets lost during the summer, but this tax shift idea looks to be THE issue during the break, Dion will probably get traction.

I hope the party does a fundraiser, to raise money for a possible ad campaign, selling the idea. If the Cons do run ads, which I suspect they might, then the Libs must counter, and I specific call to fund that response would probably do well.

James Curran said...

Yes, so give now and give often.

https://www.liberal.ca/victoryfund_e.aspx

Anonymous said...

Steve,

You are referring to the Ivison article, while paying less attention to the latest Inkless Wells blog and James Travers' dismissal of the carbon tax.

Do you have the sense that the carbon tax is being used to neutralize Iggy? The idea that you need to steal the clothes of your rival in order to win and to throw him under the bus at the same time when you lose?

Just an alternative scenario.

Anonymous said...

OMG - even the Carbon Tax policy is really just a leadership-related gambit. I wish I could say that I find that surprising but sadly I can't.

Further proof that nothing, NOTHING, matters more to Lib activists than power, whether it is power within the party or power in government.

Sweet mother of god people - run don't walk away from this party it clearly has no real principals.

Anonymous said...

Remeber the throne speech Harper said he was going to set up a cap and trade system.

So you have Harper saying cap and trade and Dion saying Carbon tax.

Harper will say that a tax should be up to the provences to decide.

Thus a the debate will be over these 2 visions. Dion is going to lose.

Look for ads with dion conderdicting himself.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080516.WBwblogolitics20080516062933/WBStory/WBwblogolitics/

Steve V said...

"OMG - even the Carbon Tax policy is really just a leadership-related gambit. I wish I could say that I find that surprising but sadly I can't."

That's just ridiculous.