Dion Ready To Step Down
- Thread starter Liberalman
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If Charest gets his majority - who will he be campaigning for federally in the next election - Harper who brought wheelbarrows of cash with him while ignoring Ontario - or The federal Liberals who don't have the baggage Harper has when it comes to recent comments about the Bloq.
They are touting him as the next leader of the Conservatives (spring/2009). He's projected to get a majority as Quebec's premier and then he will (maybe) hand the reins over to - I have no idea.
The Conservatives have a lot of 'splanin to do in Quebec and Ontario with Harper at the helm and his decidedly Pro-west/Anti-east bent. If there was an election today. The country would be polarized east vs. west
I doubt Charest would want the job or the party would want him as a leader. The Cons strength is in the west - That won't change until Harper brings in his version of the carbon tax - That is the only way he can stay even close to running a surplus and meet his environmental goals - It will likely be a cap and trade system where the costs are passed on to consumers along with a mark up on the way -
and that's exactly why Charest would look good for the Cons. They already have Alberta sown up (you could run a three legged ashmatic goat in Alberta and if it's conservative, it wins) and really don't need to do anything there to gain any seats.
They need to gain seats in the Maritimes, Quebec and Ontario to ever have any chance of a majority
Of course they need more than that. Getting rid of Harper, Flaherty, Stockboy Day and Don Plett would probably go a long way towards cleaning house and getting rid tof the riff-raf
well, it's official.
The Coronation of Saint Michael Ignatieff, Conquerer of All, Master of Harvard, Supreme Emperor of All The Pathetic Hopes of Liberals, (may he be the fourth never to make PM) will take place ASAP.
The peasants may not give voice, but they will, according to the generousity of His Emminence, be allowed to quietly prostrate themselves in His presence.
Yeah.
Well, he is probably the best Liberal for the post.
The Coronation of Saint Michael Ignatieff, Conquerer of All, Master of Harvard, Supreme Emperor of All The Pathetic Hopes of Liberals, (may he be the fourth never to make PM) will take place ASAP.
The peasants may not give voice, but they will, according to the generousity of His Emminence, be allowed to quietly prostrate themselves in His presence.
Yeah.
Well, he is probably the best Liberal for the post.
You hope so. I find that will be unlikely. Come June 1/2009, Charest will be leader of the opposition and Harper will be back to running the mail room
possibly. Edward Blake may give him a run for the money though. He got defeated and fled the country
Last hurrah for ill-fated Dion
Delegates at tonight's sendoff will be asked to help ill-fated Dion shed $150,000 debt
May 01, 2009 04:30 AM Petti Fong
Western Canada Bureau Chief
VANCOUVER–He was either the right leader at the wrong time, the wrong leader for any time, or no leader at all.
Regardless of the split in opinion about his legacy, Liberals are united in one thing – it's time to say farewell to Stéphane Dion.
In a video tribute to the former leader at the Liberal convention tonight, delegates will give a heartfelt and sincere thanks to the man who has the dubious title of being only the second Liberal leader to not become prime minister.
Rightly or wrongly, Dion will be remembered for his ill-fated carbon tax, his fractured English, an out-of-focus prime-time video that crystallized doubts about his leadership, and leading the party to its worst showing at the polls in a century.
Kuba Karass, a former Dion delegate at the last leadership convention, said he believes history will redeem the former cabinet minister, who became leader in 2006.
Karass said he can't downplay the mistakes Dion made in the last election. But "it hurts me when I realize that Canadians can't see past his language barriers," Karass said yesterday. "I wish we were a country more willing to look past that, especially given that we're an immigrant country."
Hanging over Dion remains an onerous debt that he took on during his leadership bid.
Jamie Carroll, the former national director of the Liberal party and a former Dion supporter, said Dion's debt stands at about $150,000.
At the tribute tonight, delegates will be asked to use up any space remaining on their donation limits to help Dion pay off that amount.
Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff, who walked into the position after his rivals Dominic LeBlanc and Bob Rae stepped down from their leadership bid to support him, supports getting members to help Dion, Carroll said.
"The Liberal party hasn't always been good about cleaning up the past before moving on to the future," Carroll said. "But Mr. Ignatieff and his office have been hugely supportive."
"They raised money for the party, we'll help them pay down their debt," Ignatieff said yesterday.
"I'm confident we'll get those debts behind us soon."
Ujjal Dosanjh, one of the convention co-chairs, said everyone is making an effort to help Dion pay off the debt.
"I'm prepared to do more. There is that reservoir of goodwill," said Dosanjh. "He was the standard bearer for the party during the last campaign, a wonderful human being and a great intellect. Sometimes it's just the times."
Said another delegate, Marlene Catterall, former Ottawa MP for the party: "I think he was what most Canadians would say they want in a leader. Unquestioned integrity, unquestioned commitment to doing the right thing and courage to take on the tough issues."
I'm sure all the Libs on this forum have sent in their shekels to help their great, former leader.
Delegates at tonight's sendoff will be asked to help ill-fated Dion shed $150,000 debt
May 01, 2009 04:30 AM Petti Fong
Western Canada Bureau Chief
VANCOUVER–He was either the right leader at the wrong time, the wrong leader for any time, or no leader at all.
Regardless of the split in opinion about his legacy, Liberals are united in one thing – it's time to say farewell to Stéphane Dion.
In a video tribute to the former leader at the Liberal convention tonight, delegates will give a heartfelt and sincere thanks to the man who has the dubious title of being only the second Liberal leader to not become prime minister.
Rightly or wrongly, Dion will be remembered for his ill-fated carbon tax, his fractured English, an out-of-focus prime-time video that crystallized doubts about his leadership, and leading the party to its worst showing at the polls in a century.
Kuba Karass, a former Dion delegate at the last leadership convention, said he believes history will redeem the former cabinet minister, who became leader in 2006.
Karass said he can't downplay the mistakes Dion made in the last election. But "it hurts me when I realize that Canadians can't see past his language barriers," Karass said yesterday. "I wish we were a country more willing to look past that, especially given that we're an immigrant country."
Hanging over Dion remains an onerous debt that he took on during his leadership bid.
Jamie Carroll, the former national director of the Liberal party and a former Dion supporter, said Dion's debt stands at about $150,000.
At the tribute tonight, delegates will be asked to use up any space remaining on their donation limits to help Dion pay off that amount.
Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff, who walked into the position after his rivals Dominic LeBlanc and Bob Rae stepped down from their leadership bid to support him, supports getting members to help Dion, Carroll said.
"The Liberal party hasn't always been good about cleaning up the past before moving on to the future," Carroll said. "But Mr. Ignatieff and his office have been hugely supportive."
"They raised money for the party, we'll help them pay down their debt," Ignatieff said yesterday.
"I'm confident we'll get those debts behind us soon."
Ujjal Dosanjh, one of the convention co-chairs, said everyone is making an effort to help Dion pay off the debt.
"I'm prepared to do more. There is that reservoir of goodwill," said Dosanjh. "He was the standard bearer for the party during the last campaign, a wonderful human being and a great intellect. Sometimes it's just the times."
Said another delegate, Marlene Catterall, former Ottawa MP for the party: "I think he was what most Canadians would say they want in a leader. Unquestioned integrity, unquestioned commitment to doing the right thing and courage to take on the tough issues."
I'm sure all the Libs on this forum have sent in their shekels to help their great, former leader.
Walter, I think Dion was a better leader than most give him credit for. He became a leader at a very difficult time for Liberal Party. The Party had been in power continuously for 13 years, an unprecedented length of time even for Liberals.
The party was tired, fatigued after so many years in power. People had become tired with seeing the same Liberal faces in the news year after year (as would be natural after 13 years).
Conservatives had just come to power, they had yet to make too many enemies. Canadians were optimistic about new party, new tone in Ottawa. But it denotes the inherent weakness of Harper that even with everything favorable to him; he was rarely in the majority territory. While Mulroney managed two back to back majorities, Harper hasn’t yet managed even one.
Anyway, back to Dion. His greatest achievement was in the last election, when he prevented Harper from getting the majority. By all indications, Harper should have got the majority. Time was ripe for it. He had been in power for two years; the economic meltdown was still in future. There was no reason for Conservatives not to get a majority.
Yet they only managed a minority, and Dion can take some credit for that. Dion was strictly a transition leader and I think he served that purpose well. The ridiculous, highly partisan economic statement that Harper made prodded the Liberals to get their act together.
Where there normally would have been a protracted battle for Liberal leadership, Liberals hurriedly rallied behind Ignatieff and got their act together. The party has paid off its debt, the fundraising is up and they are up in opinion polls.
The worst is probably behind the Liberals, and Harper will be fighting for his political life come next election. The mood at this Liberal convention probably is very upbeat; no doubt there will be a lot of hangovers after the party.
And Liberals have to thank Harper for that. If Harper had governed as if he was the PM for the whole nation (which he should be), rather than PM fro his small Alberta clique, Liberals would not have recovered so quickly. But as I have said before, Harper is a blue Tory trying to govern like a Red Tory. Once in a while his claws come out involuntarily. It was evident when he tried to strangle the other political parties, tried to in effect introduce a one party rule in Canada by denying public funding to political parties.
Anyway, so Liberals have plenty to cheer about. At the local level (not federally) here in Ontario, Liberals are running at 46%, to Conservatives at 31%.
The party was tired, fatigued after so many years in power. People had become tired with seeing the same Liberal faces in the news year after year (as would be natural after 13 years).
Conservatives had just come to power, they had yet to make too many enemies. Canadians were optimistic about new party, new tone in Ottawa. But it denotes the inherent weakness of Harper that even with everything favorable to him; he was rarely in the majority territory. While Mulroney managed two back to back majorities, Harper hasn’t yet managed even one.
Anyway, back to Dion. His greatest achievement was in the last election, when he prevented Harper from getting the majority. By all indications, Harper should have got the majority. Time was ripe for it. He had been in power for two years; the economic meltdown was still in future. There was no reason for Conservatives not to get a majority.
Yet they only managed a minority, and Dion can take some credit for that. Dion was strictly a transition leader and I think he served that purpose well. The ridiculous, highly partisan economic statement that Harper made prodded the Liberals to get their act together.
Where there normally would have been a protracted battle for Liberal leadership, Liberals hurriedly rallied behind Ignatieff and got their act together. The party has paid off its debt, the fundraising is up and they are up in opinion polls.
The worst is probably behind the Liberals, and Harper will be fighting for his political life come next election. The mood at this Liberal convention probably is very upbeat; no doubt there will be a lot of hangovers after the party.
And Liberals have to thank Harper for that. If Harper had governed as if he was the PM for the whole nation (which he should be), rather than PM fro his small Alberta clique, Liberals would not have recovered so quickly. But as I have said before, Harper is a blue Tory trying to govern like a Red Tory. Once in a while his claws come out involuntarily. It was evident when he tried to strangle the other political parties, tried to in effect introduce a one party rule in Canada by denying public funding to political parties.
Anyway, so Liberals have plenty to cheer about. At the local level (not federally) here in Ontario, Liberals are running at 46%, to Conservatives at 31%.
I am developing a distaste for Mr. Ignatieff.........he is beginning to display the major attributes of a leader of the Liberal Party.........it seems impossible to nail him down on anything, he behaves as if the rest of us were peasantry, and he considers the PM's job to be his natural right.......
We'll see.
At least he has to KNOW something, being a History prof, and he is not a knee-jerk anti-American.
I do get a huge kick out of his repeated contention that he has spent his life (as did his ancestors) "searching for Canada".
What, did he think it was lost?
In Massachusetts???????
We'll see.
At least he has to KNOW something, being a History prof, and he is not a knee-jerk anti-American.
I do get a huge kick out of his repeated contention that he has spent his life (as did his ancestors) "searching for Canada".
What, did he think it was lost?
In Massachusetts???????
What? You're not liking the Liberal Leader. I'm shocked.
I really don't get this anti-American rhetoric now coming from the Conservative camp in regards to Ignatieff.
At least he had a job before entering politics, and has some experience behind his degree, unlike another leader I could think of. Also, having a broader world view (i.e. outside of Alberta) is not a bad thing.
In the corporate world, it is not unheard of to hire CEO's and CFO's from OUTSIDE the industry, as it often allows for a different perspective into existing, and potential weakness and threats.
In any event, I do agree that Ignatieff has to start taking more defined stands on items, and less "verbal thinking." It will give the Conservatives less opportunities to come up with 10 second sound bites to distract their (partisan) supporters with.