Categories: Andrew Coyne

Underplayed story of the day

The Globe plays this story on page 10 (at least in the B.C. edition),…

by Andrew Coyne on Saturday, June 7, 2008 2:57pm - 0 Comments

The Globe plays this story on page 10 (at least in the B.C. edition), below a giggler on the dum-da-dum-da-dum fracas:

Dion rejects Liberal pleas to trigger election

Ranking members of the Liberal caucus this week repeatedly pushed Stéphane Dion to trigger a federal election campaign next week, but the Liberal Leader rebuffed their pleas, sources say…

With the scandal over former foreign affairs minister Maxime Bernier setting the Conservatives on the defensive and concerns about an economic downturn, a heavyweight group of the party’s most influential MPs argued in internal meetings this week that the Liberals have a window of opportunity for an election.

They included foreign affairs critic Bob Rae, Deputy Leader Michael Ignatieff, House Leader Ralph Goodale, Whip Karen Redman, finance critic John McCallum, and justice critic Dominic LeBlanc, according to multiple Liberal sources.

Question: Why this sudden enthusiasm for a summer election? (Couillard? Yeah, right.) And why are we hearing about this, with virtually every single major player in caucus mentioned, by name? This has the whiff of mutiny to it…

Tags: dion, election, liberals

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Neil

Good. Let Dion call an election so he can account for his ~63 Billion dollar spending promises that he’d apparently bring in without raising taxes or going into deficit, while at the same time trying to justify a “revenue-neutral” carbon tax to a family of four with a dog in the suburbs.

Hey Dion, My kids can’t take the Skytrain to elementary school, and my dog can’t take the bus to see the vet.
anon

I have trouble removing the sardonic grin from my puss these days whenever Librano leadership camp warring is mentioned.

This creed, these Libranos, are genetically inclined to savage vindictive treachery and this inherent barbarism plays out so well with their leadership camps.

Once poor tormented Dion is purged from the throne room, the friction will shift between Rae and Iggy camps. Liberals always have to be in a “camp” because their organizational politics are so brutally feudal.

Your lord wins, the world is your oyster ( for the length of his reign), your liege looses, you are tossed into the bone pit with his remains.

Heh! Perhaps Warren Kinsella can expand on this for you.
Sophie

It amuses me to no end. And I’m a Liberal (although it doesn’t really count, as I have yet to participate in an election I was old enough to vote in. Not that that stopped me from trying.) Also, Justin Trudeau is awesome.
Bill in Calgary

Wouldn’t it be funny to watch the Liberals try to bring down the Government only to be blocked by the NDP or Bloc?. They can’t do it by themselves. Maybe the Bloc doesn’t want a summer election.
Anon

Dion will try to bring the govt down on some sort of an amendment to a concurrence motion. Harper will then do a Martin, and refuse to recognize it.
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http://farnwide.blogspot.com/ Steve V

“I have trouble removing the sardonic grin from my puss these days whenever Librano leadership camp warring is mentioned.

This creed, these Libranos, are genetically inclined to savage vindictive treachery and this inherent barbarism plays out so well with their leadership camps.

Once poor tormented Dion is purged from the throne room, the friction will shift between Rae and Iggy camps. Liberals always have to be in a “camp” because their organizational politics are so brutally feudal.

Your lord wins, the world is your oyster ( for the length of his reign), your liege looses, you are tossed into the bone pit with his remains.”

Let me guess, favorite movie Lord of the Rings? Back on terra firma…
Mike G

This little blog sure did ship in a boatload of, um, strongly-held viewpoints from the BCHRT liveblogging.

Anyway, mutiny or no, the mere appearance of the story is yet another step down the totem pole of effective leadership for Dion…
Wayne

Being a Conservative I pray Dion does force an election otgherwise the Liberal Party might actually get it’s act together for the fall – oops forgive me I forgot myself as somehow I don’t see it happening at all. I have a sneaking suspicion that Dion is going to help my boy Stevie set a new record in Parliamentary history and that he will be the first PM to have ever given up his option to call an election (which was uncategorically brilliant as it relieved him of the task of the usual media focus on when the election will be and forced Dion to always look at a loss) – and then have survived a full term – then who knows probably another Conservative minority or possibly Majority but somehow I don’t think Ontarions will allow that which is sad but true.
aek

I suspect that Bob Rae, Michael Ignatieff, Ralph Goodale, Karen Redman, John McCallum, Dominic LeBlanc and unnamed other Liberal MPs do not have any enthusiasm for venturing out across the land this summer to shill the plan for a universal energy tax: the plan that Dion announced that he will announce once he figures out what it will be. They doubt that Canadians will swallow their kool-aid, especially during the summer driving season, and they might actually disagree with its dubious merits as well.

If they’re smart, the anti-Dionistas are thinking that it’s much more efficient to campaign and lose on “carbon taxes” now, rather than waste their summer on a futile sales pitch, only to lose the election later, after pitching it all over again for another 35 days on the hustings. Just get it over with now – put Monty Python’s Black Knight out of his misery now!

How can the Liberals expect to campaign successfully on increasing taxes on everyone, then promising to give some of the money back to some of the people?

How much will it cost to expand the government bureaucracy to design, promote and manage all this new money-juggling and monitor the “results”?

Will there be new polar bear tracking programs, new ice-thickness measurement programs, new government PR programs?

Will Rick Mercer get a new government funded green-gig, ranting on the CBC about the new “double-loonie-a-litre challenge”?

Will David Suzuki get a truck full of tax-payer cash to drive CO2-spewing buses across Canada to praise the faithful for paying more taxes, and to scold the doubtful masses who will feel ripped off? “If it hurts, it works!”

Will there be new CO2 measurement programs? No, because the “carbon tax” won’t make a difference.

Will there be GDP impact studies? No, because the “carbon tax” will hurt the economy.

By the way, Dion and his crew claim that their “carbon tax” won’t “apply at the gas pumps” but they neglect to mention that if they tax the oil and gas refineries, the price of gasoline will increase because the energy tax will be applied at the processing stage, and since the oil companies are still allowed to make a reasonable profit, they will simply and justifiably pass on the higher costs with price increases to the retailers.

The Liberal might be thinking that since the tax won’t be applied at the pump, they will be blameless, since it will be a hidden tax. That’s blind faith, and the people with some political smarts in the Liberal caucus know it. Apparently Dion doesn’t.
T. Thwim

Wow! You sure know a lot about Dion’s tax proposal, aek. That’s pretty amazing how you’ve been able to scoop all the news agencies and even Macleans in finding out the details that even the Liberals don’t seem to know for sure just yet.

After all, you wouldn’t just be making crap up because your some sort of partisan hack who doesn’t really care about Canadians so long as your party of choice gets into power, now would you?