Categories: Capital Read, Inside the Queensway

UPDATED: Feel the McCallumania!

by kadyomalley on Sunday, October 19, 2008 10:01am - 45 Comments

Well, if CTV is right, I guess we know what issue will top the Liberals’ QP to-do list when the House gets back to business later this fall – that is, the ones not totally preoccupied by the leadership race. (ITQ, by the way, is predicting November 17th as the date for the Speech from the Throne.)

Probably best to leave Ralph Goodale as House Leader, all things considered.

UPDATE: Then again, not everyone seems to be ready to move on to the post-Dion era – not without a fight. Or, this being Canada and all, a peaceful, yet resolute rally on the front lawn of Stornoway. There’s even a Facebook group for “grassroots Liberal members who are opposed to Stéphane Dion’s removal as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada”, which also welcomes “Greens, NDPers, Conservatives, and any other Canadians who respect and admire Mr. Dion and want to continue hearing his voice in our political discourse”.

Tags: in the interim, it's all gone melty, John McCallum, leadershipshape, let him entertain you, liberals

More by kadyomalley

http://carnewsandviews.com jwl

The Libs aren’t angry with CTV anymore? Or was their ‘anger’ just for show and were actually quite happy that CTV showed clip of Dion at his worst.

I agree with you Kady about Lib priority list later this fall. I didn’t know McCallum’s background, so I looked it up on Wiki and he’s got economic credentials up to his eyeballs. Should be interesting to have two trained economists square off this autumn about what needs to be done.

As an aside, wiki people work awfully fast. McCallum’s entry already mentions CTV story.
http://tigerinexile.wordpress.com Ben

Well, the Liberals could be lying to CTV.

For fun, you know…
http://www.macleans.ca Kady O’Malley

The tricky thing about picking an interim leader is that you need someone who has enough House experience to handle Harper during QP and the press during the post-QP scrums, plus sufficient caucus good will to keep the fires burning on the Hill while most of the front bench is out on the party hustings working on the leadership race, and be mindful of the inevitable rivalries and cliques that will form around the various contenders without showing favouritism to any one candidate. Oh, and they’ve got to be bilingual, too. Basically, it’s like picking an actual leader, only no delegates, funny hats, or thundersticks, and you need to find someone who doesn’t actually want the job on a permanent basis.

Speaking of which, is it too early for me to launch my Andrew Scheer for Speaker campaign?
http://myblahg.com Robert McClelland

ITQ, by the way, is predicting November 17th as the date for the Speech from the Throne.

ZOMG! that’s only a month away. Shouldn’t the media be speculating on who will be in the cabinet by now? C’mon guys and gals, get your priorities straight. The Liberal leadership story will still be there in a month.

Speaking of which, wouldn’t Andrew Scheer make a plum dandy minister of something or other?
Mike T.

Remember Liberals, you lost because the Conservatives made a misleading commerical and you didn’t effectively fight back. there’s nothing preventing them from making another misleading commerical in the future.
http://www.macleans.ca Kady O’Malley

Oh, please don’t make us start speculating about cabinet shuffles right away — you know it just ends up being an endless series of senior anonymous-sourced stories about how Jim Prentice will be minister of everything and the kitchen sink.
http://demosthenes.blogspot.com Demosthenes

“A” misleading commercial? Weren’t there dozens of them?

Kady: As I mentioned to one of your fellow bloggers, these are the odd, vanishingly rare breed known as “Liberal activists”. They appear to display the touching belief that the party should display a bit of class, shouldn’t eat their own, should keel-haul the “liberal strategists” who appear to be useless at anything other than feeding Taber quotes…

…oh, and shouldn’t lurch all over the map in a vain attempt to magick the electorate into supporting them again.

I know they seem odd and maybe a bit laughable, but they’re the kind of guys that built the modern Democratic machine. Might be worth paying attention to. If they don’t all quit politics out of frustration with their own party.
http://demosthenes.blogspot.com Demosthenes

(Odds are about 50/50 on that last one at this point. Though Volpe seems to be doing a good job of rallying them against him.)
http://www.macleans.ca Kady O’Malley

Demos – I think really, when you get down to it, the party will have to do both — despite the cliche of the vision conference, it’s probably unavoidable, but at the same time, someone – or a few someones – are going to have to keep the machinery running for the next six months or so while everyone else is focused on the leadership race. I’ll admit right up front that ITQ is likely to pay more attention to the former than the latter, simply because it will have far more to do with what is going on in the House and on the Hill, but I can understand why those now somewhat elusive Liberal activists – and the grassroots members who might want to take a more active role in determining where the party should go from here – might want to go on a vision quest.
stephen

A leaderless vision quest is empty exercise. They need to find the leader first, who then runs or delegates the running of the “vision quest” to someone.

If not, then you could end up electing a leader who has nothing whatsoever to do with the vision or the policies.

Absent of that, they need to put some neutral party elders, almost a board, in place to do that..or as much of the non-partisan spadework that needs to be done, outlining the past, the current and future environment that the Liberal party needs to operate in.

I know they are loathe to admit it but the Cons set a good example of how to do this…rushing it will only lead to further delays.

It will be an ugly process under even the good scenario. Lots of people wont like where it goes, particularly those who are doctrinairre, like those who want to run the process now.

The Liberal left are the ones who are most liekly to want to take their ball and go home. Whether they have the cojones to do that or is another question.
http://caiti-online.blogspot.com/ Transcanada

McCallum has more class than CTV in that he will let Dion make the announcement tomorrow if CTV has the story right in the first place.

McCallum won’t confirm he’ll be interim leader

McCallum as house leader has gotta make Jim Flaherty, our uber-finance minister extraordinaire more glum. McCallum can body punch the little man fluently in English and French.
Jean Proulx

Demos,

I am one of the Liberals heading up the facebook group. Thank you for your kind words. We are not naive people. We know that the forces aligned against Mr. Dion in the LPC have almost sewn up this thing by presenting it as a fait accompli and using anonymous sources to undermine Mr. Dion ad convince him he is isolated. But we want to be heard from . We are fighting as best as we can without any media coverage (not because we haven’t tried to get it believe me). The facebook group was only created early Friday morning (I think, I’ve barely slept since then) and already has 200+ members, including a number of prominent Liberal bloggers and LPC candidates from the election.

We believe this is the wrong time for the LPC to engage in another round of self-destructive leadership politics and we believe Mr. Dion deserves more time. We were inspired by his substantive, classy campaign. We do not believe the popular mainstream media spin that he cost us votes. We think he may have helped save the party’s base support in the face of all odds. Please take a look at the group to see what we are up to. After all when was the last time you ever heard of an LPC grassroots revolt! LOL
Peter

After all when was the last time you ever heard of an LPC grassroots revolt! LOL

Well Jean,

It would have been before “Da Boss”, unless you wanted to get choked, of course.
Anon

Strange thing, but Jack and Gilles have been awfully quiet this week. Very unlike them, especially Jack.
Jean Proulx

Layton was exposed for what he really is during this campaign (for people who were paying attention) I think he may have some internal dissent of his own to deal with.
JMR

I have been blogging and emailing as much as I can because I still want Stephane Dion to be leader. There is one thing this silly old woman seems to be unable to do and that is sign the facebook wall so just take it as said I support Stephane Dion.
Anon

Come to think of it, the entire NDP and Bloc caucus have been quiet. That’s 90 some odd quiet politicians for a week. No gloating, nothing.

The Tory caucus is quiet, but that’s understandable. They all want to be in Cabinet, and they know what happens to those who speak to the media. The Liberals, of course, are yapping away because discipline is not a big thing among lefties.

Which makes the NDP and Bloc silence so strange. Maybe they are all watching the playoffs?
http://myblahg.com Robert McClelland

Come to think of it, the entire NDP and Bloc caucus have been quiet.

They’re just being drowned out by all the weeping and wailing from the liberals.
Two Cents

Actually, Kady, I think Andrew Scheer would make a damn good Speaker. What is abundantly clear, however, is that we need a different Speaker than Peter Milliken. Milliken lost control of the House and it is time for him to step aside. Another candidate of course is Royal Galipeu, who just may have the toghness that Milliken lacked.
Darren Trent

Royal Galipeu, who just may have the toghness that Milliken lacked.

And 5 times the crazy.
http://www.macleans.ca Kady O’Malley

Oh, I’m sure the reign of Royal Galipeau would be a wildly entertaining three days, and the subsequent unprecedented step of stripping him of his bicorn hat by a vote of non-confidence would be highly liveblogworthy. But just the same, I think it might be best to go with Scheer. I’ve been impressed with his impartiality, and his willingness to step in when someone gets out of line during debates — even members of his own party. He would also be the youngest speaker in commonwealth parliamentary history, which would be sorta cool.
http://www.macleans.ca Kady O’Malley

In fairness, Two Cents, just as has famously (and repeatedly) been said, just like Canada is a hell of a hard country to govern, our House of Commons is devilishly difficult to keep in order. I think Peter Milliken was a great speaker for a majority, and held his own during the Martin minority and the first year or so of the Harper minority, but he definitely seemed reluctant to set precedent when things started going seriously off the rails – in the House, and committee. If he comes back with a new spirit of nametaking asskickingness, that would be one thing, but clearly, the avuncular good cop approach wasn’t cutting it by the end of the last session.
http://caiti-online.blogspot.com/ Transcanada

I’m getting the sense the the Liberals are having some fun with CTV. It’s a karma thing.

Goodale joins McCallum as interim leader contender

Next CTV rumour: Tt’s really going to be a floorcrossing Rahim Jaffer. He could use the work and he really likes the Ottawa gig.
http://secondthots.blogspot.com Dennis F

I thought Bill Graham was a pretty good interim leader. In fact, I thought he was better than Dion. Can’t see the two current hopefuls matching him either.
http://tigerinexile.wordpress.com Ben

Which makes the NDP and Bloc silence so strange. Maybe they are all watching the playoffs?

When your main opponent is destroying himself (okay, this only applies to the NDP), why interfere?