Inkless Wells

Paul Wells on all the latest out of Ottawa—along with the occasional post about jazz. Follow Paul on Twitter: @InklessPW

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Outremont: In the finest tradition of the Liberal Party

by Paul Wells on Monday, September 21, 2009 3:38pm - 77 Comments

It’s good to see Denis Coderre and Martin Cauchon getting along again in Outremont. I greatly fear I may have contributed, long ago, to all of this; right after the 2000 election I interviewed both men for the National Post on their thinly-veiled ambition to replace Jean Chrétien’s replacement and become the next-next Liberal leader. I forget which one bent my ear complaining that the other was in better focus in the photo we ran. They’ve long had a hate-hate relationship, those guys.

Anyway, Cauchon was invited to run in his old riding in the spring. He took a hell of a long time to make his decision. Finally a few weeks ago he decided to run. At this point, Coderre, who first ran as a Liberal candidate 19 years ago, decided it was time for fresh blood in the riding. Not his riding, silly. Cauchon’s. This led the riding executive to write to Ignatieff to ask that he let them have the candidate they wanted. Cauchon.

Nope. Speaking to reporters, including me, after a lunchtime Toronto speech, Ignatieff said he called Cauchon last night and said he’ll be appointing a female candidate in the riding. But wait, you’re saying. This story can’t be over yet, because you haven’t gotten to the part where Ignatieff says something disingenuous and contradictory. And right you are. He said Cauchon “has a tremendous future” in the Liberal party. Just not, it seems, as a candidate in the only riding he ever represented in the House of Commons.

Adam Radwanski offers the appropriate conclusions regarding Ignatieff’s choice of friend.

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http://intensedebate.com/people/hollinm hollinm

A picture is worth a thousand words. Its great! As a Conservative it does my heart good to see the Libs beginning to infight again. The Outremont riding is going to be won by Mulclair again because Libs will stay home. Mulclair is a tough opponent. Putting an inexperienced female canadiate up against him will see her go down to defeat.
http://www.intensedebate.com/people/hollinm hollinm

A picture is worth a thousand words. Its great! As a Conservative it does my heart good to see the Libs beginning to infight again. The Outremont riding is going to be won by Mulclair again because Libs will stay home. Mulclair is a tough opponent. Putting a politically inexperienced female canadiate up against him will see her go down to defeat.
Darrell

Just want to thank you for being one of the few on these blogs who makes their links open in new windows.

Minor convenience, maybe, but appreciated nonetheless.
Darrell

The other possibility here is that Ignatieff is not, as Radwanski suggests, being bullied by Coderre into doing politics a certain way but rather allowing Coderre to be the bully who enforces Ignatieff's own ideas.

Ignatieff is on the record saying he wants renewal in the party (which is certainly needed). He's also under pressure to run women in winnable ridings (especially with the high benchmark for women candidates set by his predecessor).

If his renewal consists (as was suggested in certain articles this mornning) of pushing out sitting women MPs, he's going to be under even more pressure to run good women candidates in places where they can win.

Aside from the organizational aspect, which I don't think anyone is disputing Coderre is quite capable of handling, why does the 'Lieutenant' position exist if not to be the boorish enforcer of these kinds of policies and processes?
http://intensedebate.com/people/OntarioTown OntarioTown

So, Cauchon decided not to run in the last election, took forever and a day to decide if he would run or not and then expects everyone to jump to his becken call and let him have whatever riding he wants?

And, of course, the infamous media secret sources, etc. Yawn.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Inkless Inkless

My source was a fellow named Ignatieff.
http://intensedebate.com/people/Dennis_F Dennis_F

Why not let the riding membership decide if they agree with your assessment of Couchon? In other words, why not let democracy decide?

http://www.intensedebate.com/people/BCVoiceOfReason BCVoiceOfReason

Cauchon was way, way, way too far to the left. Why would he want to fight with his soul mate Thomas Muclair?

The only reason Cauchon was able to foist his far left agenda on Canada was due to the divided right. There was no overwhelming support for the direction that Cauchon was driving Canada. People were not voting in the Liberals/Chretien for their
social policies or their world view, they were voting them in because Paul Martin was a disciple of Preston Manning and fiscally responsible.

Ignatieff may have realized this flaw in the Liberal party and part of his big vision for Canada does not include the LOONY LEFT.

This might be the actual line in the sand that Ignatieff takes his stand.

On the other hand please explain to me why there are any Liberal members still in prominent place that were there for the thievery and scams of 2000-2005? If Ignatieff were to support a policy to bar anyone who was a Quebec MP from 2000-2005 from running as a Liberal, he would get a lot more traction than propping up Female candidate…… both could be done at the same time.

tobyornottoby

This is what passes for "Reason" these days?

http://intensedebate.com/people/Dennis_F Dennis_F

Given that you don't seem to have any in reply, looks like it. Next.
Canuckistanian

maybe to raving loons? voice of kelowna perhaps.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Tridus Tridus

According to CBC they're blocking male nominations from Quebec in general to "get more women into politics". Hypocritcal sexism at its finest, from the party of the charter no less!

Harper should appoint Iggy to the senate after a couple of elections of this stuff as a thank you.