Inkless Wells

 Inkless Wells

Paul Wells on all the latest out of Ottawa—along with the occasional post about jazz. Follow Paul on Twitter: @InklessPW
He also offers his thoughtful perspective of Stephen Harper’s last 10 years in his recent eBook, The Harper Decade.

Categories: Capital Read, Inkless Wells

Now there's an idea

by Paul Wells on Friday, September 25, 2009 2:47pm - 35 Comments

Introducing the Liberal Party of Canada’s new candidate in Outremont:

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  • http://intensedebate.com/people/SeanStok SeanStok

    Wow.

  • http://www.intensedebate.com/people/SeanStok SeanStok
  • http://intensedebate.com/people/zamprelli4731 Zamprelli

    Iggy's sked this week:

    WED – stand by Coderre, look like idiot by association.
    THURS – attempt to make Coderre look like less of an idiot
    FRI – deem Thursday's task impossible; come to senses

    • Foreigner

      If only it took Harper so little time to come to his senses. As it stands, it took almost 30 years for him to recant his own Masters thesis.

      • http://intensedebate.com/people/Nich Nich

        30 years is nothing in the game of chess

  • Terren

    Cauchon is back!!! goodbye Tom Mulcair!

    • Mulletaur

      Yup.

  • jarrid

    Doesn't anyone run for anything in the Liberal Pary. Are they actually all appointed?

    Anyhoo… any day that Coderre is overruled is a good day.

    • http://intensedebate.com/people/john_g2708 john g

      It's an open nomination jarrid, Cauchon has not been appointed.

      • jarrid

        That's a switch, good on the Liberals for experimenting with democracy.

    • Terren

      Dude it's the same thing with the Conservatives. Who do you think is getting all those cushy board appointments?

      • jarrid

        Dude, the Liberals are being run like the board of a country club and not an open and participatory national political party.

        We've not seen a leader appointed as leader of a political party in Canada since the days the tsars ruled Russia, for pete's sake.

        • http://intensedebate.com/people/Jenn_ Jenn_

          You know, Jarrid, every time you bring this up, I'm going to mention this again. (Some people might get sick of it.)

          Making Ignatieff leader of the Liberal Party, in the circumstances of the times, earned the approval of the vast majority of Liberals. I know this is hard, Jarrid, but please try to comprehend. Because Liberals are in fact NOT in it for themselves, Dominic LeBlanc and Bob Rae graciously stepped aside to acclaim the frontrunner, who happened to be Ignatieff. If Dominic LeBlanc and/or Bob Rae had felt Ignatieff was not the frontrunner, I'm sure they wouldn't have done so. But time was of the essence, at the time, and so Liberals, in their pragmatic and practical way, did what was necessary.

          • jarrid

            "But time was of the essence, at the time, and so Liberals, in their pragmatic and practical way, did what was necessary."

            Why was time so much of the essence at the time? Because the dream of the Coalition still danced in Liberal heads, particularly the Bob Rae crowd. At the time a quick consensus formed that Dion had to walk the plank for his ineptitude that apparently outraged his coalition partners Duceppe and Layton.

            There was less of a consensus on the succession for the leadership of the Liberal Party. But the Coalition dream won the day. We don't have TIME for a leadership convention cried Iggy's people. We could be in power next month. The Coalition dreamers in the Liberal party bought it hook, line and sinker.

            No time for a leadership convention because power is at hand. So you're right to a point, Jenn. But the rationale (we can seize power through the Coalition) is as bad as the means used (no leadership convention.)

        • Terren

          Country clubs are great – they keep out the people who shouldn't be there.
          Ya, I just went there.

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/OntarioTown OntarioTown

    Is this the final story? There's different stories all over the place.

    Mulcair rubbing hands – sponsorship scandal. At least I think that's what he'll do – the BLOC as well.

    Mulcair is a pretty aggressive guy…..will be interesting to see.

  • jarrid

    Ontario Town 6 hours ago:

    "I smell a dirtly little Rae game here. Ah, guess what – Rae, Gervais, Chretien – are NOT the leaders of the party.

    In fact, their playing the Chretien/Martin game again – enough already.

    And, who does Cauchon think he is anyway? If he truly wants to get back into public service – for the good of the country – he'd also quit playing these old games."

    Get with the program O.T.

  • Riley Hennessey

    How come noone has pointed out how familiar this whole parachute/pick who gets the nomination thing is to Ignatieff?

    Michael Ignatieff was parachuted into the riding of Etobicoke Lakeshore after PM Paul Martin asked the current Liberal MP, Jean Augustine (a woman) to step down so he could run in 2005. At the time, Ignatieff didn't even own residence in the riding, and was busy finishing up his semester in Harvard.

  • MJ Patchouli

    Oh, I always like Martin Cauchon — a keenly intelligent man, and he was a good minister. Good luck to him — will be interesting to see the battle between him and Mulcair.

    I find Mulcair much more likeable in French interviews than in English — interesting, isn't it, that a personality shines differently in different languages.

    • http://intensedebate.com/people/ottawasteph ottawasteph

      One of the many reasons why we must protect the Canadian Francophonie, n'est-ce pas?

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/NorthernPoV NorthernPoV

    An open nomination process … hurray!

    After a few tense moments, (Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill for example) the universe is again unfolding as it should.

  • Derek

    I wonder if now Coderre will line someone up to run against Cauchon in the nomination race in Outremont and whether if cauchon is the candidate, Coderre will see to it that no party resources are given to him. This is just the first chapter of a long saga.

  • Foreigner

    We'll see about that.

  • jarrid

    I see the Globe and Mail has reported the story with the following headline: "Ignatieff ends Outremont squabble "

    They should have added a comma, and then the word "again" to the headline.

  • jarrid

    Bourque Newswatch has a more accurate headline:

    "IGGY BLINKS, OKs CAUCHON"

    That appears to be a more accurate rendering of events, IMHO.

    • Anon Lib

      Man change mind. Man must be weak sissy. Me will club man with big stick next election and steal his woman. Ug ug.

      • Foreigner

        "That appears to be a more accurate rendering of events, IMHO."

        But what do literate people think?

      • jarrid

        It does appear that when the heat is on, Iggy changes his mind, Iraq, the Coalition, Newfies voting against the budget,…

        In this case, he's left his Quebec Lieutenant Coderre, hang out to dry,

        • Lord Kitchener's Own

          … fixed election dates, taxing income trusts, whether we'll go into a recession (whether we're in a recession, whether we're coming out of the recession…), appointing Senators, going in to deficit….

          Let's face it, with pretty much all of our politicians, what's noteworthy is when they DON'T change their minds!

          • jarrid

            Yeah but Iggy takes it to another level and everyone's starting to notice. Leaders need to make decisions and stick with them. It goes with the territory. I think more and more people are coming to the conclusion of Mr. Salutin at the Globe and Mail and are starting to write him off.

          • dan in van

            Sorry, Harper wrote the book on this (ok, he really just cribbed it from John Howard – he doesn't have an original thought under that hair-cap) kind of stuff; only when he does it, he puts on an angry face and pretends it was planned the whole time. As to Borke's headline, what kind of cheque did Finley hand over to get that one in 44 type?

      • http://intensedebate.com/people/tigerinexil1428 tigerinexile

        ROFLMAO.

        That said, watch leadership and "Best PM" numbers next week…

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/psiclone psiclone

    When the going gets tough – well not necessarily tough or not necessarily going but only if necessary!

  • herringchoker

    Does this mean that Nathalie LeProhon is now running for the Tories?

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