The federal Liberals’ chief organizer in Quebec recently resigned after Michael Ignatieff overruled his decision about a particular nomination battle. Denis Coderre, who is still sitting as the Liberal MP for the Montreal riding of Bourassa, made clear that his decision to resign was propelled by his anger about the Toronto-centric nature of Ignatieff’s inner circle, which Coderre referred to as the “Toronto palace guard.”
“The message delivered by these recent events is as follows: ‘If you want to have your way in Quebec, you just have to bypass the Quebec officials in the party, going instead to the inner circle from Toronto.’ “
Torontonian Susan Delacourt, writing in The Toronto Star, suggests – cue the tiny violins – that Toronto is being singled out in a way no other city would be, and that a federal leader with an inner circle comprised of people almost exclusively from, oh, say, Calgary, would not face such criticism:
“It is hard to imagine anyone taking to a podium to denounce the preponderance of Montrealers working in politicians’ offices – a fact of life stretching back decades in Ottawa – or Calgarians, for that matter.”
Actually, what’s hard to imagine is the possibility that there would ever be a preponderance of Albertans in any federal leader’s inner circle; it’s easy to imagine the widespread denunciations that would surely follow. Here’s a – non-imaginary – statement from Michael Ignatieff himself:
“(Stephen Harper) is a politician formed and shaped in the radical conservative ideological world of Calgary and Calgary think tanks.”
Take special note of his use of the word “and,” through which he makes clear that he is referring not just to “Calgary think tanks” but also to the the city – the people – of Calgary. Fortunately for Ignatieff he can get away with it, because he and his inner circle are not formed or shaped by any particular regional ideology or viewpoint. Yes, make no doubt, my friend, that as Michael Ignatieff spelunks further and further into the political catacombs of the downtown GTA – where the CBC bunker also happens to be located – he will find not a regional ideology, but rather this great country we call Canada.
(*cough cough*)
Other than the fact Stephen Harper grew up in Toronto …
Exactly, syf. Yet he was “shaped and formed in the radical conservative ideological world of Calgary…”
It’s a dangerous place to even visit.
There is absolutely nothing “radical” about conservatism.
Iffy’s not as smart as he thinks he is. Just throws words around without not really thinking about the meaning.
Delacourt’s Canada largely ends north of blood and the hinterland wilds of muskoka are far north uninhabited areas. And the only CANADIAN party is the cpc
Er that should be LPC not CPC
Iggy Who????
joe, yer title is about to be usurped!!
And delacourt’s wrong about people complaining about montreal’s dominance. Countless people have complained about it in the past. In fact it is a more than a bit rich that coderre complains about the bloc torontois.
Well, he’s not as *politically* smart as he thinks he is, Soccermom, but at least he’s picked up, in his short visit to Canada, one of the core lessons of Canadian Politics 101: Alberta-bashing is a good way to score political points in the GTA, Quebec, and the Maritimes.
His badly-dated belief that he can win by surrounding himself with the Essence of Toronto dance troupe, though, is suggestive of Rip Van Winkle waking up all addled-like to give a stern, didactic, arched-brow lecture on the substance of recent events.
Time for another coffee Gord. Anyone that has ever raised hogs knows why they call Tranna Hog Town. My apologies to any residents of said place that realize Canada extends beyond Parry Sound.
“Radical,” “conservative,” “ideological” are catchwords the LPC must keep repeating about Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the CPC, because these verbal arrows are the only weapons the Librano$ have in their ragged, moth-eaten quiver.
They can’t fault the CPC for their policies — nor can they suggest alternative ones — so they have to slag the CPC in the hope that Canadians will be gullible enough to buy their substandard product.
These guys are SUCH pathetic, myopic shysters.
Meanwhile the Baghdad bob of the LPC – Warren Kinsella tries yet again to deny the truth. Someone should have asked him how many of the top ten IGGY advisors do not have permanent residence within an hours drive of the CN tower.
WK actually tries to claim that he is not Toronto centric on his blog because he grew up in calgary. Yet on his blog just a few days ago he expressed thanks to all those who urged him to run for mayor of Toronto.
Demonizing Alberta is a tired old Liberal tactic, and one I will never forgive. Federally I’ll vote Marxist before I’ll ever vote Liberal.
“Party of Canadian unity” my arse.
Maybe PMSH should go down to Cherry Beach, wearing a sweater and holding a few kittens, do an “air clensing” info-mercial declaring that in fact his “home town” is “Hogtown”. That way, the so called MSM, would see the truth….nah that wouldn’t fit with the Liberal picture…move on….nothing to see.
Politics are so much fun again!
Iggster’s crashing and burning here, and Nobama’s looking worse by the day down south. WOOHOO!
My. My. Won’t Quebec have a knot in its face if the little princess crown is placed on Toronto as the choosen one by Count Iggy instead.
You are so right Polly at 7:45 Politics are so much fun again!
MI has learned “Alberta-bashing is a good way to score political points in the GTA, Quebec, and the Maritimes.”
And we Albertans shall reward Iffy accordingly.
I sureptitiously watched QP this afternoon and Bob Fife said that Ignatieff received a standing ovation from his Quebec MP. He said the fight is between him and Coderre and that discipline will follow. So, here’s the question, “What About Bob”, doesn’t he warrent similar treatment? And if you notice all those Montreal MP’s are hangerons from Cretien and Martin. Ignatieff is in so much trouble – the new Liberal candidates were recruited by Coderre. How is that going to work out. To whom are they loyal – Ignatieff, Cauchon or Coderre? Cheers.
Sorry about the spelling in my first comment – clicked post instead of preview. Cheers.
Radical?
Well, I was on a ride Canada-side recently and in the motel, sans Fox News, I took a few deep breaths and tuned into PravdaCanada TV for the first time in a very long time. And there he was, the Infrastructure Minister (Baird?) standing at a mic outside somewhere, listing off all the “investments” Canada was making in infrastructure. I sat on the bed transfixed. Then after a while, I headed into the water closet to brush my teeth, returned, and the long long long list of “investments” was still being triumphantly trumpeted, including many in celebrity Lib-MP ridings. AND, Baird (?) also pointed out that they were spending way, way, way more than the Liberals had AND, excitedly, he also pointed out, way, way, way faster … 10 times faster, as I recall … as he excoriated the Liberals for sometimes taking as long as two years to get deals inked and the dough shovelled off the back of the truck.
Radically more efficient liberalism maybe?
“And we Albertans shall reward (Ignatieff) accordingly.”
That’s like threatening to take broccoli away from a cat. There’s a reason that Alberta-bashing has historically been safe for Liberals: they lose nothing in Alberta, and gain seats in other regions (Maritimes for example) where voters, when they think of Alberta, see a giant dripping teat.
My apologies for the imagery.
‘To whom are they loyal – Ignatieff, Cauchon or Coderre?’
Fernstalbert, 9 short months ago, they were ALL loyal to Dion as the leader of the coalition of losers, put their signatures and good names up as a show of support
that lasted for 10 whole days.
So really, what does it matter what any of them say this week, next week we could be watching the Bob Rae show.
I suspect that all of the bad advice that Iggy has been getting is part of Boob Rae’s plan to discredit & overthrow him when the time is right – for Boob!!
And Iggy isn’t ‘street smart’ enough to realize this. Too much time in the classroom; not enough time in ‘The Ring’…so to speak.
Another standing 8 count for Iggy!
“And if you notice, all those Montreal MP’s are hangers-on from Chretien and Martin. Ignatieff is in so much trouble – the new Liberal candidates were recruited by Coderre…” – fernstalbert
Ignatieff is in a bit of a catch-22: if he starts to give the Quebec wing more of its historic clout, he’s going to alienate voters west of Ontario who, IMO, have less of an appetite after Adscam for too much Quebec influence. If he tries to regroup the party around a GTA-centric brain trust, as he’s doing now, he’s going to continue to alienate the Quebec wing of the party. If he ever tried to curry favour with, say, Alberta – like that’s going to happen – he’d inflame the Maritimes and Toronto and Quebec. And Vancouver.
My advice? He should hide under a desk in Stornoway until he gets the all-clear to return to the US.
Never heard a bad thing about Hogtown until this business … can’t be true if a Frenchman said it … have they cleaned up the stink of hogs yet, haven’t been back to the stinking dump in a while.
‘they lose nothing in Alberta’
And only 1 to lose in each Saskatchewan and Manitoba, and 5 out of 36 to lose in BC.
Holding only 7 out of 92 Western seats,
ya’d think Libs would quit with the Alberta bashing and realize ‘it’s not just Alberta’ that takes offence.
Just to be mischievious, how’s this for imagery – Ghost of Christmas Past (Jean Chretien), Ghost of Christmas Present (Michael Ignatieff) and the Ghost of Christmas Future (Rae/Cauchon/Coderre). This is the morality tale of the Liberal Party of Toronto. I am so looking forward to fall/winter and overheated egos! Cheers.
You’re right, wilson (8:31). On the other hand, how many seats have the Liberals historically gained in Quebec, the Maritimes and the GTA by showing up at the electoral ball, pointing at Alberta, and saying “We’re not with those radical Conservative ideologues”? More than a few, I bet.
Liberal = not Alberta
My advice? He should hide under a desk in Stornoway until he gets the all-clear to return to the US.
or
Once winter hits, MI will take a long walk in the snow…all the way back to Harvard.
I don’t think Mikhail has a leg to stand on when it comes to referring to the PM “as a product of the west and its Calgary think-tanks.” Anyways, what’s so Ignegative about that? I find it’s one of Mr. Harper’s genetic attributes. To be “homegrown” and NOT French Canadian (for a change) is certainly an asset in refreshingly representing Canadians with integrity domestically and abroad. The Igneutered One has a lament as impotent as his hollow words. It’s pretty much “Game Over – Checkmate” for him. Next up — Bob Rae.
Coderre is an insignificant also-ran, both in the ROC and the la belle province. He’s had his nose pasted up against the window of Liberal politics for years, and forever comes across as the cousin everybody wishes would stay home, please. Iggy would do best to ignore him entirely. Appoint another “Quebec lieutenant” forthwith and cast Coderre back to the depths where he belongs. The story of Denis Coderre is less about Quebec and Toronto as it is about Coderre and the rest of the human race.
Tripper523, Charles Adler agrees with you, game over:
Audio: The Ballad Of Ignatieff
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/blogs/blogolitics/
Great line, LC.
EBD – the penultimate sentence of your post, moreso even than the: “(*cough cough*)” that comes directly after it, is exceptionally spiffy.
Iggy, Harper, Coderre, Layton, Quebec, the West another bogus election blah blah blah … compared to the big top circus in the USA and the ramifications around the globe … Canadian politics right now is about as exciting as Jello.
for some 40 years now I have likened tranna to a tumor on the body of the Canadian nation.
it sucks up all the good stuff for itself, diverting resources and attention, growing at an accelerating rate as it gets even bigger, finally putting the welfare of the body itself in jeopardy.
pretty good analogy eh?
So, Toronto-hating crone, do you think the Calgary contingent accurately represents the city’s demographic weight in the country? Do you — unlike Delacourt, who is actually in Ottawa and sees these people all the time, have a clue who works in the PMO? Are you trying to say the political attitudes of Calgarians — for good or ill — are the same as other Canadians’?
(I notice you, as usual, ignore a huge chunk of Delacourt’s argument: that Montrealers have made up a preponderant percentage of leaders’ office staff over the past few decades. You like to pick and choose. You are so incredibly dishonest and disengenuous.)
Agrred, great line ‘LC Bennett’.
Nothing like a spat between the two old whores of Confederation, eh? Upper and Lower Canada, the Que-Ons, are at it again!
While they settle their marital spat, the ROC buys out their ineptly mananged auto industries, CAW pensions, their public pensions, goes into future-debt on their behalf and all they do is spit & scrap over which “citay” is calling the shots in either locale and the ROC. F/n ingrates!
The ROC should secede. Period. These two provincial primadonnas of Confederation should be left to stew in their old blood feuds that rival the Hatfields and McCoys.
Coderre is vindictive as hell, and his remark about the Toronto inner circle proves it – he knew perfectly well that this is the one phrase which would turn Quebeckers against the Liberal party. He wanted to really stick it to Iggy, and he knew exactly how to do it.
The political cartoon in La Presse the next day says it all – there’s sulking, glowering Coderre, saying ‘It`’s all because of the gang in Toronto’ and next to him, a gleeful Gilles Duceppe, exulting ‘Guess who just earned himself a Bloc Québecois membership!’ (My translation, since the original is obviously in French).
Susan De La Snort-when-it-comes-to-the-Conservatives: What the H*ll is it about the proliferation of journalistic harridans and hacks in Canada? Why don’t we have any Judy Woodruffs, Margaret Warners, or Gwen Ifills (even though she’s turned into a bit of a twit when it comes to Obama)?
All of the Susans — Riley, Ormiston, Smith, Bonner, Murray — (not to mention the odd Jane and Lisa) are harpies of the first order, the wizened-up fruits of strident, entitled, feminism in our schools of journalism.
Who will rid us of these meddlesome muckrakers?