If only Jim Flaherty had listened to professor Ignatieff …

… and had brought in a magic budget where, by simply announcing its passage, $1,000 bills freshly plucked from the money tree would fly in flocks so vast that they would blacken the skies before coming home to nest in the wallets of workers.
If only Harry Potter were the prime minister!
No, Ignatieff is absolutely correct, what this country really needs is easy and magical answers.

I know something Monte Solberg doesn’t!

Casually and, almost, with pride, Michael Ignatieff declared he owned no stocks. He never owned a single stock in his entire life. No mutual funds, nothing.
That’s right, the future would-be king has no personal experience of making a single decision around investing in companies. Not even with his banker to decide whether to put RRSP contributions into a dividend fund or index fund. He wouldn’t know the difference. Or, if at best, he understood the notional difference, he had no experience of the difference.

And therein lies the beauty of the Liberal economic master plan.
When Michael Ignatieff becomes Prime Minister, he’ll just send every Canadian to teach at Harvard, and no one will ever have to worry about silly things like mutual funds and RRSP’s.
Nothing magic about it.

I’d call it “impotent”.

It’s an old fashioned “family” reunion;

Some federal Liberal Party activists are wondering if and why new interim leader Michael Ignatieff is giving back power to key players who backed Paul Martin in the internally bitter and divisive leadership battle with Jean Chretien to become Prime Minister.
And they are asking questions, quietly and privately, about why controversial Liberal Bruce Clark is chairing the high dollar donor Laurier Club in BC, among other roles in fundraising for the party.

h/t

Newfoundland Anthem Selected To Open Liberal Party of Canada Convention

Don’t be so hard on him…

Recent releases show the Liberals raised less funds than the Conservatives in 2008. A lot less! So perhaps Michael Ignatieff can explain why he donated a grand sum of $0 in 2008, a year the Liberals under Stephane Dion were trying to topple the Harper government.

I don’t think foreigners are permitted to make political contributions under Canadian law.
Besides, if you’ve been paying attention to Canadian media lately, it’s only a matter of time before the Natural Governing Party will be back in a position to get everything they need through Public Works. Iggy’s so confident, he’s got the memo boy on stand by!
h/t Bourque.
Update – trusty commentor Ted shares this intriguing rumour… Michael Ignatieff’s contributions are not in the Elections Canada database as they have been funneled through an organization known to party insiders only as “the Laurier Club” … developing…
(PS.. would someone down there help Ted get the fishhook out of his mouth?)

Anonymous said…

As people were voting, candidate scrutinizers kept track of who voted, and cross referenced their “identified voters”. From this, it was clear that [Ontario Young LIberals] First candidates were not wining. The president elect’s two main campaign manager’s then started to freak out – didn’t want the opposition to get satisfaction they were able to beat them – it was personal, literally. So these campaign managers made fake delegate badges with the names of those who had not yet voted.
President-elect was then commissioned by her managers to find unknown delegates to take the badges and go vote again for the slate. After many questionable badges, and one nervous looking delegate, the fraud-ring was squashed.
In the emergency meeting, president – elect did admit to her role. President-elect should be making some sort of announcement soon, say within 48 hours. Her new exec is not impressed and may very well impeach her if she does not resign. But if that’s where it ends, not all responsible will be held accountable. There is also a strong possibility that the YLC exec will now also be taking disciplinary action against one of their own, who each of my sources say was certainly involved in this. Lesson learned: in politics, friends are not always true friends, if they don’t really have your back or your interests as much as their own in times of such crises. Lesson two: the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

More here! and here this one’s so red-faced that he’s dropped the scandal into the memory hole …

Oh, cut the guy some slack…

With the notable exception of Mr. Zed, Mr. Ignatieff’s inner circle thus far appears to be top-heavy with Torontonians, most of whom played key roles in the Toronto MP’s two leadership campaigns.

He’s lived outside the country all of his life. How many people can he know?
(Besides, isn’t that where the hockey team is?)

And brand new assprints for the backs of their parliamentary voting hands.

“Never get between a politician and his source of funding”
(Related)

“[Prime Minister Stephen Harper] miscalculated, with nearly catastrophic results for the country…” – Determinedly determined Michael “Everything I Know About Canada I Learned From The New York Times” Ignatieff

According to CTV News….
Michael Ignatieff makes history, becoming the first American to lead the Liberal Party of Canada!
Update – Reader Mike W. writes with a reminder – “Have the Liberals forgotten how it worked last time they let one Mr. Paul Martin scare the rest of the pack out of the race?”
Probably.
Mississauga Matt is unhappy. “I should get a say as to who leads the LPC. After all, I’m part of the majority that never voted for them.”

Really. Why does anyone watch CBC, when they can have me?
SDA post-convention analysis from Dec.2, 2007;Post Mortem – in the final analysis, here is what happened. Despite a determined campaign to present a positive face to the nation, the Liberal Party’s decision boiled down to a selection determined by negatives.
The campaign of Michael Ignatieff gained early support, but eventually stumbled because a significant number of delegates were determined to vote for “anybody but”.
The campaign of Bob Rae gained later momentum, but eventually stalled because a significant number of delegates were also determined to vote for “anybody but”.
In the end they settled on the candidate who had staked out the highly coveted political ground known as “least offensive”.
So, there we have it.
The new leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, leader of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition, and citizen of France…

Mr. Anybody But.

What’s good enough for the country is good enough for the Liber… oh, wait.

Noting that only two Liberal MP’s were elected between North Bay, Ontario and Vancouver, Rae argues a simple vote of the Commons caucus would exclude Liberals in huge chunks of the country from participating in the selection of the party’s next leader.

Greg Staples notes the irony as well;

We are supposed to believe that Mr Rae is comfortable with being one who would anoint themselves to pick a new leader, of the country no less, but is uncomfortable in doing that within his own party.
[…]
Check out ProgressiveBloggers.ca for people who favour the coaliton going batty over Ignatieff being installed as the interim leader of the Liberals …

Liblogs are a barrel of fun this morning, too.

Michael Ignatieff today on CTV’s Question Period;

“I think I’ve never lacked the capacity to make decisions, but a decisive person knows when he has to make decisions, then makes the decisions he has to make, when he has to make them. I’ve made it very clear I would not hesitate to make decisions, if the party gives me the honour of electing me leader.”

More…

“Somebody’s back there shooting their own video, I guess.”

(h/t to Paul W.)
Question – If the Conservatives are doing all of the astroturfing, how come the “Coalition” has all of the printed signs?
Related: Dion finally provokes his members to open their wallets. “Card carrying Liberal Party members. incensed at what their Party leadership have pulled, are calling Conservative Party HQ and donating… BIG TIME.”
And also related – 74percentmajority.ca

First Liberal – “I think we have them on the run, yes?”
Second Liberal – “That bully broke my glasses.”
* *

As Ottawa fishbowl media dissect the political implications of Quebec’s indecent exposure to the word “separatist”;

I was a Liberal MP in the Government of Pierre Elliott Trudeau 1974-79. But there is no place in the Liberal Party of Canada for a true Grit. Nor is there a place for western Canadinans in this Insane Hysteria from the eternal losers–the NDP, the Bloc, and their chosen leader Stephen Dion — to succeed in this Contemptible Coup.
This cries out to us on the Pacific Rim:“if any part of Canada should separate it is British Columbia”.

‘We’re not used to being in opposition…”

Guelph Mercury;

Frank Valeriote does not favour a coalition government and instead hopes Prime Minister Stephen Harper can work toward rescuing the Canadian economy.
“I believe in working toward a solution, not working toward a coalition,” Guelph’s Liberal MP said Wednesday.
Valeriote added he does not believe a Liberal-NDP coalition, with support from the Bloc Quebecois, will unseat the Tories.

Update – Here come the Cossacks to the rescue!

First Liberal: “We didn’t get it done!”
Second Liberal: “Do you tink it’s izzy to make a webcam?”*