Angry in the Great White North

Liberals are mad because the party's National Director, Jamie Carroll, had some choice things to say about the losing leadership candidates:

In "Against the Current,'' author Linda Diebel writes that two months ago Carroll began to doubt the wisdom of Dion giving key roles to all his former rivals -- including his choice to make Ignatieff deputy leader.

"I am starting to wonder if he may not have been a little too good to his former competitors,'' Carroll is quoted as saying.

Diebel writes that Carroll "lived in fear of an all-out drive against Dion,'' orchestrated by one or more of Dion's top three leadership rivals -- Ignatieff, Bob Rae and Gerard Kennedy.

"What they do in public doesn't bother me. It's the shit they do behind the scenes -- which I may not know they're doing -- that keeps me up at night,'' Carroll is quoted as saying.

Many want Carroll out of the party executive:

Stephane Dion is resisting pressure to fire the Liberal party's national director who suggested that former leadership rivals may be plotting against the new boss.

Deputy leader Michael Ignatieff told Dion over the weekend that Jamie Carroll should be fired, sources say.

Although displeased with Carroll's public musings, sources say Dion indicated that he would not fire his hand-picked choice for the party's top administrative post.

As some would say, Dion is telling the others to go pound sand. A measure of loyalty? No doubt that's part of it. Of course, it could have something to do with tens of thousands of dollars Dion owes to Carroll, as reported in The Hill Times back in December:

Dion to help failed Grit leadership contenders pay
The Hill Times, December 18th, 2006

The Elections Canada documents indicate James Carroll, Mr. Dion's acting chief of staff loaned $30,000 to Mr. Dion's campaign while Rod Bryden, who is on Mr. Dion's transition team, loaned $50,000.

It's not uncommon for leadership candidates of any party to end up with debts at the end of provincial or federal party leadership races. After the conclusion of the leadership conventions, candidates with debts sometimes take years to raise funds to pay them off.

Diane Benson, a spokesperson with Elections Canada, told The Hill Times in June that a debt that is truly "uncollectable" can be written off by a creditor but said the creditor must respect the principles of the act in doing so. She said the leadership contestant must report that write-off to the chief electoral officer.

However, if the Commissioner of Elections Canada determines that a loan was written off as a mechanism to circumvent the donation limits for contributions, the violator could be fined and sent to jail. The maximum penalty for such a breach on conviction is a fine of $5,000 and five years imprisonment.

You want Caroll out, Ignatieff? Easy for you to say -- you're not into him for thirty thousand. Why don't you come up with the thirty grand? Because while he's holding that IOU, he keeps his job.

Coming up with the money to pay off Carroll is turning out to be very difficult for the Liberal Party:

In fundraising terms, [the Liberal Party] remains in the poorhouse, raising only $530,000 in the first quarter of 2007 -- one-tenth the $5.2-million raked in by the Conservatives.

The Liberals had 4,365 donors, one-third the number of NDPers who gave $1.2-million to Jack Layton's party, and 40,000 donors behind the Conservatives.

Elections Canada rules severely limit the ability to pay off loans by any means other than fundraising. Is this loan still outstanding? Hard to say for sure, but I expect a loyal Liberal working in the party executive is not yelling for his cash.

I'd be shocked if money was driving Stephane Dion's reticence to deal with Carroll decisively even though Dion admits he's not happy, but it sure looks like Jamie Carroll has purchased some measure of loyalty by lending money to the right guy.

Scuttlebutt says Stephane Dion has lost this fight.

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