Angry in the Great White North

Liberal Party leader Michael Ignatieff has created a new dynamic within the Liberal Party - the one-time opportunity for any Liberal MP to vote against the party line.  Not everyone thinks it's a good idea:

Rather than showing unity with their party, the MPs who broke ranks and voted against the budget have followed the lead of their premier, which calls into question Ignatieff's authority over his caucus, said CTV's Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife.

"They've done a grave disservice to Mr. Ignatieff," Fife said Wednesday on CTV Newsnet. "They've hurt his leadership right off the get-go on his first test as leader. Basically they said 'we are going to march to the drumbeat of Danny Williams. We are not going to listen to the leader of our party, our leader is Danny Williams.'"

According to Fife, Ignatieff has opened the door for other MPs to be allowed to break party ranks and do the bidding of their respective premiers.

"The fact of the matter is, they're going to say, 'you did it for Newfoundland, we want our one-time coupon to cash it in,'" Fife said. "This is a problem. He's opened a Pandora's box here."

I think Robert Fife is being premature in his criticism (as perhaps I have been).  We don't know what the conditions and limitations are for this coupon.  Done right, it could add a whole new element to parliamentary strategy in Canada:

• Is the coupon per-province or per-MP?  I get the impression it is by province, but without a copy of the coupon, it's hard to know for sure.  I'm going to assume it's per province until we learn otherwise.
• Are the coupons transferable?  If the premier of Saskatchewan decides that the budget is good for the province, can the Liberal Saskatchewan caucus (exactly one MP, Ralph Goodale), lend his coupon to the Newfoundland and Labrador MPs so they can vote against the budget twice?
• There are no Liberal MPs in Alberta.  Who gets that coupon?  Will it be raffled off?
• Are new coupons issued with each Throne Speech?  Are unused coupons voided, or can they be saved from one session of parliament to the next so that Liberal MPs can ignore Michael Ignatieff on more than one occasion within the same session?
• Does officially bilingual New Brunswick get two coupons - one for French and one for English?
• Does Quebec get any coupons, or does Quebec get as many coupons as it likes?
• Who issues the coupon?  The party whip or each provincial premier? 
• Will special interest groups linked closely to the Liberal Party be given coupons that they can use to signal their displeasure with a voting decision by Michael Ignatieff?  These groups would cash in the coupon to the party whip who would then assign a certain number of MPs the job of voting counter to Michael Ignatieff's wishes.  An obvious recipient of such a coupon would be Elizabeth May and the Green Party.  Will these MPs hold up signs to effect "This breakaway vote is brought to you by The Green Party of Canada" or whatever?
• Is there a size limit per use?  No more than so many MPs can ride on a single coupon, for example, or the use of a coupon can't alter the result of a vote.  Who has the backbone to say "No!" to the use of a coupon?

Maybe the Liberals can form a commission to chart formal rules with regards to ignoring the pleas from Michael Ignatieff to show party unity.

Without rules about when to take Michael Ignatieff seriously, the Liberal Party could fall into chaos.