Angry in the Great White North

Francis Chartrand and Micheline Montreuil: Is Thomas Mulcair behind NDP problems in Quebec?

Though there is some confusion about the size of the fallout from the decision of the NDP to cancel the candidacies of Micheline Montreuil and Francis Chartrand in Quebec, it is clear that there has been some fallout.

Anne Humphreys, a candidate who resigned her candidacy in support of Francis Chartrand, attributes the problems to Thomas Mulcair, the former provincial Liberal cabinet minister who ran for the NDP in the Liberal stronghold of Outremont.  In that by-election, Stephane Dion's hand-picked candidate, Jocelyn Coulon, was handily defeated by Mulcair.

According to Humphreys, Mulcair has promised to bring in a dozen star candidates.  Jack Layton desperately wants these people as candidates, so longtime NDP members like Chartrand and Montreuil are chucked aside.

NDP members in Quebec are not happy about this.

Jamie Carroll story winds to a close, and we tally up the score

When Jamie Carroll allegedly told Quebec Liberals that if followed their advice to hire more Quebecers, he would have to hire more Chinese too, Quebec Liberals went ballistic.

A crisis quickly erupted as Quebec Liberals, none of them fans of Liberal Party leader Stephane Dion, went to the press to tell any reporter who would listen just how awful Stephane Dion's handpicked team leading the Liberal Party really was.

At first Stephane Dion said that Jamie Carroll was misinterpreted, and that no action was required.

Then Stephane Dion fell silent, and the Liberal Party made it known that Jamie Carroll would be shuffled out of his position as National Director and into another role.

Then Liberal Party fell silent, and a leak revealed that Jamie Carroll was threatening to sue the Liberal Party for defamation unless he was generously compensated.

Finally, over a week after the alleged comments that kick off this whole episode, Jamie Carroll is gone. Apparently action was required, and there was no role for Jamie Carroll in the Liberal Party after all. As for compensation and lawsuits, no word on those subjects. Presumably no lawsuit, but money remains a "confidential personnel matter".

Canada needs the NDP

Yes, NDP bloggers, you can quote me on that.

Canada needs to have the NDP succeed. And not because of some Machiavellian plot to weaken the Liberals and some such thing. I mean for Canada's political health.

Liberal blogger demands Stephane Dion denounce Jamie Carroll's Chinese crack

We hear from Liberal sources that at a meeting with Quebec Liberals in the aftermath of the Outremount by-election loss, Jamie Carroll responded to demands that more Quebecers be included in Stephane Dion's inner circle. Jamie Carroll is the Liberal Party's National Director and a close supporter and advisor of Liberal Stephane Dion.

Jamie Carroll's response: If I hire more Quebecers, will I also have to hire more Chinese?

A Liberal blogger has had enough and wants Stephane Dion to slap Jamie Carroll down.

Meanwhile I am amazed at just how eager Quebec Liberals are to make sure that any misstep by Stephane Dion or his inner circle is made known to the press.

Update #1: The president of the Quebec wing of the Liberal Party of Canada, Robert Fragasso, is demanding that Jamie Carroll remove himself as national director.

Update #2: Massive Liberal infighting goes public.

Liberal Party in Quebec in rebellion?

Apparently the Liberal Party in Quebec will shut down tomorrow unless Liberal Party headquarters in Ottawa sends them $250,000 immediately.

I don't know what is more remarkable. That the Liberal Party in Quebec is shaking down HQ for money, or that we're hearing about it.

But to me, it comes near to confirming a pattern suggesting that the Quebec wing of the Liberal Party is in full rebellion.

The rising cost of Stephane Dion's leadership

The Liberal Party has paid a steep price since electing Stephane Dion leader. And yet as bad as it gets, there always seems to be room for things to get worse. Now news that Marc Garneau, Canada's first man in space, and a former star candidate for the Liberal Party, won't run for the Liberals this time around. But the way in which Marc Garneau explained his decision, the way it portrays the Liberal Party in the worst possible light, especially in Quebec and in particular attributed to Stephane Dion's style of leadership, has pushed that price up even higher.

Frankly, I can't imagine how much longer Liberals are going watch idly as the cost of Stephane Dion's leadership rises.

Gilles Duceppe's conservative nature

Gilles Duceppe faces an uncertain future. The only certainty, therefore, is that he would want that reckoning to be delayed as long as possible.

Liberal Party abandonment in Quebec

The website for the federal Liberal Party's Quebec wing is a complete mess. I'm not talking about a couple of bad links. I mean a site that would never be released as a beta. For a working website to have reached this state suggests a site that has essentially been abandoned.

I find that very interesting.

The Liberals need to connect the dots

Scanning the news in the aftermath of the Quebec by-election results that saw the Liberal Party under Stephane Dion suffer humiliating losses in every riding, I am struck by the pattern that emerges. Different stories on different topics, and yet knitted together they paint a picture of a Liberal Party in disarray, but even worse, a leadership that isn't acting in a way that suggests they recognize it.

Liberals have to stop fighting Liberals

The Liberals must stop fighting among themselves. Listen to this guy, he knows what he's talking about.

Gilles Duceppe and Stephane Dion and the bottom line

Aside from the shift in the MP distribution, what do the number of votes cast for each candidate in the Quebec by-elections tell us about what arguments are going on behind closed doors at the party headquarters of the Liberal Party and the Bloc Quebecois?

Dion deposed after debacle

Stephane Dion's time as leader of the Liberal Party might well be done. He will retain the position, but the comments of an anonymous MP quoted by the media suggest that Stephane Dion's days of actually being allowed to lead are essentially over.

Observations of a Liberal in Outremont

A Liberal blogger who volunteered in the riding of Outremont has some obervations related to the allegations that factions in the Liberal Party, specifically Michael Ignatieff's supporters, are throwing the by-election in order to embarrass Liberal leader Stephane Dion and so set the stage for another leadership race.

Though he doesn't see direct evidence that would allocate blame to Ignatieff's people, he says that there was something very odd going on in Outremont. This was not a campaign designed to win a seat for Stephane Dion and the Liberals.

Confirmation that the source of the Ignatieff allegation was legitimate

Thanks to the sleuthing work of Jason Cherniak, we know for certain that the allegation that Michael Ignatieff loyalists are actively trying to undermine the Liberal efforts to win in the Outremont by-election, and so sink the leadership of Stephane Dion, came from a real Liberal source.

Liberal infighting and past patterns

The serious allegations that Michael Ignatieff and his people are working against a Liberal win in the by-election in Outremont as a way of pushing Stephane Dion out as leader is not the first time this story has played out in the press.

But what is very revealing is that the two stories are very similar.

And I mean very similar.

Sabotage! Liberal in-fighting in Outremont

In my last post, I considered the possibility that enemies of Liberal Party leader Stephane Dion from within the party would like to see their own party lose the by-eletion inthe riding of Outremont. A Liberal stronghold, the Liberal candidate is Jocelyn Coulon, an academic cut from the same cloth as Stephane Dion himself, a candidate that was not nominated by the Liberals in the riding but appointed to be their nominee directly by Stephane Dion. A loss would reflect poorly on Stephane Dion on a number of levels -- weakness in Quebec, poor decision-making skills, etc -- and might accelerate his departure as leader of the Liberal Party.

If I was Michael Ignatieff or Bob Rae, I might see such a loss for the Liberal Party as an opportunity to get a second chance at the party leadership. If not Ignatieff and Rae personally, then maybe their more devoted followers in the party. With that in mind, I considered that elements in the Liberal Party would work towards a Liberal loss.

It made logical sense, but frankly I was being speculative. There was no way that my musings could ever be backed by evidence. These sorts of things happen so far back behind the scenes that we'd be lucky to learn the truth of it decades from now in some memoir or autobiography.

Or maybe not. How about confirmation of my theory before the day is out? Political musing at internet speed indeed.

Outremont and reluctant troops

Just how close is the by-election in Outremont, Quebec? And can Stephane Dion influence the outcome? I don't mean influencing voters. I mean influencing people in his own party to pull for a win in that traditional Liberal riding.