Troubles continue apace for the Liberals, coast to coast.
In B.C., a caucus rebellion.
In Quebec, a looming inquiry and a new party.
Federally, the divisions are still exposed.
They might get away with it all, thanks to the misplaced goodwill of the public. But they know....they know, in the back of their minds as they toil away and rob Peter to pay Paul....that the moment when it all falls apart is coming.
Things are not getting better. The system, set up by the Liberals- a practical joke on all of us- does not work. We know this. The NDP knows this. More and more people know this. That's why the Liberals are always playing defence.
It can only last so long. They can only last so long.
I was thinking about this very thing today.
ReplyDeleteIt comes down to how hard the blu-lib faction wants to fight to keep the liberal party intact.
Their problems however are:
-New funding rules that keep them from bankrolling the party
-An NDP that refuses to lend its vote any longer
Then consider how the current NDP leadership race is shaping up with the union/party insider being the first to declare and Mulclair holding off. Its my suspicion that this is planned activity. Mulclair is working with Topp so that he can be selected as the moderate choice. Topp is out there being the lightning rod, saying all the things that the NDP base wants to hear. Mulcair is working the Quebec caucus and the rotten bouroughs to seal up support in Quebec. At some point Topp is going to say or do something so outrageous that he will be seen as too risky to be leader, at that point Mulcair will be seen as the reasonable choice. Once he has the leadership and the media is running with the reasonable talking point, thats when he reaches out to the liberals to seal the deal. All he has to tell them is that as a "native son" he can capture the Quebec vote, but it will be up to the blu-libs to seal the deal in Ontario. Because he will be offering a chance to grab the reigns of power there is a chance they will bite. Unless of course the media starts vetting him better than they have. The danger for Muclair is if he is seen by Quebecers as the "reasonable accomodation" candidate and if the liberals choose either a blu-lib to lead them, or another Quebecer. Sorry for the drift, I'll digress back to the original point.
The blu-libs don't see a future in a merger, Turner's quotes confirm that, and if he's speaking out like this, its a good presumption that there are a good percentage of the blu-lib faction that feels likewise. Point being that if they see the possible outcome of a NDP led by Mulcair as ending in a merger where the NDP/separatists run the show, they will either fight to keep the merger from happening, or ditch the party all together. The links seem to suggest that the bad blood between the blu-libs and the lib-left is still there, and is just waiting to come out in the open.
One last point.
Mulcair was kicked out of Jean Charest's caucus and the reason was rumoured to be that he wasn't a team player. Thats some bad blood that hasn't gone away either. The thing about Mulcair is that he's the run of the mill perpetual greivence, closet separatist/fair weather federalist politician, what we commonly refer to as a Quebec liberal. This is the true reason the blu-libs don't want to see a merger. The end result is a party that is run by the folks the libs used to promise anything to for a vote. The dippers have finally realized that instead of waiting for unfufilled promises, its time for a hostile takeover.
Just remember this, Thomas Mulcair-reasonable accommodation candidate.
Sorry for the long post.
Quebec liberal = Quebec Liberal = Quebec (federal) Liberal?
ReplyDeleteReasonable accomodation = accomodation of minorities or Quebec within Canada?