Something about Gerard Kennedy's "game-changing" call for a spending limit on the OLP leadership race didn't sit well with me. And after pondering it for a few days, I finally figured out what that was. You see, the federal Liberals have been down a similar road before....and it didn't end well for them.....
As he prepared to step down as prime minister in 2003, Jean Chrétien was preoccupied with polishing his place in history. However, figures released yesterday suggest one of his legacy initiatives -- political financing reform -- haunts his party.
The Liberal government had drafted one bill that set tighter limits on political donations and another that included donation limits and a ban on corporate and union contributions.
There was heated debate on the merits of both, but, at the end of the day, Mr. Himmelfarb's position prevailed, largely because the bolder course was seen as a way to bolster Mr. Chrétien's flagging reputation, tainted at the time by the sponsorship scandal.
The ban on corporate donations has been "very, very difficult for the Liberal party to digest," says Leslie Seidle, a senior research associate at the Institute for Research on Public Policy in Montreal.
Not only had the Liberals relied heavily on corporate donations, but the party's decentralized structure has also made it difficult to compete with the Conservatives in the new world order, where money must be raised from individuals limited to giving $1,100 a year.
And what happened a few years later? The beginning of the federal Liberal decade of darkness, that's what.
Now, Gerard.....I get that you're a micromanaging, no-seat-having, Stephane-Dion-kingmaking opportunist who flips back and forth between the federal and provincial Liberal parties like a broken windshield wiper......and I know you think you're the smartest guy in the room.....but do you actually think your own party is dumb enough to even consider finance reform of any sort when it contributed to their humiliating defeats in 2006, 2008, and 2011?
Oh wait....you got elected in '08, so I guess it doesn't bother you too much, huh?
This is the biggest ego orgy (egorgy????) ever! EVER!!! Even for Liberals, this is insane!
Go back to the food industry from whence you came.
ReplyDeleteThe TO foodbank or whatever.
Irrational ideas are a non-starter.
Move on.
What is insane is that this twice defeated leadership candidate and soundly defeated MP would think that Ont voters would welcome him being sworn is as Premier, without bothering to run in any recent provincial contests. Ont voters are not that dumb and I don't believe the Liberal party is either.
ReplyDeleteMartin, have you been watching the Liberals reactions to the Young Dauphin? It is like all the oxygen was sucked out of the room.
ReplyDeleteSo yes, the Liberal PArty is that dumb, and sadly it seems Ontario voters are too.