Iggy May Not Have the Choice To Leave or Stay and the Bob Rae Problem

All I needed was one hour of this morning’s episode of Question Period to know this. Well, more than that, naturally. However, this episode certainly confirmed certain things.

My first comment; never mind Iggy, get rid of Bob Rae! I think he’s an even bigger liability, particularly after his performance this morning. Watch it and see! Near the end Bob even says something stupid to Craig Oliver like ‘he will never answer him directly’. I always found him to be terrible with the media and unconvincing.  This morning was epic.

On a serious note though, if Bob Rae is doing all the talking on behalf of the liberals about the idea of a coalition with the NDP, he will have to be silenced on that whole coalition thing. He’s starting to appear more and more like he’s planning a hostile take-over more and more of the Liberal party. Don’t know how many different times anyone can say this; Rae blew it as premier of Ontario, the Steve attack ads are on the ready for that. As Tim Powers pointed out on Question Period today, “The Liberals seem to be the only ones talking coalition these days” and it will hurt them.

Unfortunately, Bob Rae ain’t goin’ anywhere right now. Especially now…why would he?

Jim Travers in his column yesterday observed fatigue in Iggy and says this regarding the Liberals behind Iggy’s back:

They whisper that a summer equivalent of Pierre Trudeau’s pre-resignation walk in the snow would improve party prospects and Ignatieff’s mood.

Many say Iggy should do the right thing and resign on his own volition since the Liberals won’t do it themselves.  If it were that simple, wouldn’t he have left by now? As Jim Travers points out, Iggy appears  nearly burned out, as well as Iggy’s lamenting not that long ago about the Harpercons doing a  number on him with their attack ads and their media, I think Iggy himself wants to leave, just walk on out and never look back. I’m sure if it were up to him, he would. I’m sure if the liberals gave him his walking papers however discretely, I’m sure he would jump at the chance to leave. The question is, what are the Liberals (with the exception of the Bob Rae fan club)  using to hold him?

The problem is, other than Bob Rae’s old boys club, the party is probably holding him there to prevent Bob Rae from being the next leader and they think the potential leadership candidates they would like to see at the helm aren’t quite ready yet.

As Bob Fife and the others pointed out, the Liberals appear to be looking at Justin Trudeau or Domenic Leblanc to lead the Liberals, but not for the next election.  Perhaps it’s why they keep Iggy around as an interim.

All I can ask is why not allow Iggy to simply leave and hold a leadership convention of some kind or even a vote? No more coronations.  I realize leadership conventions take time and since a fall election is more than likely (don’t care what you say, Bob Fife, the writing is on the wall), but isn’t there a way to hold a vote in short order?

And who, besides the media, say that Justin Trudeau and/or Domenic Leblanc aren’t ready now? Bob Rae’s old boys’ club? If so, something will have to be done about them, as they are really only thinking of their own entitlements and not for the good of the party.  It’s argued that Iggy isn’t ready to be PM himself, so how inept could those youngsters be?

Something tells me that they would have a good supportive staff who would be better placed to squash coalition talk far better than Iggy did this morning. In fact, I think coalition talk could well disappear if Leblanc or Justin  took over, hell, perhaps even ADSCAM could stop being as prevalent. They, along with a good staff could also effectively counter Steve’s attack ads.

While Iggy’s statement regarding coalitions this morning seems very responsible and fair under normal circumstances, Iggy  may have sealed the fate of the Liberal party in that small hint of revisiting the issue at a later time, some time after the next election.  It’s all the rage over at Prog bloggers, but once again, not practical. The trouble with this kind of hint is that it hints of defeat. Canadian voters want to vote for a party that plays to win.

Also, the Harpercon cheerleaders are already dutifully at work making sure that Iggy’s coalitions statements this morning backfire, in case anyone is cheering Iggy’s last move.

As Bob Fife pointed out today, even the slightest hint of a coalition after the next election will be costly to the Liberals. Those center-right voters who have not been persuaded by the media to take that final shove rightward to Steve’s camp, will indeed choose to do just that, as they will see Steve and his socons as the lesser of the evils with a left of center coalition. As well, those on the left who vote liberal, simply because they know the NDP will never govern will now vote NDP as they believe they will form a big ol’ family together following the next election. That, of course, gives Steve his majority; that and the blue grits who will be setting up camp in the Harpercon territory.

Remember Steve’s strong statement in Britain a few days back;  “Losers don’t get to form coalitions; Losers form governments”.  That statement will continue haunting us right up until the next election and it will play in his favour, unless, the Liberals can use that very statement against Steve in pointing out that should Steve yield another minority, would he take the NDP into bed with him? As I’ve pointed out before, that very scenario almost happened in 2004.

But then,  a new governor general will be appointed come September and due to Steve’s hyperpartisan nature, I am inclined to believe that his new GG, who will be equally hyperpartisan,  (I’m betting he is going to pick Preston Manning)  will never accord any coalition post election.

Either way, something has to give and soon. The trouble is that most are looking at the only inevitable solution would be to give Steve a pass to have his majority for four years.  While the Liberals rebuild. As I’ve pointed out yesterday, that shouldn’t be an option as the Liberals as well as any opposition party would be useless and exist only to take up space in the House of Commons, and even then.

Steve’s new parliamentary reform would surely involve no more elections; remember the slogan from last November  of  “de l’action; pas d’election” slogans, to exploit the fears of polling stations amongst the majority of Canadian will surely take care of that.

There is also the fact that the first thing Steve will do is cut off the 1.95$ / vote subsidy, thus crippling the other parties financially;  and since corporations only back ‘winners’, the other parties would have no money to run effective election campaigns. If Steve did hold elections, they would only be symbolic to pretend that he’s running a democracy to disguise the fact that he’s really running a totalitarian regime.

Sound far fetched? Remember, anything can happen if we let it and it seems Steve is getting away with everything he’s getting away with because he can and he bloody well knows it.

As I’ve mentioned yesterday, time is not  a luxury we have.