Come Out! Come Out! Wherever You Are!

Time to come clean now. The Canadian voters deserve to know what’s going on. For the past few weeks now, we have heard nothing but speculation regarding Jean Chretien and a few other political dinosaurs like Ed Broadbent and Roy Romanow; some speculate even ol’ Joe Who is even involved. Although, I do have trouble believing the latter would be involved in such talks.  Clark really has nothing to gain or lose at this point, although, he was one who resigned following the merger of the now defunct Progressive Conservatives and CRAP; he may have an axe to grind with Steve, but so many years have passed since; long time to be holding grudges and plotting schemes.

James Morton over at Morton’s Musings is tired of things like ‘anonymous sources’ telling the story. He refers to a quote from Norman Spector’s column earlier this afternoon.  Yes, Norman Spector outdid himself yet again. I guess he must not have had much to say as his  little column dealt more with Joel-Denis’s ‘anonymous sources’ over at La Presse (Joel-Denis Bellavance’s column here) confirming to us what Jack Layton basically said on Question Period this morning and what Ira Dubinsky, the strategist for the NDP, said on Tommy Schnurmacher’s political panel on Friday; that Chretien is not having official talks about coalition or merger with Ed Broadbent. These so-called talks were reduced to two old political war buddies chatting over dinner or a drink.

Spector’s column is a typical reminder of how this whole he said/he said coalition/merger talks being speculated all over the media, complete with anonymous sources and hints:

In its Saturday edition, La Presse reports that “Jean Chrétien believes it’s in the interest of the Liberal Party to merge with the NDP and build a party that can defeat the Conservatives in the next election.” Indeed, anonymous Liberal sources told reporter Joel-Denis Bellavance that Mr. Chrétien believes that “merger is the only option – as the right was united.”

See what kind of mess this has all become?

We have Warren Kinsella waving around his affidavits and chatting it up with The Mark News and the CBC. Outgoing President Alf Apps denying. Then another Liberal, John Mraz also coming out with an affidavit, like Warren’s, declaring that Apps indeed engaged in coalition/merger talks with them.

Bellavance’s column basically says that Chretien doesn’t want to “stir things up any more so as not to harm Liberal chances in the next election.”

Layton and Iggy are still vehemently denying coalition/merger talks to this day. Layton even told Jane Taber that he has never given “authorization” for such talks and just for good ol’ modern NDP measure, took the occasion to slam the Liberals.

Then later, yet another column in the Grope & Fail; a joint effort by Gloria Galloway and Daniel Leblanc (he very recently wrote a three part series, attempting to revive ADSCAM) are indeed talking coalition/merger, saying that these talks are still very much alive and kicking, hours after Spector and Bellavance came out with their respective columns.

If anyone would stop to think for a second; the current leaders and MPs of the NDP are still taking shots at the Liberals as often as they ever had. Josee Legault even confirms Mulcair the mouth slammed Iggy on Radio Canada recently.  How do  we come up with merger/coalition are happening?

I am also tired of the he said / she said. I’m sure many Canadians are tired of it and the conflicting media reports are doing nothing more than confusing Canadians.

The only people we haven’t heard from officially that we should be hearing from are these dinosaurs who are supposedly holding these talks. All we’re getting are images of these people meeting in dark corners of restaurants and bars.    In the words of James Morton: “Enough Already!” I won’t speak for Mr Morton, but I say it’s time for Jean Chretien and any other dinosaur he may be chatting it up with to come out from their dark corners and tell Canadians what exactly they’re doing and talking about with each other, if anything?  We’ve heard from Iggy and Layton more than once. It’s time for the dinorsaurs involved to come out, wherever they are.  While it may or may not necessarily be in the best interests of their respective parties (except for Joe Who as the Progressive Conservatives no longer exist); it can’t possibly be worse than the train wreck that is happening now.

Ideally, as I’ve mentioned before, new leadership is needed now; that both Rae and Iggy had to go ASAP and that would be our best shot against a potential Harpercon majority in the next election, surely to happen sooner, rather than later. I still maintain this.  Iggy may still well go over the summer if the chattering doesn’t stop, but Bob Rae would more than likely take over at the very least for the interim.

Either way, it is time for Chretien and his ‘coalition’ buddies (whomever they may be) to come out, come out, wherever they are to set the records straight.

Under normal circumstances, such merger/coalition talks should be secret.  No one would should be discussing them publicly, much less leaking stuff o the media. That would be best, but since this is anything but, a statement of some kind will have to be made.

The big winner from all this rumour, inuendo and chatty behavior is Steve and his puppets and flunkies. He will milk this ambiguity for all it’s worth. Since the dinosaurs aren’t talking; and the media continues speculating;  Canadians are more confused. Once again, St-Stevie to the rescue to explain it all to them in plain English, with his own spin to suit his own ends, naturally. However, voters would say to themselves that only Harpercons can run an ‘honest’ campaign.  Surely, this is not what Chretien would want, as that is why he mused about a coalition/merger in the first place; because he sees it as the only way to beat the Harpercons.  With that in mind, one would think it would be in Chretien’s best interest to give a statement.

Then again, perhaps I’m wrong about all this.  Ideally, these rumours need to be squashed somehow ASAP. That would be the best case scenario, but that would be wishful thinking on my part.

Sidenote: Romanow did talk , but, we still need to hear from the bigger dinosaurs.