Iggy & Layton Attempt To Squash Coalition/Merger Rumours But Will it Be Enough?

Well, it’s now  deny! Deny! Deny! on the part of  not only Alf Apps and Iggy but surprisingly, from Jack Layton as well. Surprising, because given Iggy’s rumour and the chatter that followed, Jack would probably have waited  for his poll numbers to go up as a result of this rumour. And if anyone stopped to think about how ridiculous and far fetched these NDP/Liberal coalitions sound; Jack is still taking shots at the Liberals; they still disagree on pretty much everything to this day.  In fact, like myself, former Liberal party’s  national campaign co-chairman, Mark Marissen in today’s Montreal Gazette wonders which party would Jack Layton really prefer to  see govern: Liberals or Harpercons? To this day NDP supporters lambaste Iggy for not defeating the budget bill yesterday and Liberal supporters are lambasting Jack over his refusal to whip his MPs into voting to keep the long gun registry. I have believed for sometime now that Jack sometimes does or votes for (or against) things simply to contrast the Liberals.

Marissen also explains that the Liberal party, themselves is a ‘coalition’ of sorts as they have a diverse cabinet of right and left candidates and MPs.

And let’s remember that Liberals are already a “coalition” of sorts — a coalition of people who reject rigid dogma and want balanced, fair government.

Think about who Liberals attracted in the past decade: Outside B.C., people such as former NDP premier Bob Rae, and former Conservative MPs Belinda Stronach and Scott Brison.

Liberals know that they succeed when they reach out to both the left and the right.

This theory was proved in British Columbia in 2004 and 2006, when Paul Martin conducted one of the most aggressive candidate recruitment efforts ever, pulling in people such as former NDP premier Ujjal Dosanjh, former Canfor president David Emerson, IWA union president Dave Haggard, native leader Miles Richardson, Conservative MP Keith Martin, and B.C. Liberal minister Gulzar Cheema, and appointing left-wing Vancouver mayor Larry Campbell to the Senate. Some of these people didn’t win their seats, but they demonstrated that Liberals were serious about reaching out in B.C., and more Liberals were elected (with the best B.C. results since 1968) against the national tide.

As for those rumours running fast and loose; what of them?  Warren Kinsella swears in an affidavit that:

…explaining that the party president, Alfred Apps, told him over the phone on May 11, 2010, that there were high-level discussions involving retired NDP politicians such as Ed Broadbent and Roy Romanow.

“I told Mr. Apps the idea sounded risky,” said Kinsella in the affidavit. “He replied: ‘It is a profoundly democratic act and would lead to the creation of a new party.’”

Apps, is of course vehemently denying any of this happened.

Apps, who is also a lawyer at the firm of Fasken Martineau, said he believed the prospect of a coalition in Parliament between opposition parties to seize power was a “crazy idea,” and that a merger “would and could never occur.”

Well, yes, Mr. Apps, I think it’s a safe bet that most would agree with that assessment, but who’s telling the truth here?  It should also be noted that, according to Jim Travers’ article over the week-end, Mr Apps is supposed to step down soon due to  failing to fill its campaign coffers. If  Apps is stepping down soon, what reason would he have to lie about such things?

Warren Kinsella, on the other hand, would seem to have an axe to grind with Iggy.

Oops! Low and behold, it seems that another former Liberal , John Mraz has sworn in another affidavit that:

a second affidavit from another former Liberal, John Mraz, who said Apps told him he was involved in discussions that included not only Chretien and Broadbent, but also former Progressive Conservatives such as Joe Clark.

Apps also rejected the credibility of the second affidavit.

“They are the only two Liberals who ever talked to me about this,” said Apps. “The only information I shared with John Mraz is information that Kinsella shared with me. I again rejected a coalition and laid out all the reasons why a merger (the only other option) made no sense. The reason I discouraged Mraz from writing an article is that I thought it was such a crazy idea, it was not even worth printing.”

I did a quick search about John Mraz to find out what his motivations might be as I’ve never heard the name before.  Other than precious few articles, I couldn’t find anything of substance.

Confused? Wouldn’t blame you if you were!

We have Jack Layton and Iggy who are current leaders of their respective parties vehemently denying coalition talks, when it would appear that the dinosaurs, Broadbent, Romanow,  Chretien, and now according to Mraz’s affidavit, Joe Clark somehow stumbled into the mix. How odd.

I have a feeling that no matter how much both leaders protest, deny and attempt to squash coalition rumours, it is now red meat for the Harpercons.  More than vehement denial is required. There is ambiguity between Mr Apps and Mraz/Kinsella.  Who has more credibility? Not that that would matter to Harpercons and their cheerleaders in the corporate media. Remember, Steve does control the message these days.

Another thing to think about, as I mentioned in a post earlier today, Jean Lapierre has credibility and there doesn’t appear to be any love lost between Warren Kinsella and himself. Lapierre sounded certain in the who and the how of this potential coalition debacle. That can’t be ignored. Lapierre is a journalist and a pundit who seems to have no interest to return to federal politics; he has nothing to lose or gain by what he said this morning.

For the time being, the Liberals should now concentrate on keeping themselves together, rather than getting together with other non relatives.

Big tents are better than complicated schemes. Instead of speculating about coalitions, Liberals need to continue sharpening their strategy and recruiting sensible Canadians from all former political stripes under a Liberal banner. Because Liberals should be governing for everyone, not the left or the right.

That would be something most of us can live with. For those NDP supporters who think the Liberals lean too far to the right, look at it this way, it’s far better than Steve’s sharp right turns as those are your only choices.  The NDP will never govern. Case in point:  the center would rather turn Steve’s sharp right turn as the NDP, no matter how much they attempt to center themselves, they wear the evil, grossly misused title of ‘soshalist’. (OK, it helps that the media is in lockstep with Steve and serving Harpercon kool-aid, but still).

I wished that Canadians were more progressive. I wish for a lot of things, don’t mean we’ll get ‘em and things could get worse; much worse. A Harpercon majority comes to mind.

For those hardcore Harpercon fans, lamenting about the Liberals being too far to the left: get over yourselves! You’ve got Saint Steve to cheer for. If they (Liberals)  were as far left as you think, then why should you care?

I still maintain that both Iggy and Rae should go before the upcoming election. New fresh faces are needed to lead and they exist and can even be made ready.  Be it Trudeau; be it Leblanc or be it someone else: something tells me things can’t be worse than with Rae or Iggy. It would also still be the only way to squash those coalition talks.

It’s also time for Warren Kinsella to move on and for those dinosaurs to continue enjoying retirement.