Jean Lapierre Seems To Know More & Coalition Not About Saving Liberals but Giving Bob Rae His Last Hurrah

One question, folks? How in the world did Warren Kinsella get on this merger/coalition bandwagon? Why is he doing this? Me thinks he also has an axe to grind…with Iggy.  In last night’s CBC news article pointed out that Kinsella refused to divulge exactly who these insiders discussing this proposed merger/coalition are.

Well, somebody else seems to know and he divulged this morning.

Jean Lapierre did his semi regular political commentary on CJAD’s Andrew Carter Morning show.  Naturally, Andrew’s first question was about  these coalition rumours and such. They’re everybody’s question these days, right?  For those who were wondering exactly who was doing the talking about coalitions, I think Lapierre clears this mystery.

There was something different to Lapierre’s commentary this morning. He seems more sure  (not speculative) of certain details. Of course, we have to remember that Lapierre was a good friend of Paul Martin and left shortly after the loss of the former Liberal PM. Still, he seems pretty accurate with some of his forecasts, moreso than other strategists and pundits.

First, he said, with certainty, (no words like ‘maybe’, ‘ perhaps’ or any tone of ambiguity) that talks are indeed happening and while Bob Rae would be the proposed leader of this venture, the talks are led by, get this; no party insiders: Roy Romanow, Ed Broadbent and of course, Jean Chretien. Great! So these talks are from political dinosaurs of days’ past when Liberal voters are seeking Fresh faces at the helm of the party.  Other than perhaps Bob Rae and his ‘friends’ within the party,  are there other Liberal insiders or perhaps even NDP insiders who are in the loop?

 What I found odd was how Lapierre said that with only 25% in the polls, one faction is looking to get rid of Iggy before the next election, more than actually planning a permanent arrangement.  Funny, I speculated about that too not too long ago.  If that’s the case, there are better ways of going about getting rid of him. Really, there are.

Then Lapierre went on about how this would be done.  It would be indeed this making a similar agreement that Stephane Dion made with Dizzy Miss Lizzy in 2008, further going on to cite the example that Mulcair the mouth would automatically keep his seat in Outremont; no contest with Martin Cauchon. That ought to send him bristling.  However, he sounded a little less certain about that than the talks going on between Broadbent, Romanow and Chretien, but more so than others who have speculated about this in the past.

He also ventured to speculate where and how many possible liberal and/or NDP gains there may be.  Chantal Hebert this morning  also speculated how & where  the Liberals and the NDP would gain seats with this idiotic arrangement. The difference between Hebert and Lapierre, however, is that Hebert seems much more optimistic about such an arrangement than Lapierre is. I’m not that optimistic about that neither: I can see Liberal and NDP voters being disappointed their party of choice in their riding not  being an option on the ballot and could well either spoil it, stay home or even vote for one of those fringe parties in their ridings or even vote Harpercon.

Quebec  and the Bloc Quebecois is another matter all together.

From what I’ve been reading and hearing in the mainly right slanted mainstream media is not favourable to coalitions before and especially after.  And in a lot of cases, it’s not because Master Steve doesn’t like it; it’s quite the opposite: it’s red meat for him and his cheerleaders. He can deflect attention from his evangelical MPS, fake lakes and over priced photo ops, as well as his other woes.

All this coalition talk does is not only prove Iggy can’t do it on his own, it’s not exactly a ringing endorsement for Bob Rae neither. Why should it be? Whose idiotic idea was it to have the guy who by all accounts was a terrible premier in Ontario, anyway? As for those who come out and defend him…well…put it this way, sometimes facts and truths are not what matters but rather, what is perceived to be truth or fact.

The Iggy camp of the Liberals would like him gone to, I’m sure. Hell, I think even Iggy wants to go. However, that camp is probably insisting on keeping him around  to prevent Bob Rae from becoming leader.  If Iggy doesn’t go on his own sometime in the very near future, I’m sure that camp will want to be rid of him.

No folks, this coalition strikes me more being about giving Bob Rae his last hurrah before the next election. It’s not about what’s good for Canada or even the Liberal party.

Logically, if neither Rae nor Iggy can even score a minority government on their own, then shouldn’t logic dictate that both need to be ousted now?

There are potential candidates who are leaders in waiting.  Two of whom Craig Oliver touted as being the future of the Liberal party: Justin Trudeau and Domenic Leblanc.  There have also been other names thrown into the ring by a few others such as Siobhan Coady of St-John’s.

Yeah! Yeh! Yeh!  The first thing these party insiders and some pundits would say that these hopefuls are not yet ready. Well, how about this?  Neither was Iggy. Honestly, these up and comers couldn’t possibly be any worse than Iggy nor Rae.

Instead of all energies focussing on a coalition, perhaps they should concentrate their energies on getting some candidates into the ring for a new leadership vote of some kind?  No more coronations. 

Oh yes, it’s definitely time for panic, but new leadership needs to be pushed; not half baked coalitions orchestrated by dinosaurs no longer privy to day to day operations of  the Liberals and NDP.