Joke Layton Strikes Again

MPs got back to work last week

Jack Layton today

"Nothing makes people more cynical about politics than when parties don't do what they say, don't stand up for what they believe."

Jack Layton September 3rd when Stephen Harper prorogued Parliament

"By his actions, Stephen Harper is effectively locking out MPs. We have work to do. Everyday families are counting on us, but Stephen Harper is preventing us from getting down to work,"

I guess the NDP only wanted to work for two weeks…

If they really want to take Canadians to the polls, all they need to do is abstain on the Liberal amendment to the budget.

Here is Layton again today

"We think Mr. Harper is wrong in fundamental ways and when that happens people expect a party to stand up for its principles,''

You want to defeat the entire Throne Speech, abstain from the amendment, or else you are just posturing. The NDP really wants an election. This is their opportunity. By standing up against that amendment, they are sitting on their hands, like hypocrites.

Oh yeah, "Nothing makes people more cynical about politics than when parties don't do what they say, don't stand up for what they believe."

Quebec Liberal Military Strategery

The new Liberal Lieutenant had this gem this morning in the Montreal Gazette

“When you're down, the only thing that can (happen) is that you go up.”

That would be akin to the Polish Generals on horseback saying

“Don’t worry, the panzer tanks will run out of gas.”

Dion is Forked

In chess, when your opponent is poised to take two of your pieces with his next move, you have to choose which one to save, knowing that you will inevitably lose the other. The dilemma is commonly known as a fork.

One can only imagine the fun filled booby-traps that Stephen Harper will put in his Throne Speech tomorrow. Buoyed by two polls which show the Tories emerging from a deadlock with the Liberals, (one which places the Tories in majority territory), Harper can afford to be bolder than usual.

The one lesson we have learned from the Ontario election is that people will value leadership over broken promises. Promises matter. Leadership matters more.

Jean Chretien taught us that a confident leader with a vision will overcome a broken promise on the GST or the Billion-dollar HRDC boondoggle. We can all agree Paul martin had a different style…

So Harper will give a pretty boring speech. He will have new priorities, including a limitation on the infringement in provincial jurisdiction of the federal government, something the NDP and the BQ support whole-heartedly.

Harper will also include a little sentence in there meant to put Stephane Dion in a tough position. Harper will renounce the Kyoto Protocol, probably moving toward another agreement which included the US and Australia. Some are suggesting Harper will say the government wants to repeal Pablo’s Bill C-288, the Kyoto Implementation Bill.

Dion is faced with the most difficult decision of his career. He must choose between his principal issue, the environment, or his own career.

Do the Liberals go now or crush their credibility and wait for a better time. After a reversal of policy of this magnitude, could they possibly regain their credibility? Lose an election now or lose worse later?

Gilles Duceppe is Harper’s number one target in Quebec. He has also decided the Tories have nowhere to go in Quebec but up. He is taking his lumps and is going to the polls before the BQ heads the way of the PQ.

Back to the Liberals. I can hardly see how Stephane Dion prevents an election from happening, especially if the speech is something the Liberals could never support. No government has ever fallen on a throne speech. He can wait until the poison pill issue/bill comes to the house to defeat that. However, he would have had the ample opportunity to have previously stopped it.

My history teacher once told me “Great leaders have always been judged based on what they did when they were at a fork in the road.”

Stephane Dion, it is your move…

Karma is a Bitch

Remember when the Leaf fans mocked us because our captain had cancer?

I do

My best wishes to Jason Blake. I hope he recovers well, even if he is a Maple Leaf

To the members of Leaf Nation who laughed at Saku Koivu….

I bet it is real funny now...

no? That's what I thought

Jamie Carroll is still National Director...

Just thought I would let everybody know

Jamie Carroll Survives (edit:survived?) at the Expense of the Party

Re: Edit

Ottawa Sources are confirming now that Carroll is not going anywhere...

so much for that furniture...

(original edit)

Karma is a bitch...

Jamie is resigning. I am sure this means he still didnt say anything...right

If Dion has any hope for saving the furniture in Quebec, he would be wise to put Marc Lavigne in there, the man responsible for his leadership campaign in Quebec. Lavigne commands the respect of the Quebec troops from all camps...

(below was the original post)

Last week, Jamie Carroll made an off the cuff comment while Party President Marie Poulin was speaking at the meeting of the management committee.

Carroll disgraced himself by saying that if he hired more bilingual people; he would have to hire more Chinese speakers. Now I have met Jamie Carroll and he didn’t seem like Lord Durham at the time. I doubt he is an assimilationist but he needs to take responsibility for what he said.

Look at who came out against Jamie Carroll, the francophones in the room. They were offended by what Jamie said. The Dionistas hemmed and hawed. It was a misunderstanding they say.

Marie Poulin, president of the Party, heard and denounced the comments. She was more diplomatic than the president of the Quebec PTA, Bob Fragasso, who outright condemned it. The VP Francophone, Brigitte Legault, also reiterated that what Carroll said was out of line.

The three people whose job it is to stick up for francophones vigorously defended them to no avail. At the end of the day, in terms of the Liberal Party, Dion showed which side he was on and as usual, Dion was against Quebec.

The departure of Marc Lavigne hurt Dion’s organizational prowess in his home province. The only organizer of note left in the Dionista camp was Sherbrooke’s Michel Joncas, the election co-chair for Quebec.

Yesterday, Michel Joncas resigned from the electoral commission and from his riding association. The electoral commission pushed for the nomination of three candidates in winnable ridings on the island.

They penciled in Liza Frulla in Lasalle Emard, but nobody knows if she will accept, and if Dion will allow it. Westmount, the riding where national hero Marc Garneau was supposed to run, was given to Marc Bruneau, former VP of Bell Canada, and someone who throws nice fundraisers at his penthouse apartment. STAR candidate indeed (sarcasm). As for Jeanne LeBer, it was assigned to Westmount riding President Brigitte Garceau. Why not run Garceau in the riding where she lives and has worked at the grassroots level for 13 years? Because Bruneau throws nice parties in his penthouse apartment.

The train wreck continues here in Quebec and not even the most seasoned political veterans can tell when it is going to end. With Quebec’s Director General Serge Marcil also ready to quit and nobody around who wants to succeed him, it is very possible that we are in an election in 3 weeks and the Liberals will be completely unprepared in Quebec.

Why does nobody in Quebec want to help dear old Stephane Dion? Could it be because the National Director and his staff have such little respect for the province? Could it be because every time since he became leader, Dion has chosen his staff over Quebec? I guess in the end, you reap what you sow…