Spooked by the polls, the Liberals have decided to jettison Stephane Dion as their lame duck leader by having him ‘resign’ some time this week.
Now rumours of a palace coup by some fifty of so Liberal MPs are swirling around. The plan is to skew the Liberal selection process by having the Caucus vote to replace Dion with Michael Ignatieff, as ‘interim leader’.
Ignatieff is making a bold bid for power, aimed at usurping the right of ordinary Liberals to vote for their leader. And at the same time, Ignatieff is reported to be backing off from the Coalition Accord signed by the LPC and NDP, which would put the Coalition in power, supported by the Bloc for 18 months.
With Rovian guile, the plan of this small band of conspirators is to have the May convention of the Liberals converted into a ‘ratification’ of the interim leader, Ignatieff. Rubberstamp the palace coup, Liberals; it is for your own good to have ‘stability’, not to ‘upset the apple cart’ or ‘rock the boat’.
What a breathtaking 180 degree turn within a few days that Ignatieff is making!
The ink on the Accord is scarcely dry, and he is preparing to unilaterally breach it. How on earth can the Liberals expect the Bloc or the NDP to trust any Liberal minority government (if there is one) under Ignatieff after such a flagrant breach of faith ? The NDP and the Bloc would be fully entitled to view the Liberal Party under Ignatieff in such circumstances as simply being as duplicitous as Stephen Harper is viewed …
Ignatieff is reported to be saying “Coalition if necessary, but not necessarily a Coalition.” What twaddle!
With these words, Ignatieff is telegraphing weakness to Harper, and Harper, the most accomplished bully in Parliament for decades, can smell weakness from a hundred yards away.
We can expect Harper to pounce on such telegraphed weakness by Ignatieff, and move in to break the Coalition well before January 26.
Look for Harper to play to Ignatieff’s vanity, by having one on one talks with him, and praising him for the ‘new spirit of cooperation’ Ignatieff has displayed.
Ignatieff will no doubt announce that due to his personal efforts, and the ‘threat’ of a coalition, he has managed to force Harper to come up with a stimulus plan that is ‘better’ than the one the Tories had planned, and to bask in his Pyrrhic victory. Watch the pleasure on his face when Harper pats him on the back and says: “You’re doing a heckuva job, Michael!”
What Ignatieff misses is what Bob Rae and countless Liberals have sensed. Polls show that 67% of ordinary Liberals back the Accord.
These people, like the NDP and the Bloc, realize that the power equation in Parliament has shifted; that Harper has no room to hide, and that Harper should be voted out. Harper has lost the confidence of the opposition MPs and even more importantly, has lost the essential element of confidence: trust.
The chances are high right now that if the Coalition is not destroyed by Mr Dithers II, the Tory government will be voted out of power in early 2009, and be replaced by the LPC-NDP Coalition.
Liberals should vote for the man of principle, Bob Rae, and Bob Rae should abide by the Accord, honour the signature of the Liberal Party on this historic document, vote the Tories out of power and replace it with the Coalition government.
Only that way will ordinary Canadians get a chance to have the Accord principles implemented by a progressive centre government, and have Parliament governed in a new spirit of cooperation, rather than mean spirited bickering and partisan politics.
If Liberals are given the chance to vote for their leader, they should vote for the Warrior, not the Wimp.
