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The Liberal Leadership Convention Vancouver 2009.
Let the Members Decide.
Ardvark for Leader.

What do you think? Your suggestions are always welcomed.



Thank you,

Ardvark


I respect the thoughts and opinions of the party grassroots.

Michael, can you say the same?

Reason # 1 to vote for the Ardvark.

Reason #1 to vote for the Ardvark for leader of the LPC.




When I sign my name to a document I will never sign it for my own selfish reasons only to change my mind later. I will stand by my signature and my word.





Leadership is knowing what to sign and what not to sign.


Vote for the Ardvark. Vancouver 2009.

I took a long walk tonight

I took a long walk earlier tonight, I would have taken a canoe trip but the river is frozen solid, and somewhere between the convenience store and the 4 way stop, I came to a realization. It did not come easy, nor did it come without much deep thought and reflection, but after having watched Canadian politics over the last few months it was obvious that I cannot just sit idly by and do nothing while a great political party is being dragged down by its leader.

So after first striking a committee a week ago to study the possibility; I have decided to declare my intent to run for the leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada at the convention taking place in Vancouver April 30-May 3, 2009. Many thanks to all those who have already expressed their support and to the many who have already began to work on the campaign. There is lots of work ahead, and with your help I can save the Liberal Party from an Ignatieff future.

There is so much to do and the paper work has to be in by March 1st to make it all official, but even with all of this work, I promise to use this media to keep you all informed of my progress, my platform, and the reasons why I am needed to save the Liberal Party of Canada.

If you were planning on supporting Michael, all I ask is that you give me the chance to prove to you that I can be as much of a Liberal as he is, because we all know that he is already as conservative as I am.

Unlike others who have high jacked the party and who are already planning the coronation; I value the democratic process along with your opinions, and I will work for your votes rather than just assuming the throne.


Vote for real change. Vote for the Ardvark for LPC leader!!


Thank you for your support.

AA

Adler defines Ignatieff

"Any careful examination of the life and times of Michael Ignatieff will show that the one core principle he will never abandon is his ability to abandon. Friends, acquaintances, organizations, causes, universities, countries and now coalition partners. All have tasted the sour juice of abandonment."


You can read the rest here or listen to it here.


Update:Sept 11, 2009: Adler sends Ignatieff another letter. Dear Michael.....

In 9 months time....

If in 9 months time* the poll numbers look positive enough for the Liberals that they decide to pull the plug and try to force an election.

Will Jack and Gilles play along?

And if you think the answer is yes, could you offer up some reasons as to why you think they would do so after their 'coalition leader' Iggy just threw them both under the political bus?


As most adulterers know, sometimes those old bed partners can come back to haunt you.



The love fest has already started.

From the comments:

"Ignatieff will turn 65 and get his pension before we see an election,
... oh no, wait, he can't get a pension, he's never worked in Canada ..."Thomas Mulcair NDP MP.

The latest addition to the NDP web site. "This is the first important public decision Mr. Ignatieff has made in his life. And what he decided to do is stick with Mr. Dion's unfortunate habit of voting for Stephen Harper. What you and I learned today is that we can't rely on Mr. Ignatieff to oppose Mr. Harper."

Update: A day later: NDP radio ads appear. Ad #1 Ad #2

That was fast. You might think that these were ready before the budget came out. Nahhh, that would make no sense.

* an arbitrary but perhaps realistic date.

A little Jack Layton spin for your enjoyment.

Jack Layton "In today's budget, he prioritized $60 billion in corporate tax cuts and only $1.15 billion for the unemployed,"

That is very interesting Jack because as part of your deal with the devils of the coalition you had already agreed to totally reverse your position and now would support the Liberal view on the proposed Conservative cut to corporate taxes and that they would remain unaltered in a coalition budget.

Funny how with the coalition idea slipping away to the trash heap of Canadian political history that he now tries to spin it differently.

Or maybe he knows something that the rest of us don't.



Speaking of spin. Does this look like the future NDP line of attack on Iggy and the Libs?

Jack Layton: "He has a choice to make. It's either to prop up the Harper government and allow it to continue in a fashion that is clearly wrong-headed, or to pursue the agenda laid out by the coalition, which would create jobs for the future and would transform our economy and would really protect the people who are suffering the most from the economic crisis."


Update: As I said, it happened and Jack is already going hard after Iggy. I will just put this quote here because Layton seems to want to now use the term coalition as a negative when up until this morning it was the greatest thing in the world. ""We have a new coalition now on Parliament Hill. It's a coalition between Mr. Harper and Mr. Ignatieff," Mr. Layton told reporters.

This guy will say anything if he thinks it will benefit him.

Pulling the rug out from under the coalition.

Heard any of these before?

Stephen Harper does not understand that he did not get a majority.

The Conservatives fail to recognize the seriousness of Canada's economic situation.

He (Harper)was given a minority, and he refused to work with the other parties, he had 38% of the vote and he's trying to govern like he had 100% of the power, he's the one who's got democracy wrong, not us.

Given the critical situation facing our fellow citizens and the refusal and inability of the Harper government to deal with this critical situation, the opposition parties have decided that it was now time to take action.

The Conservatives chose partisan games based on ideological beliefs instead of considering the interests of Quebecers and Canadians.

The Conservatives must work with the other parties.

The Conservatives divisive measures that were making it hard for Parliament to work together .


Now tell me how a budget that does address the concerns of the coalition, is a real response to the current situation, is perhaps so non "conservative" or ideological that it is pissing off many so called conservatives, that the Government invited the other parties to participate in it's creation, is ready with cash immediately for the economy, is popular among the electorate, and is pretty much doing exactly the opposite of what the above quotes claim, could be voted against by the people who made the above statements?

It can't be, or at least it can't be honestly unless those above statements were just more of the same political rhetoric that we have seen so often in the past, and that Canadians are getting tired of reading about.

There has been plenty of talk about how the PM has abandoned the principles of conservatism, and that he should stick to his guns by not increasing spending etc. Fortunately those so called conservatives that are doing most of the criticizing are not the PM as this type of thing would be playing right into the hands of Layton and the coup crew who would be overjoyed if the PM were that stupid or that ideologically rigid. It would be spun as proving that the coalition is a good idea because the PM does not understand or care about Canadians and is not willing to make things work. They are not going to get that chance.

The opposition gets out foxed by Harper again and they have not yet figured it out.

The budget will pass, the coalition will be dead with the partners pointing fingers at one another in blame, good honest government will continue, and when an election eventually is called the proof of who compromised and was willing to make government work, and who was only playing political games will be even clearer than it was when the NDP/Bloc/Liberal hidden agenda was first revealed back in early December.

Well Colour Me Surprised.

Jack Layton and coalition partner Gilles Duceppe say they will not support the budget.



In the mean time Iggy is trying to find more creative ways to have Liberal MP's sit on their hands.

Media Whore Alert # 32

The MSM seem to have found a new hobby. Find conservatives who disagrees with PM Harper (in particular those who are into self promotion in a big way) and give them some air time.

Anything to sell papers I guess.

Caroline Kennedy out Kirsten Gillibrand in.

New York Gov. David Paterson has selected an NRA-endorsed moderate Democrat from Upstate New York Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand to fill the US Senate seat vacated by newly confirmed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton after Kennedy withdrew from consideration on Thursday. Source

Caroline Kennedy removed her from consideration for the U. S. Senate seat vacated by Hillary Clinton because of problems involving taxes and household employees, the New York Times reported, citing an unnamed "person close to Gov. David Paterson." Source.

Problems with taxes and household employees huh. If taxes are not going to be enough to stop this guy from getting in, I have to wonder just how bad those "problems" really are.

Obama Redo

President Obama retakes the oath of office after his well publicized flub yesterday.

"We believe that the oath of office was administered effectively and that the President was sworn in appropriately yesterday," said White House Counsel Greg Craig.

"But the oath appears in the Constitution itself. And out of an abundance of caution, because there was one word out of sequence, Chief Justice Roberts administered the oath a second time."

So now that it is official let me say this; good luck President Obama.

An exploratory committee for my bid to become leader of the LPC

In the spirit of democracy, and because no one else seems to want the job, I would like to announce the formation of an exploratory committee for my bid to become leader of the Liberal Party of Canada.

Nothing is certain just yet, but if there is a certain level of support out there this might just turn out to be the beginning stage of what may become my bid to provide REAL change to the LPC.

Thank you for your support.

AA


3.
NOMINATION OF LEADERSHIP CONTESTANTS
3.1
Qualifications. To be eligible for election as the Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, a person must satisfy the requirements of subsection 55(1) of the National Constitution and, in addition, must at least 62 days before the day of the Leadership Vote, deliver to the National President or their designate care of the National Office:

Attention Media: Micheal Ignatieff is the "Interim Leader" .

Micheal Ignatieff is the interim leader of the Liberal Party. He is not the leader until he is ratified at the Liberal Party convention in May and there is still plenty of time for a new challenger to surface, an old one to step back into the ring, or even a revolt of the rank and file.

These are the facts. There is no guarantee that the well spoken Iggy will be anointed as the 'chosen one' at the convention; so why does the press almost always refer to him as the Liberal Leader and leave out the word "interim"?

Any ideas?

You might say that this is just what the press does, but before you do, ask yourself if they did the same thing for Bill Graham?

Hmmm, can't remember?

Well perhaps you might want to refresh your memory by doing the following: Go to CBC, CTV, or any of your other MSM outlets and do a search for Bill Graham stories from January to December 2006. Take note of the number of times he is referred to as the interim leader. Now repeat the same for Iggy over the last month. What did you find, and do you still think that the press have been treating both of these interim leaders the same?

Save the Hollow Tree!

Sorry Kate, but I say we need to save Vancouver's famous Hollow Tree which stands (with much help) in Stanley Park.

-----

It stands as a symbol for all things that would, or perhaps should, die a natural death if it were not for taxpayer* dollars being spent. After all, we do know more than mother nature about this kind of thing don't we?






* before someone jumps in to tell me that this is all going to be private money I would like to point out the matching grant from the Heritage Legacy Fund of BC which was funded by tax dollars, and such additional costs as the cost of about $100,000 to landscape around the site and restore the roadway curbing, as claimed by Stanley Park board staff.

The Lib Blogs are revolting.

Well at least some of them are.



Cherniak may have stopped blogging, but his touch lives on.

MP Peter Stoffer and some common sense.

Someone is going to be in the NDP doghouse.

N.S. MP Peter Stoffer disagrees with his leader's stand on rejecting the upcoming federal budget sight unseen.

Stoffer told 'The Afternoon News" radio show host Tom Young, that his party should 'wait and see what is in the budget' before rejecting it sight unseen.

Stoffer indicated he would raise his concerns over Layton's stand at the NDP's caucus meeting next week.

ht National Newswatch.

Quebec Leans Conservative.

How else can you explain Ignatieff's alleged popularity in the Province of Quebec?

Ardvark Predicts the Future.

Sometime during the next election campaign Jack Layton will be in front of a microphone and he will say the following: "Michael Ignatieff is nothing more than Harper light".

And he will do so with that big annoying smile.

Sorry for my absence.

Sorry for my absence, but I have been busy writing a book and did not want to disturb your Christmas.

Ht BLY