The 29 Liberal MPs that Ignatieff would not let do their job.

29 Liberals were absent from Parliament for a confidence vote on the budget earlier tonight.

29 Liberals were not there to do their job and represent the people who elected them to office, which is a bit ironic considering their biggest complaint over prorogation was that they were not allowed to do their job, in Ottawa, in Parliament.

Here are the Liberals that did not vote, either by choice or by being told not to show up.

Bagnell, Larry
Bennett, Carolyn
Bevilacqua, Maurizio
Byrne, Gerry
Cannis, John
Coderre, Denis
Cotler, Irwin
Dhalla, Ruby
Duncan, Kirsty
Eyking, Mark
Foote, Judy
Fry, Hedy
Garneau, Marc
Kania, Andrew J.
Karygiannis, Jim
LeBlanc, Dominic
MacAulay, Lawrence
Martin, Keith P.
McTeague, Dan
Murphy, Brian
Murphy, Shawn
Murray, Joyce
Pacetti, Massimo
Patry, Bernard
Regan, Geoff
Sgro, Judy
Silva, Mario
Russell, Todd
Trudeau, Justin

By being absent, these 29 Liberals allowed this motion: "That this House approve in general the budgetary policy of the government. (Ways and Means No. 1)" to pass 142-132 even though Michael Ignateff and the Liberals have stated that the budget is bad for Canada and they disagree with it. The Liberals are again playing games rather than doing their jobs or providing a real alternative.


Contact information is linked to names of the 29 Liberal MPs. Feel free to email, or call and ask them if Ignatieff forbid them from doing their jobs and representing you, or if it was their choice for them not to do their jobs.

Feel free to let us all know the responses.

(For some added fun ask them what was their biggest complaint against prorogation.)

December 01, 2008. Happy Anniversary you Coalition fans.

It was exactly 1 year ago, December 1st 2008 when perhaps the most divisive move in the history of Canadian politics took place as Stephane Dion, Gilles Duceppe, and Jack Layton signed the coalition agreements.

A coalition that if it would have come to take the reigns of power in Canada would have caused a "permanent division"* in Canadian society.




*Michael Ignatieff June 30, 2009.

Has there been anything that Ignatieff has not changed his position on?

Turnabout is fair play. Stephane Dion's wife has some thoughts

Considering how Ignatieff was working behind the scenes long before he seized power from Dion; this could have been much worse.

Janine Krieber from her Facebook Page.

It's been a year and one week since I last wrote on my blog. Ah! "la présidente" is lazy. But we have to take action now.

The Liberal Party is falling apart, and will not recover. Like all liberal parties in Europe, it will become a weakling at the mercy of ephemeral coalitions. By refusing the historic coalition that would have placed it at the helm of the left, it will be punished by history.

Anyway, I became convinced of it the moment that Paul Martin treated Jean Chrétien so cavalierly. The party died at that moment. If the Toronto elites had been more in tune, humble and realist, Stéphane would have been willing to take all the time and absord all the hits needed to rebuild the party. But they couldn't swallow the 26%, and now we are at 23%.

The time for choices is now. I don't want to see the Conservatives continue to change my country. They are, slowly, like any dictatorship, changing the world. Torture doesn't exist, corruption is a fabrication. Do we really have the right leader to discuss these questions? Can someone really write these insanities and lead us to believe that he simply changed his mind? In order to justify violence, he must have engaged in serious thought. Otherwise, it's very dangerous. How can we be sure that he won't change his mind one more time?

The party grassroots had understood all of that, and the average citizen is starting to understand it too. Ignatieff's supporters have not done their homework. They did not read his books, consult his colleagues. They were satisfied that he could be charming at cocktails. Some of them are outraged now. I am hearing: Why did no one say it? We told you loud and clear, you didn't listen.

I am starting a serious reflection. I will not give my voice to a party that will end up in the trashcan of history. I am looking around me, and certain things are attractive. Like a dedicated party that doesn't challenge its leader at every hiccup in the polls. A party where the rule would be the principle of pleasure, and not assassination. A party where work ethic and competence would be respected and where smiles would be real.

Maybe I'm not dreaming.

"La présidente."

Mischief from within the Liberal Party.

Mischief is afoot in the Liberal Party of Canada. Is Michael Ignatieff the only one who hasn't figured it out yet? From CTV's Power Play with Tom Clarke.

The adult conversation that isn't to be, the entire Outremont fiasco, general confusion, Liberal Senators holding up legislation that Ignatieff wants passed, loyalty oaths and caucus secrecy that brings back memories of Garth Turner; it all ads up to internal mischief or as Tom Clarke called it "a more apprehended insurrection that we know to be true".


Big questions remain though; will Ignatieff be able to figure it all out it is too late and will he be able to handle it?


I don't have the answers but I do know that somewhere tonight Stephane Dion will sleep the sleep of angels.

h/t Biff

"I could be sitting here as your prime minister, but I turned it down.."

“I could be sitting here as your prime minister, but I turned it down because I didn’t think it was right for someone who believes in the national unity of my country to make a deal with people who want to split the country up,”

The above was said in March 2009, on September 10th he used a similar line at least 2 times in his press conference, and on the 11th he again went before the cameras and repeated it at least 2 separate times in both official languages.

I think that this would have to qualify as Michael Ignatieff's favorite quote and I expect him to use it again in the upcoming days or weeks.

I have a problem with it though.

Is he sure that he would have been PM and that Jack and Gilles would not have a say in the matter? I am not sure that he is/was aware because according to one of his MP's he never read the agreement before he signed it?

John McCallum speaks on Ignatieff signing on to the coalition agreement.

Related: Other posts on John McCallum Here and Here.

Things not to do

Here are a few things not to do:

Do not take driving lessons from Stephane Dion.

Do not take any stock tips or economic advice from Michael Ignatieff.

But most of all, do not believe for a minute that the last 2 leaders of the Liberal Party of Canada can relate to the average Canadian or claim to understand and represent them.

Iggy's Favorites: Seating plan for the HoC.

Currently the seating plan for the front bench of official opposition reads like this from left to right: Kennedy, Dryden, Hall Findlay, Dion, Goodale, Brison, Bennett,Fry, Bevilacqua, Macaulay, Guarnieri, Volpe, Ignatifeff and Rae.

Aside from the obvious 2 changes of Dion and Iggy, what other changes do you see in store for the front bench of the Liberals in the House of Commons when they return in late January?

Turnabout is fair play so I would like to see Dion and Iggy just trade places myself because the vision of Rae and Dion sitting beside each other at the end of the front bench would bring joy to my heart this holiday season and would make for some good TV on CPAC.


My prediction*: Honestly I expect Dion to go about 3 rows back and sort of do a Paul Martin style disappearing act, and I do think that all of those currently sitting left of Dion, Kennedy, Dryden, and MHF , are going to be getting a different view of the HOC soon as Iggy does some shuffling of his front bench for January.

It should be fun seeing just what Ignatieff comes up with for both the seating plan and shadow cabinet roles under his helm.

Feel free to speculate in the comments.



Current Seating Plan PDF.




*Void if Iggy is dumb enough to go coalition. In that case Jack Layton can sit next to Dion.

Dion resigns. Sorry no video available

Stephane Dion resigns with a caveat:

Statement by the Honourable Stéphane Dion

After the election on October 14 I announced I would stay on as Leader of the Liberal Party until my party could select my successor. One of my goals was to ensure an effective opposition to Stephen Harper’s government.

I believe that decision was the right one and I am proud of having forced Stephen Harper to back away from his attempt to force upon Canadians his most ideological and harmful plans in these tough economic times.

The alliance between the Liberal Party and the NDP to replace the Harper government, with the support of the Bloc Québécois, is a solid basis to give Canada a government that reflects both the aspirations of the majority of Canadians and the support of the majority of Members of Parliament. Such a government would be more stable than a minority Conservative government incapable of cooperating with opposition parties.

As the Governor General has granted a prorogation, it is a logical time for us Liberals to assess how we can best prepare our party to carry this fight forward.

There is a sense in the party, and certainly in the caucus, that given these new circumstances the new leader needs to be in place before the House resumes. I agree. I recommend this course to my party and caucus. As always, I want to do what is best for my country and my party, especially when Canadians’ jobs and pensions are at risk.

So I have decided to step aside as Leader of the Liberal Party effective as soon as my successor is duly chosen.

I will offer my unconditional and enthusiastic support to my successor in the same way I have always supported the leaders of our great party. I will work under the next leader’s direction with all my energy in order to give Canada a better government.

I wish to close by making it absolutely clear that my earlier departure does not change the facts of the situation that the Prime Minister has created in the last two weeks.

The Prime Minister and his government refused to lay out a plan to stimulate the economy. The Prime Minister has lost the confidence of the House of Commons. The Prime Minister shut down Parliament to save his job while thousands of Canadians are losing theirs. The Prime Minister has poisoned the well of trust and respect that is necessary for a minority government to work in Parliament - especially in a time of crisis.

Mr. Harper took an economic crisis and added a parliamentary crisis that he then tried to transform into a national unity crisis: this is no way for a Prime Minister of Canada to act.

It is my hope that the decision I have announced today will enhance the capacity of Parliament to function effectively for the sake of Canadians in this economic crisis.

Stéphane Dion, PC, MP.



A small problem. Dion is not the leader, he has already stepped aside and is only the interim leader, so when he speaks of his successor being duly chosen is he talking about another interim leader or an actual leader? By caucus or a leadership convention, within the LPC constitution or by some other creative method?

It is all so confusing, but I have no doubt that not having video of this was a very purposeful move by the Liberal Party of Canada as they kick Stephane to the curb.


Adieu Stephane.

I thought Dion said that he was going to concentrate on fundraising

Stephane Dion: "We have to bring our fund raising machinery into the 21st century, or the Liberal Party will be at a permanent political disadvantage. This work has to start now and must be successful in the coming months."





"I recently announced that my remaining time as Liberal Leader would be largely dedicated to fund raising,” said Mr. Dion.



I guess the fund raising was going so well that Stephane felt he had the time to form the most hated political movement this country has ever seen.


My cheque is in the mail and so are a few others.

-----------------------------------

Off to the rally for Canada. I hope to see you there.

Dion late for the show....

Stephane Dion was late for the show, looked kind of red faced, and seemed to be getting a couple of bucks for the bankrupt Liberal Party for the product placement of a book entitled, and I kid you not, "Hot Air".

(Updated with added pic of our future overlord and his in focus bookshelf.)


So what happened next?

Jack Layton, a guy who signed away any ability to be a spokesman for the coalition goes ahead and muscles in to have his say outshining his new boss Dion in the process, then he goes on by inviting the entire NDP caucus to drop by the GG house for some kind of meet and greet.

I wonder if the media will give Dion another do over and only show newer and yet to be delivered copies of that video in the future? Any wagers?

How bizarre. The coalition is already a cluster F*&$.


Where is the Kids in the Hall guy when you need him to squeeze Dion's giant head.



A couple of other things to get off my chest. First off Canada is NOT in a recession so all this bluster about a crisis is just that, bluster. Yes there will be tough times ahead but the polices of the present government have already made us better off than almost any other country in the world. We are in no immediate need of expensive measures to deal with a problem that has not hit us yet and before our rather large and powerful neighbor to the south changes their government and announces their plans. Doing things too early is just as bad as doing nothing at all. The fake claims of the immediacy of the crisis is just more socialist bullshit.

And if I hear one more time that the government does not have the confidence of the house I might just slap someone. They DO have the confidence of the house until a vote is taken and that vote has yet to be held. Sorry coalition, but you haven't won that vote yet and there are many many MP s out there that know that they are betting their political careers on this vote. It is by far not yet a done deal.

Pesky facts I know, but they are at the time of writing, the truth.

Could Dion successfully whip a Liberal vote?

Think about this for a minute. Does out going Liberal leader Stephane Dion have the clout to whip a confidence vote and ask Liberal MPs, including those running or supporting others who are going to run for his job and put the party in a new direction, to vote a certain way?

It makes no sense to assume that Dion has close to enough support left to pull the strings to get it done.

Why would anyone listen to him?


I think out of the 77 Liberals there could be 9 that could easily be persuaded* not to show up for such a vote.


* I never said who would be doing the persuading did I.

coughiggyraecoughcough.

How can Dion expect to lead the opposition

How can Dion expect to lead the opposition when every word coming out of his mouth will be questioned as to whether it is his own policy/position, official Liberal policy, or maybe even one of the leadership candidates policies? Surely the man cannot be that deluded to believe that he still speaks for the Liberal Party on policy matters when he knows that Iggy and Rae among others have very different ideas about policy and which way to lead the party.

Perhaps Dion should leave policy alone and concentrate more on fund raising for his cash strapped party. After the great job he has done on this file since being elected leader in Dec 2006 his ideas are guaranteed to be winners and the cash will flow in.



His decision today to remain on as leader will turn very ugly, very soon.

What I would like to see Dion say today

Dion's Press Conference: Contrary to what those in the press have been claiming, I will not be resigning today but instead will put my fate in the hands of the grass roots of the Liberal party at the May convention. It is their decision and not the decision of some so called senior Liberals or insiders.

I have accepted the choice of Canadians in the election, and I would hope that my fellow Liberals can accept the choice of the Liberal delegates that selected me as leader. I look forward to working with the Harper government to make this parliament work for the good of our economy and the good of our country.

I am also here to announce that Joe Volpe has been kicked out of the Liberal caucus effective immediately, and will not think twice about adding a few more names if circumstances dictate.

Thank you, merci.


Do this Stephane and you will NEVER again have to face the "not a leader" label.

An insider here, a leaked memo there.....

It starts with an insider here, and a leaked memo there; next thing you know there will be potential leadership candidates selling memberships.

Come Monday, it will be alright, come Monday......


Update:
File this one under vanity but Liberal blogger James Curran has a brilliant post up at his place.

For the record I think Dion is getting treated like dirt by the Liberal Party and it is not going to help them in any way. Help bloggers like me, yes, but it will do nothing positive for their party.

They spent 30 days building him up, and it took less than 30 hours to start to tear him down.

Great incite as to the truthfulness of Liberals during the campaign when they all kept repeating that Dion would be a good PM and had their support.

From the comments "3 days ago every Liberal in the country was telling us that Dion was the best choice and deserved our votes. Today they are saying that he is not even fit to lead the Liberal party."

Volpe Speaks. Say it aint so Joe, say it aint so.

Re elected Liberal MP Joe Volpe has asked Stephane Dion to "signal his intentions" on whether he will step down as the leader of the LPC. Volpe being the diplomat he is did not outright call on Dion to quit but when questioned, Volpe had this to say "Dion has earned the right to stay on probably as an interim leader."

You really can't be much clearer than that, at least for a Liberal politician that is. source


Of interest: Joe Volpe was a candidate for the Liberal leadership in 2006 along with eventual winner Stephane Dion. Volpe dropped out after the first ballot results and threw his support behind Bob Rae.

Bob Rae huh, very interesting indeed.

First comes the endorsment, now comes the call for him to be replaced

The Toronto Star.

Then and Now


update:
The Star has changed their headline as it turns out they were wrong, again.

Campaign to keep Dion as LPC leader.

Today I am lending my voice to all those out there who want Stephane Dion to remain leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. I support this move and would like to remind Liberals everywhere that if John Turner was allowed 2 kicks at the cat; IMHO Dion deserves the same.

Come on LPC. Give the leader another chance. If CTV can give him a redo on an interview the very least you can do for Mr.Dion is give him a redo on his chance to be PM.

It is what we Liberals do.

Stephane Dion calls it a lie, but really who is the one doing the nose stretcher here?

Stephane Dion has been calling the PM a liar for the last couple of days because he does not like the way that his carbon tax has been treated by the Conservatives. It all boils down to the fact that Conservatives are not talking about the tax breaks that are going to be offered up by Dion's plan and Mr. Dion is not happy.

Well there is a good reason for that Stephane, because in the policy you are proposing, in this case it might be better referred to as bait and shift, those tax cuts are not going to even come close to the costs that the average taxpayer is going to have to shell out because of this twisted piece of bad policy.

The cost of EVERYTHING is going to go up, and if you want to talk truth why are you not telling Canadians that little fact about the fallout of your carbon tax?


Look at the following example with the results from the Liberal Green Shift calculator.

Joe makes 50K a year, lives in Alberta, is single and inherited his home.

He will get back $337 a year from those touted tax breaks under Dion's carbon tax. ( if he lived in Quebec he would only get back $282!! I wonder how many people in Quebec are aware of that little fact).

According to the Liberals: Joe is going to have to pay about $250 more to heat his home next year due to direct increases from the carbon tax leaving $87 dollars left over. But don't go out celebrating and buy up all that beer and popcorn just yet Joe, because you have not yet figured out how much more your electricity bill will be going up and the Liberal DO NOT even have an estimate for that. Any wagers that it will be well over the $87 dollars that Joe has left over?

A safe guess would be that the increase would be approaching that of his natural gas bill at around the $250 dollar mark*

So Joe gets hit with a $500 increase to his utility bills and now is $163 in the red. (The official colour of the Liberal Party of Canada BTW).

But we cannot stop there, oh no, because now Joe is going to be faced with cost increases from all over.

His property taxes are going to go up, estimate another $200 as municipalities try to recover their own massive cost increases for both heat and power. Damn city; do we really need public transit, those street lights on all night, our pools and facility buildings heated, roads plowed in winter or even to have our police or sanitation workers driving around in those costly vehicles? It is insane I tell you.

Provincial taxes would go up for many of the same reasons outlined above as well as a few more as the schools, universities, and hospitals come running to them to cover their carbon tax related cost increases.

The costs on food and consumer goods will go up as their shipping and manufacturing costs increase and the stores themselves pass on their own utility increases on to the consumer. This is already a given, but there is another reason that we can expect to see the price of everything increase and for that look to what happens to Joe next.

So poor Joe, who believed Dion and voted Liberal is now so far into the hole on this that he has to go to his boss and ask for a raise, as do all those others who work beside him. Joe's boss gives him and his fellow employees that raise, but now has to pass on these new added wage costs along with the direct cost increases that he is already paying on carbon tax to his customers causing his prices to raise.

Out of control inflation anyone?

It is a good thing Joe has a job. Imagine what this will do to the real poor in this country who can least afford it.



Mr. Dion; the next time that you speak about how those mean Conservatives do not talk about your tax cuts, please be honest with Canadians and tell them the real lie that those tax cuts are not even going to cover the known cost increases caused by your carbon tax, and certainly will not be enough to cover the many yet unknown cost increases that are sure to follow.


Poor Joe, poor Canada; and all for an environment plan that will DO NOTHING to reduce our GHG emissions.





*By taking only the top 7 electric generation facilities in Alberta with their 2004 CO2 emission numbers and multiplying that by $40.00/tonne you get a low estimate of the real cost to Alberta facilities coming out at over 4 billion dollars. With a population of 3.5 million people that comes out to $1200 per Albertan! So I figure $250 is a reasonable and realistic number for calculating on a per home basis what the average power bill would raise under Dion's carbon tax. The Liberals haven't even bothered to try and figure this number out, or at least they are not telling us about it if they did.

Would Dion have pulled the plug?

With the current world wide financial problems and if the PM would not have pulled the plug on his government a little over 30 days ago, would Stephane Dion have finally got up enough nerve to vote non confidence in the government forcing an election?


I say would say that yes he would have and we would be heading into an election for the middle of November rather than this upcoming Tuesday.


What say you?

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