Newfoundlander

An election might be three years away but the kick off to the Liberal leadership campaign will be starting within months. The Liberals will likely attract much better candidates if they are able to remain in second place, or at least in the high 20's. There is also a by-election approaching in Jack Layton's riding, with Liberal support nearly double the NDP support in Ontario this riding could be in play. All this adds momentum to a party people considered dead, long term trends matter in politics. There are a lot more things going on in politics besides an election three years away.

And they were quite popular.

Not really, there are thousands and thousands of people currently getting laid off with the federal government.

Baird is one of the most talented MPs in Ottawa.

No.

Do you really think Harper is going to say that the Liberals came up with a better plan then us and we'll endorse it? Harper's goal has been to destroy the Liberals and accepting this idea would be beneficial to the Liberals.

It is a Liberal idea, therefore the Conservatives won't accept the idea even if it's more fiscally responsible.

I guess nobody proposed it before now.

The Liberals are not proposing to lower the number of MPs below the number of senators, that's why PEI and New Brunswick aren't losing seats. The 1985 agreement is not in the constitution and therefore it can be changed. Whether you support the party that came up with the plan or not, a major party would not announce such a bold proposal if they knew it was illegal to do. Stephane Dion is a former minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, so I'm sure he knows what he is talking about.

Source: http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/1083622--middle-class-is-key-to-economic-recovery-rae-says?bn=1

Rob Silver discusses some of the key things the Liberals are looking at changing in their organization moving forward.

I couldn't care less punked. I don't care about how the NDP's "plan" to win over Quebeckers worked out, I don't care that they don't try and raise lots of money,it doesn't interest me. You can start a thread about the party's leadership race because that is of some interest, though I doubt discussing it with you would be interesting. This thread is about the screwed up Liberals attempting to get there shit in order. You don't care about the Liberals and never seem to add anything of interest when discussing parties besides the NDP. Some people, like myself, can discuss what's going on with other parties and what they could do moving forward, even if we don't support that party. You seem incapable of doing this and just attack people while discussing how wonderful the NDP are.

Ground game? What ground game techniques did Ruth Ellen Brosseau focus on during the campaign? The reason Quebec voted NDP was because of Jack Layton. This thread isn't about the NDP, if you wan to create a thread talking about how money doesn't matter go right ahead.

Obviously money isn't the most important thing seeing people in Quebec voted for the NDP even though the party barely did anything there.

Face it they suck at raising money. The Conservatives are the only party able to raise lots of money and because of this they are able to constantly campaig and win.

Both the Liberals and NDP suck at raising money and if they cannot figure out how to raise it both parties will have a tough time taking out the Conservatives.

The latest the byelection can be called is February.

I didn't realize he was nominated, the last I heard he wouldn't commit to running. He should have a good time running in a by election and running for the leadership simultaneously.

They should open up the candidate selection process for Toronto-Danforth, and then quietly work their butts off to win.

There have been a number of people who have gone from being Liberal to Conservative, Conservative to Liberal, NDP to Liberal, Liberal to NDP, NDP to Conservative and I think you get the point. Bob Rae's not the only person to ever leave a political party for another one, both Harper and Turmel did it, and while I neither like or dislike the man he's obviously committed to the Liberal Party if he was willing to take on the undesirable job of interim leader of the third party.

After their huge loss at the polls in May's election the Liberals acted for a while like they were finally ready to do something about their screwed up organization, then nothing happened. For the last number of months the party seemed like they were back to their old selves and were just going to wait for Canadians to turn on the Conservatives and the NDP and come back to them. In Victoria this weekend however interim leader Bob Rae seems to be saying all the right things, and it seems like they may actually be ready for change. Source Read More If the party actually starts to do what Rae is proposing there is no reason why the party cannot transform themselves, and once again become a force in Canadian politics. Opening up the way they select their next leader could be huge for them. They need to create a system of selecting a leader whereby the "Herman Cain's" or the "Barrack Obama's" can come out of virtually nowhere, capture the attention of Canadians, and actually have a legitimate chance of winning the leadership. I guess we will wait and see if any of this actually happens at their January convention, when they select new key people and discuss the leadership. I think the party should be very careful when selecting their next President, Sheila Copps may be very well known and have lots of experience but it does not mean she is what the party needs moving forward.

So is it okay to criticize Harper's religion now that the Conservatives are criticizing Trudeau for not being Catholic enough?

What I'm saying is he doesn't think of that joke as any less inappropriate then the joke he made about Americans getting caught sneaking over the US border into Mexico.

I haven't seen this mentioned, I believe Paul Martin used it but I can't remember seeing anything recently.

When have they made fun of Harper's religion?