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Ignatieff drops chief of staff, hires Peter Donolo


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http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/stor...ub=TopStoriesV2

Michael Ignatieff has dropped his chief of staff, Ian Davey, and replaced him with veteran political strategist Peter Donolo, CTV News has confirmed.

Donolo was a communication director under former Liberal prime minister Jean Chrétien and was a partner at the Strategic Counsel, an Ontario polling firm.

"Mr. Donolo is a very smart political operator and is very-well liked by people inside the party," CTV's Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife reported Tuesday.

He is an experienced operator. It certainly couldn't hurt the leader's officer to have someone as skilled in the position.

Look like there will be a new Communications Officer as well. Jill Fairbrother was Ian Davey's girlfriend.

There is talk that the position will be filled by someone from Quebec.

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Sounds like they are imploding. When there is staffing changes with the Tories, it's because of discontent, or at least that is what I learned from Dobbin....

Look to see in about 6 weeks Donolo looking for a replacement for Ignatieff.

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http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/stor...ub=TopStoriesV2

He is an experienced operator. It certainly couldn't hurt the leader's officer to have someone as skilled in the position.

Look like there will be a new Communications Officer as well. Jill Fairbrother was Ian Davey's girlfriend.

There is talk that the position will be filled by someone from Quebec.

There is the way to prove the Liberals have gotten past the corruption of the 90s hire one of the leaders from the 90s. Ohhhhh Liberals will you ever stop trying to relive the 90s and move on and rebuild your party?

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First it's a rumour, then the rumour is quashed during the live broadcast of Power Play, then a confirmation follows the broadcast. Once again, someone, somewhere within the Liberal party is going to great lengths to embarrass Ignatieff by making him and the OLO look disorganized. There are only so many people that Donolo can turf, others are rather untouchable.

Once the news gets around that Donolo was an adviser to Chretien, many eyes will roll.

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There are only so many people that Donolo can turf, others are rather untouchable.

Once the news gets around that Donolo was an adviser to Chretien, many eyes will roll.

We'll see. Given the unhappiness with how the office was working over the summer, I expect Donolo has a pretty wide mandate to get the right people in place.

I'm sure there will be rolling eyes but experience is needed in the office to head things off before they become a public problem.

We'll see if the Liberals go negative in a big way. The Tories have shown negative works and I expect it is the one way will the Liberals will close the gap.

Ignatieff probably has three months to show progress. He could be asked to leave if things get worse.

Edited by jdobbin
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I'm sure there will be rolling eyes but experience is needed in the office to head things off before they become a public problem.

Too bad it had to be someone from the "old gang". So much for renewal.

The Tories have shown negative works

Negative only works if it is used in conjunction with something positive such as visuals. Visual as in using the colour blue as much as possible. Blue as in Pantone #333399 to be exact. Hey, it worked for the Liberals with Liberal red on federal government identity so it's a proven.

http://davidakin.blogware.com/blog/_archiv...27/4363377.html

Ignatieff probably has three months to show progress. He could be asked to leave if things get worse.

Who says Donolo won't get replaced before Ignatieff.

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Too bad it had to be someone from the "old gang". So much for renewal.

It wouldn't matter who came in as a replacement. If it had been God you would have said, who does he think he is?

Negative only works if it is used in conjunction with something positive such as visuals. Visual as in using the colour blue as much as possible. Blue as in Pantone #333399 to be exact. Hey, it worked for the Liberals with Liberal red on federal government identity so it's a proven.

The evidence that a strong negative campaign in New Jersey has turned things around. I suspect we are going to see the same.

Who says Donolo won't get replaced before Ignatieff.

Who's to say that Harper won't call an election tomorrow?

Edited by jdobbin
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He is an experienced operator. It certainly couldn't hurt the leader's officer to have someone as skilled in the position.

He's also an unabashed and reckless republican. I used to be open to the idea of Ignatieff as prime minister, but as time goes by, I become less and less inclined to the idea. Perhaps not necessarily because of him in particular, but because of what will come along with him; namely, the same old, unchanged, entitled-to-our-entitlements-we're-the-one-true-Canadian-party-and-will-tell-you-how-to-be-Canadian Liberals. Ugh.

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He's also an unabashed and reckless republican. I used to be open to the idea of Ignatieff as prime minister, but as time goes by, I become less and less inclined to the idea. Perhaps not necessarily because of him in particular, but because of what will come along with him; namely, the same old, unchanged, entitled-to-our-entitlements-we're-the-one-true-Canadian-party-and-will-tell-you-how-to-be-Canadian Liberals. Ugh.

Exactly. It's frustrating as hell that they just don't seem to get it. I'd argue they have gotten worse under Ignatieff, and I honestly thought they couldn't get more pathetic than they were under Dion. :angry:

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He's also an unabashed and reckless republican.

There are a few of those. As long as they aren't the primary policy pushers on that matter, I am not overly concerned. Any big push for constitutional change that opens up a can of worms will see me fight any party that brings it up.

I used to be open to the idea of Ignatieff as prime minister, but as time goes by, I become less and less inclined to the idea. Perhaps not necessarily because of him in particular, but because of what will come along with him; namely, the same old, unchanged, entitled-to-our-entitlements-we're-the-one-true-Canadian-party-and-will-tell-you-how-to-be-Canadian Liberals. Ugh.

He has maybe three months to start putting it together before the party is in jeopardy of not only losing but ceasing to be viable in general.

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Exactly. It's frustrating as hell that they just don't seem to get it. I'd argue they have gotten worse under Ignatieff, and I honestly thought they couldn't get more pathetic than they were under Dion. :angry:

Why do you think would have made a difference?

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There is the way to prove the Liberals have gotten past the corruption of the 90s hire one of the leaders from the 90s. Ohhhhh Liberals will you ever stop trying to relive the 90s and move on and rebuild your party?

IF You want to talk about the '90's let talk about FREE TRADE, the best thing that Tories did for Canada and these Tories are STILL DOING it and there 1.6 people out of work becasuse the Tory party sold these people jobs for greed!

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IF You want to talk about the '90's let talk about FREE TRADE, the best thing that Tories did for Canada and these Tories are STILL DOING it and there 1.6 people out of work becasuse the Tory party sold these people jobs for greed!

The Canada US FTA was in 1989, not the 90s.....NAFTA was 1994 under.......wait for it.........

THE LIBERALS

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There are a few of those. As long as they aren't the primary policy pushers on that matter, I am not overly concerned. Any big push for constitutional change that opens up a can of worms will see me fight any party that brings it up.

Hardly any like Donolo, though. He's an active member of Citizens for a Canadian Republic, hatched behind-closed-door plans with John Manley and Herb Dhaliwal to have Canada dump its monarchy, and, without his boss' approval, told sympathetic journalists that it was Cabinet's intent to have that happen by the turn of the millennium. Nothing came of it, obviously, but it still shows that he's unabashed and reckless.

at CCR's last lame-o gathering in Toronto. The crowd is about the extent of Canada's republican "movement", but Donolo has shown that he thinks he can use his position to push on the entire nation what he wants. Not only would I not want anyone like him near our Ministers of the Crown, but that self-absorbed attitude of his is reflective in general of the Liberal Party before their fall; don't question us, we know better than you what you want to be. As others have noted here, that Ignatieff is collecting all these same individuals around him does not reflect well on his potential to be any different to what came before. These things will weigh heavily on my decisions come next election.
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Nothing came of it, obviously, but it still shows that he's unabashed and reckless.

I suspect that any talk of opening of the Constitution will be put down like the rabid dog it is likely to come.

These things will weigh heavily on my decisions come next election.

I won't look kindly to have any backdoor move on bringing about changes.

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This change was personally handled by Mr. Ignatieff......look at how it unfolded and then imagine this guy trying to run OUR country:

At some point over the past few days, Ignatieff decided to install Donolo in the most senior role, as chief of staff.

The word went out on Sunday among senior Liberals, but Davey wasn't told. Nor was his partner, Jill Fairbrother, who serves as Ignatieff's communications director.

So Davey and Fairbrother were in the dark on Tuesday evening when senior Liberals started to leak the news of Donolo's installation as chief of staff.

Fairbrother issued denials to the media, not knowing that Ignatieff himself was telling MPs on the senior-strategy committee about Davey's replacement.

It is not known whether Fairbrother will remain as communications chief.

Link: http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article...f-of-staff?bn=1

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I suspect that any talk of opening of the Constitution will be put down like the rabid dog it is likely to come.

Very true. But, I'm more trying to point at Donolo's attitude, and then, tangentially, at Ignatieff's, and further, at the Liberal Party in general. Plus, people like Donolo having the ear of the Prime Minister can still do damage without opening the constitution.

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Plus, people like Donolo having the ear of the Prime Minister can still do damage without opening the constitution.

Didn't seem to help with him Chretien and the monarchy.

I'll be watching closely to see if he sticks to his knitting.

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Didn't seem to help with him Chretien and the monarchy.

Perhaps not; but, then, it seemed he had other ministers to go to, and together they did their best to undermine the institution by stealth. Chrétien may have been a closet monarchist, ambivalent to the Crown at worst, but this time around, Ignatieff has already made some pretty suspicious comments regarding the monarchy. If Donolo were able to fire up any latent republicanism in Ignatieff, who knows what could happen? Maybe not constitutional change, but the essential eradication of any sign of the Crown that has taken place under successive Liberal watches could be ramped up significantly. Donolo - and the rest of his ilk - know that direct constitutional attack is not the way to get what they want; they realise their best strategy is to kill the monarchy with a thousand tiny cuts, making it disappear from public knowledge until nobody remembers its even there at all. Sneaky bastard.

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Perhaps not; but, then, it seemed he had other ministers to go to, and together they did their best to undermine the institution by stealth. Chrétien may have been a closet monarchist, ambivalent to the Crown at worst, but this time around, Ignatieff has already made some pretty suspicious comments regarding the monarchy. If Donolo were able to fire up any latent republicanism in Ignatieff, who knows what could happen? Maybe not constitutional change, but the essential eradication of any sign of the Crown that has taken place under successive Liberal watches could be ramped up significantly. Donolo - and the rest of his ilk - know that direct constitutional attack is not the way to get what they want; they realise their best strategy is to kill the monarchy with a thousand tiny cuts, making it disappear from public knowledge until nobody remembers its even there at all. Sneaky bastard.

I'm not sure how exactly you eliminate the Crown without a Constitutional change. The very fundamental structure of our governing and legal system is based on the Crown, full stop. The Governor General has to be formally accepted by the Queen (even if it is nothing more than a formality).

The only potential short-circuit that anyone could do in any of the Commonwealth countries where the British monarch is head of state would be, upon Elizabeth II's death, to refuse to recognize Prince Charles. It's kind of a nightmare scenario, because no one is quite sure what happens then. A constitutional crisis is created, but there's no obvious way out of it. If we're going to open the Constitution again with the intent of altering the fundamental nature of our governing system, I'd prefer it to be done in a reasoned, rational way, rather than because Parliament suddenly had some sort of republican fit.

But the reality is that the Monarchy, both here and in Great Britain, survives as much because it's simply easier than the alternatives. There's a momentum to the Monarchy, even when it has become increasingly ceremonial. In Great Britain, it's because the majority of the public don't actually want a republic (calling a PM presidential is still an insult over there). In Canada, it's simply because it would mean opening up the Constitution, and it's going to be a long time before Meech Lake and Charlottetown are sufficiently ancient history to embolden a reformer to go at it again. After the last failed Quebec referendum, for better and for worse, the status quo (and yes, that includes the Monarchy) seem infinitely preferable to exhausting, divisive debates. Even in Quebec, it's clear that there's little taste for it now, and if you can't get Quebecers to leap up at the idea of cracking open the Constitution, even the most staunchly republican Prime Minister ain't gonna do no more than make some noise which everyone else (including his own party) will politely pretend they didn't hear.

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I doubt the "monarchy" will play a big role in the Donolo/Ignatieff relationship but one thing is clear - Ignatieff is an empty vessel and someone like Donolo is bound to try to start filling it. But even so - even after blunder after blunder after blunder, Ignatieff will still think he's the smartest man in the room - so who knows where this will lead the Liberals. Ignatieff is the textbook example of how someone can be intelligent without being smart. Where did all those Ignatieff supporters go, anyway? Reminds me of a seedy hotel - when you turn on the light, all the cockroaches run under the bed.

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I'm not sure how exactly you eliminate the Crown without a Constitutional change. The very fundamental structure of our governing and legal system is based on the Crown, full stop.

The only potential short-circuit that anyone could do in any of the Commonwealth countries where the British monarch is head of state would be, upon Elizabeth II's death, to refuse to recognize Prince Charles. It's kind of a nightmare scenario, because no one is quite sure what happens then. A constitutional crisis is created, but there's no obvious way out of it.

No, there certainly is no way to do so; even when the Queen dies, Charles will immediately and automatically ascend to the throne of Canada; no recognition is necessary. But, the Donolo/CCR plan is to gradually remove all symbols and signs of the Crown, change titles and precedence, and re-educate the public in the hope that once the monarchy has receded to nothing more than a line in the constitution nobody will care about removing it. I'm not saying I believe for sure that such things would happen if Ignatieff became PM and had Donolo in his inner circle; I just really don't like the idea of the latter being in the PMO at all, even if he only becomes a conduit between Citizens for a Canadian Republic and the Cabinet.

[sp]

Edited by g_bambino
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