Ignatieff drops chief of staff, hires Peter Donolo

[Wild Bill]

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!

How do you justify your claim, Topaz? It's easy to see job losses today but you haven't said anything about what would have happened WITHOUT Free Trade!

Or is it your position that if we had left things alone it didn't matter how the world was changing, we would have kept all our jobs and created lots of new ones?

If you want us to believe you we need some more evidence. You give us nothing!

[g_bambino]

I doubt the "monarchy" will play a big role in the Donolo/Ignatieff relationship

Well, the Liberals are quickly losing any chance of my vote come next election.

Stephen Taylor: Michael Ignatieff, anti-monarchist

[Gabriel]

I don't know much about Peter Donolo, but I'm certain most people will agree that Ignatieff needs help in building a message and persona that will resonate with Canadians. From my perspective, Iggy comes off as painfully fake, jumping on any fake controversy he can in order to disparage the Harper government. In Iggy I see zero integrity, a wholly partisan childish politician. In order for Iggy to build support, he must select certain issues of high importance to Canadians and develop legitimate criticisms of the Harper government's approach to these issues. Iggy must then propose an intelligent resolution to these issues to build a Liberal platform. Perhaps Donolo is an astute political mind with a knack for keeping his finger on the pulse of Canadian public opinion, while at the same time providing Iggy with good advice on how to take advantage of the currents of Canadian public opinion. Lastly, Iggy will need to provide strong leadership on the issues he selects .

That's just my armchair analysis of this story so far.

[Gabriel]

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.

I agree with you 100%. In a simple way, I think if Iggy hasn't demonstrated any outstanding qualities that resonate with Canadians (leadership, charisma, principles/integrity, independence of thought, an INTELLIGENT approach to any of Canada's federal problems), then this void cannot be filled by an outsider. Either you have it, or you don't. Iggy is clearly not a leader that can garner strong support for the Liberal brand. That being said, I think Harper lacks certain extraordinary personal qualities, as well. But Harper is clearly not as vacuous as Iggy.

A final comment, although I am not a big fan of Obama's policies, I am a fan of his persona and his ability to connect with Americans. I wish we had a (conservative) Canadian politician with that type of charisma.