Dion to re-Organize Office

[jdobbin]

Don't you mean, aside from Quebec, Alberta, BC, Manitoba and Nova Scotia, the liberals are tied neck and neck>?

Dion is dead man running......

Decima pollster said that the main damage is rural Quebec where the Liberals are running in single digits. Otherwise, they would be leading in overall popular support.

Edited October 4, 2007 by jdobbin

[jdobbin]

Is Harper really so anxious for an election, to end up in the same position?

Must he be entirely inflexible about his policies? I don't know. Perhaps we have yet to see.

I think he believes he can win an election and that the Opposition will fold once the election is called.

[Michael Bluth]

Is Harper really so anxious for an election, to end up in the same position?

Must he be entirely inflexible about his policies? I don't know. Perhaps we have yet to see.

Inflexible? Paul Martin went out of his way to peddle his arse on the alter of staying in power. What did we get for it? One of the most ineffective, do-nothing minority governments in Canadian history.

Stephen Hrper is presenting a very clear set of options to the opposition parties.

If the opposition parties agree with his new set of priorities than the Conservatives will continue to govern. If not, the new priorities will be judged by the public as the basis for the Conservatives platform in an election.

There is no concern about a backlash for an early election. Although the Liberals will probably try and create one.

This current minority Government has already lasted longer than 8 of the previous 11 minority Governments, so complaining about an early election will fall on deaf ears. *if* anyone is listening to the Libeals at the next election.

[Visionseeker]

M.D. you miss the point. It's not the Liberals fault they aren't leading the polls. It's the fault of those rural Quebeckers. Damn them

Who would have thought the Liberals would be blaming Quebeckers for a poor showing in the polls?

Jean Lapierre made an interesting point tonight. He suggested that the Liberals should right off Quebec save the Island of Montreal and the Outaouias.

Unconventional, but perhaps practical.

Would Dion have the fortitude to make such a strategic move?

Poor showing in the polls eh, nothing has changed in the polls.

Liberals still even with Tories despite bad news

The Liberals can make Quebec a three-way battle by focusing in certain areas and sticking to principles. By doing so, the Conservatives risk becoming painted as offering Meech the Sequel (which is almost exactly what they intend to do).

With Smith and John Rae, the Liberals have dropped the camp that got Dion the leadership and have now called out the "A" team.

Interesting times, interesting times indeed.

[Michael Bluth]

The Liberals can make Quebec a three-way battle by focusing in certain areas and sticking to principles. By doing so, the Conservatives risk becoming painted as offering Meech the Sequel (which is almost exactly what they intend to do).

The Liberals currently have their lowest number of seats in Quebec since confederation. The polls aren't showing much room for growth.

Do you really think nothing has changed in the polls? Maybe you should have actually read the article you linked to.

The overall numbers in that province show the Bloc Quebecois at 31 per cent, the Liberals at 23 per cent, the Tories at 22 per cent, and the NDP at 13 per cent.

But those numbers hide a key reality: the Liberal numbers and, to a lesser extent the Bloc ones, are inflated by a small group of Montreal ridings where those parties rack up gigantic majorities.

Tory support is spread more evenly throughout the province's outlying francophone areas, where there are a number of winnable seats.

[jdobbin]

Poor showing in the polls eh, nothing has changed in the polls.

The Liberals can make Quebec a three-way battle by focusing in certain areas and sticking to principles. By doing so, the Conservatives risk becoming painted as offering Meech the Sequel (which is almost exactly what they intend to do).

With Smith and John Rae, the Liberals have dropped the camp that got Dion the leadership and have now called out the "A" team.

Interesting times, interesting times indeed.

The Liberals still have incumbent MPs in Montreal who will be fighting hard to win seats there.

The BQ are not going to roll over and play dead and to defeat BQ incumbents will not exactly be easy either.

At the moment, it still looks like the Tories are bound for a repeat of the last election.

[Michael Bluth]

The Liberals still have incumbent MPs in Montreal who will be fighting hard to win seats there.

The BQ are not going to roll over and play dead and to defeat BQ incumbents will not exactly be easy either.

At the moment, it still looks like the Tories are bound for a repeat of the last election.

Looks like? Bound for?

The Conservatives entered the last election behind and won it on the campaign trail. Harper shook off his reputation for being a lackluster camapigner and cemented a new reputation for being a masterful tactitian.

If everybody plays to type the Conservatives will win a much stronger minority as a worst-case scenario.

[sharkman]

The Liberals still have incumbent MPs in Montreal who will be fighting hard to win seats there.

The BQ are not going to roll over and play dead and to defeat BQ incumbents will not exactly be easy either.

At the moment, it still looks like the Tories are bound for a repeat of the last election.

Now that the leader of the Block has let it slip that he will resign after the next election, a lame duck choice will be shunned all the more in Quebec, and the Tories will get some of that support.

[jdobbin]

Now that the leader of the Block has let it slip that he will resign after the next election, a lame duck choice will be shunned all the more in Quebec, and the Tories will get some of that support.

People have written off Duceppe many times before. By all means though, underestimate again.

[Michael Bluth]

Now that the leader of the Block has let it slip that he will resign after the next election, a lame duck choice will be shunned all the more in Quebec, and the Tories will get some of that support.

Yup, that and his two day resignation earlier have pretty much ended Duceppe's career. Lucky for him he's facing Stephane Dion as Liberal leader or he'd be in real trouble.

[Shakeyhands]

Looks like? Bound for?

The Conservatives entered the last election behind and won it on the campaign trail. Harper shook off his reputation for being a lackluster camapigner and cemented a new reputation for being a masterful tactitian.

If everybody plays to type the Conservatives will win a much stronger minority as a worst-case scenario.

Wow, so interesting things can happen on the campaign trail, perhaps Steve shouldn't write off Dion so soon then.... You never know what can happen once the leaders start talking policy... The spread is close enough that it really could go either way.

In addition to this, I have to think that if what everyone seems to think will happen in Ontario happens that Steve & co. MAY rethink things.

[Michael Bluth]

Wow, so interesting things can happen on the campaign trail, perhaps Steve shouldn't write off Dion so soon then.... You never know what can happen once the leaders start talking policy... The spread is close enough that it really could go either way.

In addition to this, I have to think that if what everyone seems to think will happen in Ontario happens that Steve & co. MAY rethink things.

Don't think Harper has written off Dion. I believe he thinks that Dion is beatable right now and with another well orchestrated campaign a majority is a possibility.

There are no certainties in life, but it appears like Harper believes this is as good as it's going to get for a shot at a majority.

[sharkman]

Wow, so interesting things can happen on the campaign trail, perhaps Steve shouldn't write off Dion so soon then.... You never know what can happen once the leaders start talking policy... The spread is close enough that it really could go either way.

In addition to this, I have to think that if what everyone seems to think will happen in Ontario happens that Steve & co. MAY rethink things.

Rather than write him off, Harper is probably hoping that the Liberal party keeps Dion propped up long enough for an election, which is probably what ole' Jack Layton is hoping as well.

[ScottSA]

...keeps Dion propped up long enough for an election...

Great imagery!

[Michael Bluth]

Rather than write him off, Harper is probably hoping that the Liberal party keeps Dion propped up long enough for an election, which is probably what ole' Jack Layton is hoping as well.

If there is a November/December election there is no way the Lbierals will have time to replace Dion.

[jdobbin]

Latest on the office shuffling.

http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/286957

Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion is preparing for a round of winter housecleaning in his office, including the departure of his chief spokesperson, the Star has learned.

The staff shakeup, to be finalized this week, comes as the Liberal party prepares for a heated session in 2008 that Dion has said could lead to an election campaign as early as February.

"There are going to be a number of changes announced in the New Year," Liberal spokesperson Nicolas Ruszkowski said in an interview yesterday. "They're part of a regular course of transition and reorganization that takes place every so often in the leaders' office."

A party official confirmed that Ruszkowski himself, who only became Dion's director of communications last May, is leaving Dion's office Jan. 31 to start a "new career." He is also getting married early next month.

His replacement, Leslie Swartman, started work this week and will gradually assume his responsibilities over the holiday break. A number of other, lower-level changes are to be finalized later this week, said the official, who declined to share any details.

Ruszkowski has kept a low profile since joining Dion's office, and one Liberal MP remarked that some Liberals "wanted him gone." The former lobbyist, who volunteered on Toronto MP Ken Dryden's leadership campaign, was brought in to replace Dion's long-time political adviser, André Lamarre.

Swartman is an experienced political hand. She managed Nova Scotia MP Scott Brison's leadership campaign and has been a top political adviser to several Liberal cabinet ministers, including former transport minister Jean Lapierre. She is also a more recognizable face in Ottawa, having appeared on television and in newspapers as a Liberal strategist.

The Liberals have also hired Jacques Ouimet, a Montrealer, who will specifically oversee communications for Quebec, a source said. Ouimet travelled to the recent climate-change conference in Bali with Dion.

The shakeup follows closely on a difficult fall for the Liberals, during which Dion dumped his national director, Jamie Carroll, after the Liberals lost the party stronghold of Outremont, in Montreal, to the New Democrats in a by-election. Carroll also infuriated the Quebec wing of the party for resisting a push to place more francophone Quebecers in Dion's office.

One Quebec Liberal MP said there are no outstanding problems in Dion's office that must be addressed by staff changes. The MP said that Dion received a "good message" from the Carroll affair and the by-election defeat that has refocused the party on the job at hand. There has been widespread support for Carroll's replacement, Johanne Sénécal, an experienced political strategist who served as former prime minister Jean Chrétien's Quebec adviser.

[Moonlight Graham]

Nothing like switching the chairs around on the deck of the Titanic to delay the inevitable for a few more months.

Agreed.