Liberal power couple make the switch

Call me partisan, I don't care... but THIS IS HUGE.

Say whatever you want, but I think this is a MAJOR COUP. I'm sorry, but a policy wonk, a former NATIONAL LIBERAL PARTY POLICY CHAIRPERSON at that, doesn't make a switch like that willy-nilly. Policy wonks have an ideological bent, and they stick with it... they are the ones that are nearly impossible to get to change their minds. It would be like Stephen Harper, again, a policy wonk, making the switch to the Liberals a few years back! (before he was Party leader)

Here's some of the article from the Globe & Mail...

OTTAWA — Liberal power couple Heather Reisman and Gerry Schwartz have publicly broken with the Liberal Party line on the Middle East crisis and are turning to Prime Minister Stephen Harper because of his support of Israel.

Mr. Schwartz's wife, Ms. Reisman, says she is leaving the party to support the Conservatives under Stephen Harper.

In an e-mail to friends, Ms. Reisman applauded film producer Robert Lantos's statement at a weekend rally that he would "hereby take off [his] life-long federal Liberal hat."

"I [am] right there alongside Robert. . . . after a lifetime of being a Liberal, I have made the switch," Ms. Reisman wrote. "Feels strange, but totally and unequivocally right."

A recipient of the e-mail confirmed that Ms. Reisman, who was the Liberal Party of Canada's policy chairwoman in the 1980s and who worked for Pierre Trudeau in his first election in 1965, had sent the e-mail to several friends, and that she has told others the same thing.

"She has told her friends in person and in e-mails that she is supporting the Conservatives under Stephen Harper this time," a close friend said yesterday. "She thinks that his position on the Lebanon issue is the right one."

To add insult to injury, add to that the loss of a major financial backer? (at a time when the Liberals are hurting financially, no less?) Check out these numbers donated to the Liberals! (jDave, you'll be glad to know that I was careful to check across ALL PARTIES this time!)

2005 - $2,000
2004 - $1,412
2003 - $2,847.98
2002 - Interesting... $7,672.53 to the Liberals, but $10,000 to Canadian Alliance! (was he starting to think about supporting the new horse?)
2001 - $914.50
2000 - $7,819.00 (plus $3,000 to Monte, then a CRCA candidate)
1999 - $32,248.00
1998 - $10,316.00 (plus $2500.00 to the PC's)
1997 - $44,800.00 ($5000 to JC and $5000 to PM... talk about fence sitting...LOL)
1996 - $37,676.00 (plus $3,875.00 to the PC's)
1995 - $12,744.00 (plus $4104 to the PC's)
1994 - $7,274.00
1993 - $6,699.00

TOTALS OVER LAST 13 YEARS: CA - $13,000, PC's - $10,479, and the Liberals...$174,422.92!!!

If you don't think that's a black eye, I don't know what is! Of course, now with the $1,000 limit (if the Liberal Senate stops stalling it) it will prevent him from the same kind of numbers, but my point here is that he's been a MAJOR backer for the last 13 years... to lose someone who has given so much to your party has got to hurt! And with that kind of financial influence, don't you think he might just carry other forms of influence within the ranks of the Party?

Personally, this ranks higher in collateral damage than having an MP cross the floor... and MP crossing may be more high profile in the press, but to have a major policy wonk and financial backer walk away, that's a major blow.

It will be interesting to see how this is played out in the MSM and the blogosphere.

h/t to Dust My Broom