More discontent with Dion

This just got sent to me from someone in my EDA... it appears that Mr. Ray Heard has raised more concerns about Dion's leadership. Courtesy of Bourque:

Wednesday, July 18
Heard's Shot Across Dion's Bow

Bourque has received a copy of an email sent to a number of people by longtime top Liberal insider Ray Heard. In it, Heard blasts Liberal leader Stephane Dion's decision to "parachute an academic who was a journalist at Le Devoir into Outremont because he is a fellow francophone Quebecker".

According to the Toronto-based Heard, "this suggests Dion has one standard for Quebec and another one for Ontario ... because, in the spring, I urged Dion and Rae to see to it that Marva Wisdom, who happens to be an Afro-Canadian and a distinguished scholar, should be named by the Leader as the candidate in Guelph. After all, she was for three years Chair of the party's Policy Commission and chaired the Platform Committees in the last two elections. Our appeal was spurned, yet another guy in a suit won the nomination to succeed Brenda Chamberlain. That vote was conveniently held after many of Marva's supporters at Guelph University had gone home. This act of betrayal caused Charlie Coffey, a former RBC vice-chair and long-time Liberal, to say he wanted to tear up his membership card in disgust. Marva, who supported Ken Dryden in the leadership stakes, remains eminently qualified to get an uncontested nomination. But she is a beautiful, brainy black women from Ontario, not a white male from Quebec, so we can forget that."

Interesting... is he saying that the Liberals in Guelph picked the wrong candidate? Is he implying that the Liberals in Guelph have selected a sub-par candidate, when they could have selected a stellar one? Is he suggesting that people in the upper Liberal eshelons rigged the timing of the nomination so that Marva's supporters would have already left town?

Since Guelph is going to be one of the ridings to watch on election night, this new set of allegations against Dion become that much more serious. If there is any truth to these suggestions, that the Guelph Liberal nomination was rigged in one way or another against Marva, it could cause some serious strife within the rank and file of the Southwestern Ontario Liberals.

Especially since signs of strife have ALREADY begun to appear...

From the National Post: "Liberal resentment brews in Kennedy camp" (it's interesting how an old article sheds a whole new perspective on things as time goes on, and as more comes out)

There was one post from this Liblogger about the John Ivison article above, and some personal commentary related to it.

There were also several higher profile Libloggers who had supported Marva, but I can't find any word of reaction from them to her loss.

The National Post article raises a whole new set of questions... was the Liberal leadership race still in full swing in the Guelph nomination? Brenda Chamerlain supported Kennedy, and threw her weight behind Frank Valeriote, another Kennedy supporter... is Kennedy still working behind the scenes for his next run at the leadership?

The Liberal saga continues...