The Dion-Carroll Disaster: Coup Attempt?

An interesting anaylsis on the whole Dion/Carroll affair from Don MacPherson in today's Montreal Gazette. (Page A23, or here online)

Is this the beginnings of an open coup attempt? Is that why Dion has decided to stay home?

Liberal mud-wrestling looks like coup attempt
The Carroll affair shows Ignatieff people no longer want to wait until after the next election to take over
DON MACPHERSON, The Gazette
Published: 12 hours ago

Jamie Carroll must be a poor communicator. Or some French-speaking members of the federal Liberal Party's management committee must have a shaky grasp of English.

Or maybe some of Michael Ignatieff's supporters in the Quebec wing of the party have decided there will be nothing left to take over if they wait for Stéphane Dion to lose the next election before they dump him as leader.

Like I've said before, this is becoming painful to watch... but like a train wreck, it's oh-so-hard to turn away...

Three days after Dion expressed confidence in Carroll, Liberal sources began to say the latter would be removed. And it appeared the only thing that was holding up the move was Carroll's reported threat to sue the cash-strapped party if it didn't give him at least a year's salary in severance pay.

Liberals suing each other - yes, it has come to this, not to mention election candidates withdrawing, one by one, letting it be known it's because of the leader, subjecting him to the torture of a thousand cuts - or a thousand stabbings.

Coincidentally or not, the withdrawing candidates all supported Ignatieff for the leadership. If this isn't a concerted campaign to dump Dion before the next election, it is certainly starting to look that way.

dmacpher@thegazette.canwest.com

Anyone want to take bets on whether or not we're headed to the polls? My money is on "NO WAY" right now!!!

I personally think the main reason for Dion staying home is so that he and his people can try and figure out some way, ANY WAY, to avoid an election right now.

Think about it... if you're Dion, do you really want to try and fight an election when you know your chief rival's people in Montreal are just going to sit on their hands and fiddle while potentially half of the city's ridings fall into the hands of other parties? Not to mention other ridings throughout Ontario and the West... I can see them holding fairly well in Atlantic Canada, but that NOT any thanks to Dion.

Any election right now, the Dion-keys would be SLAUGHTERED... and they well know it. No way are they going to drop the Government... no way. Which is why Harper stuck it to them yesterday... "If you're not going to drop me now, then you're in no position to scream bloody murder when I bring forward the legistlation that you knew full well was coming... either put up, or shut up."

Of course, Dion's in a pickle regardless... he drops the House, he gets creamed in an election, and subsequently replaced. He supports the Government, the coup continues, and any efforts to rebuild will likely go nowhere, with hundreds of malcontents festering in the ranks. I agree with Don's article... it may be that some people have decided to try and oust him now, rather than having to wait and go through the pain of a horrific election pasting.

I'm just shaking my head... interesting times.

Two more articles for your consumption...

Quebec meltdown
National Post
Published: Thursday, October 04, 2007

Was it really only four years ago that the Liberals' stranglehold on Parliament seemed unbreakable? As Steve Pinkus, vice-president of the party's Quebec wing said this week, his party is "imploding" following three byelection losses two weeks ago and a spate of resignations. Scandal, arrogance and policy drift have contributed to the party's fall from grace, but the biggest factor has been the leadership of Stephane Dion. If the Liberals are to avoid being wiped out in the next election, Mr. Dion has to take decisive action.

Dion's tenure as Grit leader appears shortThe StarPhoenix
Published: Thursday, October 04, 2007

In the spring of 1940, while German troops were driving Allied forces toward the North Sea, news reports seemed to indicate it was the Nazis who were being beaten.

However, those who knew the area's geography recognized that the front was moving in the wrong direction if the battle descriptions of the town-by-town German retreats were correct.

Such is the news out of the Liberal Party of Canada these days.