The Liberal Dilemma

They have no money to fight an election.

The coalition was a CHEAP solution. Roll right into government where the NDP and Bloc would quickly support stimulus to party funding. Elections are important, so all campaign expenses should be taxpayer funded. Of course. Leaders are important, so .......

They have a rigid set of rules to determine leadership.

The Liberals committed under their constitution to a leadership
convention in May. I read somewhere that the delegate list must be
closed four months prior to the convention. Thus any leadership
contender must be declared by the end of December. No one could foresee fighting an election and leadership race concurrently. Modifications to those rules in the middle of a leadership race become part of the battle.

The current leadership race has become a cage match between Ignatief and Rae.

Think poor Stephane is simply caught in the middle of the leadership
race?

Picture Iggy whispering in one ear "Go, for the love of all
saints, Go!" and Bob in the other "Stay, for the love of Canada, Stay!"


Wonder why he cannot get a video out on time? "Go!", "Stay!", "Go!", "Stay!"

Drives poor Kyoto crazy.

As long as the Liberals cannot decide how to end this race, Dion is going nowhere.


Fighting an election while conducting a leadership battle would be a divisive.

They face a budget vote in early February. Canadians are making it
perfectly clear that a coalition government is not an alternate option.
Defeating the current government will force an election.

If they
manage to pick an "interim" leader by January, then they face potential
election in March. Picture campaigning with one interim leader while
the official leaders are campaigning for a convention vote in May.The
media would have a field day bouncing every campaign promise of the
'other' three leaders. Voters would be understandably confused as to
who is actually speaking for the Liberals.

If they pick one of
the three current candidates, then that individual could be considered
to have the inside track. The other two would be irresistibly drawn to
spin every announcement. Do we think this would work any better?  

Back
in October, none of this mattered. Dion was considered irrelevant to
the leadership process. When the coalition plan surfaced last week,
Dion became a big deal, primarily because Canadians stood up to
criticize the coalition. We had made it clear that Dion was not to be
trusted with the keys to 24 Sussex.

Layton's dance with the Devil.

As I have posted previously, the Magic 86 was toxic to Liberal ambitions. Slipping from Official Opposition to last place would create major image problems. They were drawn like moths to the flame.

All the Liberals would need to justify the coalition with the Bloc would be provocation from the Evil Conservatives. Harper's still 'Secret Agenda' always trumps the Bloc's open agenda, no?

Canadian are not happy with the coalition idea.

The media repeatedly tells us we do not want another election.

We are supposed to accept the Bloc because Quebecois are too sensitive to accept rejection.

We are told that the party leader who received the fewest voters ever for his party less than two month ago is now the right man for the job.

Who would predict that the bully who drove the Liberals into the arms of the socialists and separatists would be polling in majority territory never before seen. How fair is that?


Who would of guess ordinary Canadian would object so forcefully?


Mr Harper, my friend, on January 26th, feel free to introduce the most right wing budget ever imagined. A budget that would make Genghis Khan blush.

Then find me a Liberal that would have the guts to vote it down.