Trapped in Suburbia…

It’s getting to the point that I’m considering getting a whiteboard to keep track of the political machinations in Ottawa. No one can argue that Liberal leader Stephane Dion has been anything less than a stellar failure. The most recent failure on his part – and the apparent last nail in his coffin – was the terrible boondoggle that surrounded the Liberal-NDP-Bloc coalition’s response to Stephen Harper’s address.

While Liberals have vacillated from demonizing Stephane – calling for him to step down, suggesting he was bumbling, suggesting he didn’t listen to advice, etc. – and painting him as our new hero there has always been an undertone of disapproval. Certainly the constant sound of knives being sharpened didn’t dull even briefly during Dion’s leadership of the party.

Now, with the coalition putsch on hold it appears that the Liberals have turned back to their own internal intrigues. And, as is so typical, it appears that their internecine war may come to a conclusion in a relatively un-democratic fashion.

The MSM is reporting that Stephane Dion will formally resign, as early as today, rather than stay on until the leadership convention next year. The media is also reporting that, as early as today, Liberal leadership hopeful Dominic LeBlanc will drop out of the leadership campaign and throw his support to Michael Ignatieff.

This would give Ignatieff the balance of power in the Liberal caucus which will meet on Wednesday to name a new parliamentary leader. If Ignatieff is installed as leader the pressure on Bob Rae to drop out of the leadership race will be significant.

Rather than maintain the thin veil of legitimacy that a leadership contest brings to the party it appears that an internal coup will take place – as did when Paul Martin and his supporters threw Chretien under the bus.

I’m inclined to think Ignatieff was only silent on the matter of the coalition because he was working behind the scenes to ensure he became its leader. And perhaps that’s the final joke in this entire saga.

Soon, the Liberals, NDP, and Bloc will install a government that Canadians didn’t elect with a leader no one voted for.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 8th, 2008 at 9:54 am and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.