Can't he just use Westjet? That's chock-full of symbolism, right?

From the Globe:

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Mr. Ignatieff's search for a campaign plane. Wanting to avoid having to rent an airplane from Air Inuit again for a potential fall election campaign, the Liberals are shopping around for another airline. Remember, the Dion Liberals got caught out and ended up with an old bruiser of a plane for the 2008 campaign.

But even with a few weeks lead time before a possible vote, Mr. Ignatieff may have some trouble. During the 2006 leadership campaign, the Liberal Leader managed to insult 25,000 Air Canada employees when he said on the popular Quebec television show Tout le monde en parle , “What scares me is Air Canada. They are not courteous enough. One thing which unites us, in this country, is our hatred for Air Canada.” Now what would be uniting Air Canada employees?

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Liberals Claim they are Done Propping up Harper

From the I'll-believe-it-when-I-see-it-file:

“Mr. Harper, your time is up,” Mr. Ignatieff told cheering party MPs and senators, gathered in Sudbury, Ont., yesterday for an annual Liberal caucus retreat.

We will see how long this lasts.

My guess?

7 weeks.

I don't want to hear any whining about Vote Splitting

This blog has been quiet for the last couple of days as I was too busy working on the election campaign here in Saskatchewan.

Stephen Moore, the NDP candidate against Ralph Goodale put up a hell of a fight and exceeded expectations by a fair margin. The problem is that New Democrats in Wascana vote for Goodale.

But, is that a problem?

From a raw partisan perspective, yes. From the larger picture of stopping Harper and the Conservatives? Not so much I guess.

But what annoys the hell out of me is the continual Liberal whining about vote-splitting.

Typical headline:

Liberals blame vote-splitting

Liberals in Regina (other than Goodale) put out piece after piece saying that the only way to stop Harper in Saskatchewan was to vote Liberal, even thought everyone (including the Liberals who produced and distributed those flyers) knew that the NDP would place second in almost every seat in Saskatchewan (and in one case, second by a less than 300 votes).

For the Liberals, "strategic voting" means "voting for the Liberals."

And yet they then have the nerve to turn around and whine and complain that all the votes cast for the NDP were votes cast for Harper?

Bullshit.

Everyone who cast a vote in this election (for those few that did) voted for the party and the representative that they wanted. In Wascana, more people wanted Ralph Goodale and so they voted for him. He earned those votes for whatever reason, (they liked him, they wanted to stop Harper)

And the Liberal and Green candidates in Saskatoon Rosetown Biggar earned their votes to, and the NDP candidate did not earn enough (barely) to win the seat.

Is that the Liberals and Greens fault? No. It is the CONSERVATIVE VOTERS that gave that seat to the conservatives - not the Green and Liberal voters.

But I guarantee you this, the Liberals are licking their wounds now and talking about working with the NDP and all that but when push comes to shove, they will blame us for this loss, just like they still blame us for the loss of the Martin government.

Because Liberals believe that they have a divine right to govern.

They DESERVE votes because they just do. And if a citizen has the nerve to vote for a different party on the "left" (particularly when they feal the Liberals aren't doing a good job or representing the left) then the evil NDP have clearly tricked that voter into voting against the Liberals, because lord knows they are SUPPOSED to vote for the Liberals.

Quote from this morning:

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"I think under any scenario where we lose seats, Dion must go," said a party strategist who has worked with Mr. Dion and his two predecessors.

Another long-time Liberal said last night: "it will be tough for him to have the ... authority to lead. We are the natural governing party."

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Enough.

In places where vote-splitting elected a Conservative member, then the fault lies with the conservative voters, not the voters on the other side. The NDP should continue to convince voters that they are the best alternative to Stephen Harper and when they fall short (like in Rosetown Bigger) they should pick themselves up and try again.

That's what a party that has a vision and principles does.

We don't sit around and whine that we deserved a seat and it is the other parties fault we didn't get it.

Liberal MP Donations Vs. NDP MP Donations

Nice little Canadian Press story:

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Still reeling from Monday's humiliating byelection losses, Liberals are turning their attention to another horror story - their dismal fundraising record.
...
Only 29 per cent of Liberal MPs have donated to the party and almost none of their staff members.

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Wow! I don't understand how you can be a Liberal MP and NOT make a single donation to the Party.

Let's take at look at the NDP. Each MP and how many times they donated in 2006 (for example)

Jack Layton - 13 times
Charlie Angus - 14 times
Alex Atamanenko - 7 times
Catherine Bell - 14 times
Denis Bevington - 13 times
Dawn Black - 11 times
Bill Blaikie - 15 times
Chris Charlton - 3 times
Olivia Chow - 14 times
David Christopherson - 13 times
Joe Comartin - 13 times
Jean Crowder - 15 times
Nathan Cullen - 13 times
Libby Davies - 12 times
Paul Dewar - 12 times
Yvon Godin - 11 times
Peter Julian - 15 times
Wayne Marston - 13 times
Pat Martin - 13 times
Tony Martin - 16 times
Brian Masse - 12 times
Irene Mathyssen - 13 times
Alexa McDonough - 14 times
Peggy Nash - 13 times
Penny Priddy - 12 times
Denise Savoie - 14 times
Bil Siksay - 16 times
Peter Stoffer - 12 times
Judy Wasylycia-Leis - 14 times.

So that is 100% of the NDP caucus making a donation. Sure, most of them are on a monthly donation system but still, recall that only 29% of Liberal MP's made ANY donation at all.

Now by Wikipedia's count there are 96 Liberal MPs. So 29% of that is 28 MPs who have donated.

So assuming the trend holds from last year MORE NDP MPS WILL HAVE MADE CONTRIBUTIONS THAN LIBERAL MPS. And we only have 1/3 as many MPs.

Yeah, I don't know why the Liberal Party is in trouble.

Dion is taking it from all sides

When they are laughing at you you know you are in trouble

Man, those are some bad pictures.

The May/December (I mean Dion) Deal

So I don't agree with Andrew Coyne very often, but here it is:

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It’s pretty clear there’s a larger game being played here than just electing Mr. Dion or Ms May, and larger stakes than just Central Nova. Even at yesterday’s joint press conference, there were hints that similar arrangements might be worked out in other ridings. Which suggests the real target of this operation is not Mr. MacKay. It’s the NDP.

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And more to the point, read this post that pretty much sums up the whole deal:

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It is a riding where an outstanding young NDP candidate named Alexis MacDonald (I have met her, and trust me, this woman is amazing) came within striking distance of MacKay in 2006 with almost 33% of the vote. ... It is also a riding where the Greens took only a measly 1.6% of the vote in that same election.

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Some bloggers (in comments mostly) such as here and here are claiming that this move is against the Liberal Constitution.

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this is against your [Liberal] constitution, a point Warren Kinsella also made on the Adler show today.

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I don't know if that is true or not. I took a lookee-see at the Liberal Party Constitution and didn't see anything that would prohibit this deal, but if some one else saw what I missed (very possible, I just took a quick glance) then please let me know.