Well, I guess we now know what Mr. Ignatieff did with his summer. We know our MSM had a little fun with their "Where's Iggy" game but now we have confirmation that they were full of crap, as expected.
When he was not meeting with Canadians at small events across the country he was planning the extrication of the Liberal Party from Stephen Harper's confidence game. And doing a little fundraising along the way.
He implemented a new strategy in Sudbury and he has been driving the Canadian political bus ever since.
He has both the NDP and the Conservatives playing his tune and it is driving them and their supporters bananas. As well, he has surprised the MSM and they are not happy about it.
The troubles of the NDP are well documented. They are now the Party that is expected to prevent an election the media says no one wants but in order to do so they have to support a party and a leader they state they cannot trust.
The Conservatives are terrified of going into an election campaign this Fall. They realize it is one they have a very good chance of losing so they are hoping to delay it to the Spring so that they can come up with something, anything to rehabilitate their political position. Of course, they will not find it by then because it is permanently gone. If anything their political position in the Spring will be much worse than it is now.
The media is cranky. They have been pushing the Liberals-are-hopeless meme for years and now that they are showing that they are wrong they are pissed off. The media does not like to be shown to be the fool. Their reaction has been predictable, claiming Canadians do not want an election although it should be noted they did not publish polls indicating that until they pushed that meme for a few days first.
For their part the Liberals are ignoring the polls that predictably show them losing support, knowing that the underlying trend is pointing to a Liberal government and this erosion is the result of the Conservatives trying desperately to hang on and the media helping them because of their anger at being made to look foolish.
My only worry is the Liberals may be pushing too hard. I still say they would be better served to let the Fall go without an election, putting forward their non-confidence motion but allowing the NDP the slimmest of outs to prevent the government's fall. Nothing has changed my belief that the political dynamic in this country will lead to the inevitable defeat of the Conservatives and if the Liberals allow that dynamic to deepen and take on a life of its own that defeat could be a big one.
Regardless however, no matter what happens this Fall it has been a long time since I have seen the Liberals in this kind of control.
Michael Ignatieff had a very productive summer.
1 comment:
Good post. I think you meant to use the word "had" or "is having" in the final sentence ;).
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