Angry in the Great White North

The buzz this weekend has been about the Halifax Chronicle-Herald story that quotes a source close to Stephane Dion as alleging that Michael Ignatieff loyalists are sabotaging Liberal Party efforts to win in the by-election in Outremont as a way of embarrassing Stephane Dion and setting the stage for another leadership race:

Dion loyalists suspect Liberal organizers who support Mr. Ignatieff have been undermining the campaign, hoping that a loss would force Mr. Dion out of the leadership once Liberals realized that he couldn’t deliver seats in Quebec.

"I only know what I see, and I see some suspicious stuff," said one Liberal worker on the ground.

The Dion people say organizers in the riding have made a series of bizarre, counterproductive moves.

"There’s one of two options," said one source close to Mr. Dion. "There’s some folks there who are either grossly incompetent or intentionally malicious."

Dion loyalists are leaning toward the second option.

The strange thing is that the author of this piece, Stephen Maher, has written a piece like this before, and there was one specific Liberal insider, as close to Stephane Dion as anyone can be, who is quoted in that piece.

That insider is Jamie Carroll, Stephane Dion's deputy national director during the leadership campaign, and the national director of the federal Liberal Party after being appointed to the position by Stephane Dion.

In June, Stephen Maher wrote a story that got huge play. The theme was the same -- allegations by a Stephane Dion loyalist that Michael Ignatieff could not be trusted to work with the man who beat him for the leadership of the Liberal Party.

But there was no coyness -- Jamie Carroll was on the record:

Even before the comments appeared in print, some Liberals in other leadership camps muttered quietly about Mr. Carroll, part of a pattern of unhappiness with Mr. Dion’s leadership from people who supported his former rivals.

It’s that same grumbling and internal dissent that led Mr. Carroll to make the comments in Stephane Dion: Against the Current, a new book by Toronto Star reporter Linda Diebel.

"I am starting to wonder if he may not have been a little too good to his former competitors," Mr. Carroll said, expressing fear that the rivals might be out to get Mr. Dion.

"What they do in public doesn’t bother me. It’s the shit they do behind the scenes — which I may not know they’re doing — that keeps me up at night."

After an excerpt from the book was published on the weekend, Liberal MPs reacted angrily.

Denis Coderre, a Quebec MP who supported Michael Ignatieff and virulently opposed Mr. Dion’s candidacy, objected to Mr. Carroll’s statements.

"It’s totally misplaced comments and it’s totally unacceptable," he said.

Funny thing, that. In the current controversy over Outremont, it was Denis Coderre again who did the job of denying all the allegations against Michael Ignatieff. Of course, the difference is that this time, unlike back in June, the Liberal insider making the allegations against Michael Ignatieff was unnamed.

Now Jamie Carroll was apparently read the riot act over the incident in June:

Mr. Carroll declined to comment Monday but several Liberal spokespeople made comments that suggested he was getting chewed out.

"There’s conversations that are being had, which is always the case when a new book comes out," said Elizabeth Whiting, who works for Mr. Carroll. "You know Jamie. He’s a blunt guy."

Jean-Francois Del Torchio, a spokesman for Mr. Dion, said Mr. Carroll is staying in his job but he suggested there were conversations going on behind closed doors.

"What we’re saying is we’re not going to comment on private discussions," he said.

So was Jamie Carroll in trouble because of what he said, or because what he said was attributed to him?

Stephen Maher and Jamie Carroll go back a bit further. Six months earlier, in December 2006, Maher wrote a biographical piece about Jamie Carroll:

You can tell something changed this weekend, because Jamie Carroll is sitting behind a desk wearing a crisp white shirt — with cufflinks, no less — and a tie.

A tie, Mr. Carroll?

"You’re the 18th person who’s said that to me," he says, laughing. "I’ve got a closet full of them. I must wear them once in a while."

Sounds like Maher and Carroll know each other with some level of familiarity. Like even this early interview was not the first time they met. The best part of the article comes at the end. Jamie Carroll makes it clear that he thinks politics is a dirty business:

Mr. Carroll loves working for Mr. Dion, he says, because of his boss’s integrity and passion.

"He’s very warm, compassionate," he says. "He deeply cares about the work. I don’t think I’ve ever met anybody quite as committed to what they’re doing as him. He’s an all-round good guy. I don’t know anyone who could possibly say he wasn’t completely genuine in all he does."

Some in Ottawa wonder if Mr. Dion is too much the boy scout to do well in what can be a very rough game.

Mr. Carroll laughs.

"I didn’t say I was a boy scout," he says.

Would it suprise you to know that Stephen Maher and Jamie Carroll are both from Nova Scotia? And that they both went to the University of King's College. They didn't go to school together (Maher graduated in 1988, and Carroll in 2000), but clearly Stephen Maher and Jamie Carroll connected as alumni:

Jamie Carroll (BA ’00) was featured in The Chronicle Herald on December 6. Mr. Carroll was the deputy director of Stephane Dion’s Liberal Party leadership campaign, and is currently serving as Dion's acting chief of staff. The story was written by Stephen Maher (BA ’88) from the Herald’s Ottawa Bureau.

An interesting pattern. Of course, that in a past story close Stephane Dion associate Jamie Carroll cast suspicions on Michael Ignatieff in a piece written by Stephen Maher and in doing so earned a harsh response from Denis Coderre does not establish any connection to the current story of an unnamed Liberal close to Stephane Dion casting suspicions on Michael Ignatieff in a piece written by Stephen Maher and in doing so earning a harsh response from Denis Coderre.

But it is interesting how the story seems to have otherwise repeated itself almost exactly.

Update #1: Or maybe it was Denise Brundon.

Update #2: Or maybe it was the Tooth Fairy.

Update #3: A point to Jason Cherniak's post:

I don't even know that I believe the initial Halifax Chronicle report that supposedly had a person "close to Dion" blaming "Ignatieff supporters" for throwing the election. Again, it could have easily been the same fake emailer.

Is Jason saying Stephen Maher would publish something without knowing who the source was? Or that his editor would let him? That gets pretty close to calling Stephen Maher a liar. But then that would be more comfortable than considering the implications that for a second time Liberals are alleging other Liberals of undermining Stephane Dion's leadership, and doing so publicly

Update #4: I should have realized that Jason Cherniak is too good a blogger to make that suggestion and leave it at that. Given the choice of comfortable ambiguity and the painful truth, Jason has chosen the truth. The source for the article was indeed a legitimate Liberal source, with all that implies.

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