Observations of a Liberal in Outremont
A Liberal blogger who volunteered in the riding of Outremont has some obervations related to the allegations that factions in the Liberal Party, specifically Michael Ignatieff's supporters, are throwing the by-election in order to embarrass Liberal leader Stephane Dion and so set the stage for another leadership race.
Though he doesn't see direct evidence that would allocate blame to Ignatieff's people, he says that there was something very odd going on in Outremont. This was not a campaign designed to win a seat for Stephane Dion and the Liberals.
From the blog Ramblings of a Northern Ontario Liberal by Justin Tretrault, quite an insight into the workings of the Liberal campaign in Outremont:
- The campaign claims to have 26,000 Liberals identified. When calling through the lists of ID'd Liberals, there were very few, if any, people who identified themselves as voting Liberal in the by-election.
- The campaign office is located inside a strip mall and not visible from the outside.
- The Liberals are getting decimated in the sign war, even in areas close to the campaign office. You can literally look down most streets in Outremont and see 2 Liberal signs, 20 NDP signs, 5 conservative signs and 4 Bloc signs.
- While I like the signs that we have, they are mainly green and seem to blend into the scenery and don't stand out.
- The campaign claimed to have sent literature to each house in the riding by mail, however news reports have stated that people are complaining that they hadn't seen anything and going door-to-door myself people had not seen the literature that I had with me.
- The first weekend that I travelled to Outremont with other people from Ontario, we showed up a day early. They wanted to send us home until the next day we said we were actually going to come in.
- When we were given material to drop in the riding, there were no poll kits made up. They also gave polls close to the office to those with cars and gave polls far from the office to those without cars.
- The campaign declared that they were done phoning voters on Saturday despite the election being on Monday.
- The Liberal Party sent a stack of literature to the Outremont office for that riding. Mysteriously someone in the campaign sent part of the literature to the other 2 ridings where there are by-elections where we have no chance.
- There were no Liberal buttons at all for door-knockers or lit-droppers. I had to provide my own.
Meanwhile, Jocelyn Coulon, the Liberal Party candidate in Outremont, hand-picked by Stephane Dion, says the Liberal campaign has been working very hard in Outremont and that is why the Liberals will beat Thomas Mulcair and the NDP:
Coulon, meanwhile, said he recognizes how important the riding is to the party and said he is confident of victory.
"I think it is an important election for the Liberal Party, for the leader and for me also," he told CTV Montreal on Monday.
"This is why we are very confident that we'll win, because we have worked tirelessly. I mean every day I was in the field knocking on doors, meeting electors and voters, and the reaction was very positive."
I wonder if Coulon was talking about tireless party workers or tireless volunteers. It seems like there was some friction there:
I have never been on a campaign where workers were so openly hostile to volunteers. Their actions went beyond incompetence and often left us scratching our heads. We were there to help and it seemed like the campaign did not want us there.
Justin won't blame Michael Ignatieff, but he wonders what exactly is going on. In his view, the Liberals are trying to lose in Outremont:
While I'm not willing to blame Ignatieff, because I don't think that this goes all the way up to him, it definitely seems like the people running the Coulon campaign are making decisions that go beyond gross incompetance.
It should be noted that Justin worked on the Michael Ignatieff campaign. He prominently mentions that in his post. As far as he knows, this isn't an Ignatieff operation designed to turf Stephane Dion. Certainly he wasn't in on the secret.
But he thinks something very weird has been going on in Outremont.
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Comments
It is the Coderre/Rodriguez/Lapierre axis of stupidity. Lapierre won last time with 35% of the vote. He wants that number to be the ceiling, obviously.
Lapierre and Dion go way back to the Clarity Act days. Lapierre hates Dion and has been bad-mouthing Dion to every CTV colleague who will pay any attention to him.
Hey, maybe Mulcair will win and switch parties :-)
Posted by: at September 17, 2007 03:25 PM
Poor Justin, that must be an intensely frustrating experience.
Posted by: Jason Bo Green at September 17, 2007 04:16 PM
It is interesting that there was very little Liberal activity in that riding until the 11th hour when they saw that there was a good chance that they were going to lose. It is clear from this that they expected to win, and that they believed that they were entitled to do so. Once more Liberal arrogance rears its head. It is nice to know they finally there is an extended trend of them having to pay for that attitude.
Posted by: Kai Wolf at September 17, 2007 05:06 PM
With what is going on in Outremont you really must wonder what the Liberals have been puffin'
Posted by: scott at September 17, 2007 05:11 PM
As goes Outremont, so goes Canada ... LOL
Posted by: Observer at September 17, 2007 05:46 PM
Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the buck stop with the leader and his hand-picked candidate?
If the candidate's office is located on the inside of a strip mall, whose fault is that? Whose responsibility is that?
Indeed, it's ultimately the responsibility of the leader to ensure the existence and smooth running of the election campaign machinery.
If problems happened, it's Dion's fault. If Team Iggy had something to do with it, then it's Dion's fault for not seeing it and rectifying it in time.
I mean, how many weeks did it take them to notice that signs and literature were not being distributed?
Iggy is not responsible for this. Only one person is, and that's the person who calls himself leader of the party.
Posted by: Dennis (Second Thots) at September 17, 2007 07:06 PM
The public liars the LPC sends out to distort or apologize for the party can't spin the reality away from these losses.
They can try to distract us with navel gazing about technicalities in Campaign fumbling but the wide margins ...the actual numbers tell us more than LPC apologists and myth spinners want to admit.
The numbers tell us that the LPC was whupped so badly they ran 4th in some QC ridings where they were strong....and that trend will play out in a general election. Quebecers now have an anything-but-a-liberal mentality at the polls, and all the Iggies, Raes and mini-me Trudeaus or deposed Dions will have no effect....the LPC has to sit back and climb out of it's own spin and honestly ask itself what it has done to piss off so many Quebecers.....and Canadians.
When they respond to that question with an hinest effort to purge the baggage which has killed public trust, maybe they have a choice
Posted by: WL Mackenzie Redux at September 19, 2007 08:40 AM
The public liars the LPC sends out to distort or apologize for the party can't spin the reality away from these losses.
They can try to distract us with navel gazing about technicalities in Campaign fumbling but the wide margins ...the actual numbers tell us more than LPC apologists and myth spinners want to admit.
The numbers tell us that the LPC was whupped so badly they ran 4th in some QC ridings where they were strong....and that trend will play out in a general election. Quebecers now have an anything-but-a-liberal mentality at the polls, and all the Iggies, Raes and mini-me Trudeaus or deposed Dions will have no effect....the LPC has to sit back and climb out of it's own spin and honestly ask itself what it has done to pee off so many Quebecers.....and Canadians.
When they respond to that question with an hinest effort to purge the baggage which has killed public trust, maybe they have a choice
Posted by: WL Mackenzie Redux at September 19, 2007 09:06 AM
Steve, I'd suggest this was the work of people affiliated with trying to engineer a win by either Rae or Iggy at the liberal convention who are still fighting to ensure that one of their guys wins at a later date or at least they destroy Dion.
Also, I find it curious that a so-called documentary, appeared on the CBC recently, cutting up the Sikh supporters of Dion, while prominent Rae supports were presented as virtuous figures (puppets, if you will). Dion himself, and his supporters, such as Gerrard Kennedy, were also villified to some extent for no other reason than engaging in politicking with legitimate Liberal delegates.
I find it all very curious how the the elites, and the ones who fashion themselves as the coronators of leadership candidates amongst the Liberals have reacted to the Dion victory. Wholly surprising to them, but not unpredictable to those who knew the ground realities at the time of the convention and how the delegate numbers were stacking up.
The question I have for you Steve is this - How does Power Corp., or its leadership, figure into the by-election, the documentary, and the leadership campaign? or put another way, How are the dots connected?
Posted by: K at September 24, 2007 10:37 AM
NOTE: my previous comment should read with the word 'apparently' inserted as follows: "apparently for no other reason than engaging in politicking with legitimate Liberal delegates".
I'd be interested to read here whether anyone has facts to support a "connecting" of the dots.
Posted by: k at September 24, 2007 10:51 AM
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Posted by: aswkin at July 17, 2008 04:06 AM
 
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