Angry in the Great White North

The Canadian Press has shot this story over the wire. Expect it on Canadian news sites soon, if it's not up already:

Liberal rift erupts over calls for dismissal of Dion aide (Dion-Liberal-Infighti)

By Isabelle Rodrigue

OTTAWA Stephane Dion's palace guard was under seige Thursday by members of his own party calling on the Liberal leader to dismiss one of his closest aides over alleged remarks about Quebec.

Several MPs and senators from the province have been pleading privately for him to fire Jamie Carroll, the Liberals' national director and one of the key players in Dion's leadership victory.

They are now making their demands public.

Witnesses at a closed-door meeting this week say Carroll was dismissive when some Quebec Liberals suggested their leader's entourage needed more people who were bilingual and from the province.

According to witnesses Carroll remarked that if he hired more Quebecers, then he'd have to hire more Chinese.

Carroll says the conversation has been mischaracterized and twisted out of context.

But some of his outraged colleagues still want him gone.

"I called party headquarters to tell them we can't tolerate that in this party,'' Montreal MP Pablo Rodriguez said in an interview.

"I don't see how Mr. Carroll could remain in his role with comments like that.''

If Dion didn't have enough headaches with his party's woeful fundraising, poor recent byelection results, and a possible federal election approaching, he now has to deal with a public war between members of his party and one of his top organizers.

Carroll said in a statement he never meant to insult Quebecers, or Chinese-Canadians.

He said he agrees with increasing the number of francophone Quebecers working in the national office, but also believes the party must reflect Canada's growing diversity.

But the head of the Liberals' Quebec wing also wants Carroll gone.

Robert Fragasso says party members support Dion, but adds that the leader is not a populist and he needs more contact with ground-level organizers from his home province.

Fragasso was at the meeting with Carroll where the exchange on the subject came up. The remarks from the national director, he said, will divide the party and pit francophone Quebecers against anglophones.

"I informed our party president [Marie] Poulin that very night that I would demand his resignation,'' he said.

"We can't ask a national director who holds such a scornful attitude and who has such retrograde ideas toward Quebec to be the person who unites everyone leading toward the next election. Come on.''

Party president Marie Poulin was also quoted by the Journal de Montreal newspaper saying Carroll made a joke at the meeting and she didn't find it funny.

Another senior Quebec Liberal says party stalwart Denis Coderre was livid and also asked national headquarters to remove Carroll. Coderre refused to be interviewed.

But that senior Liberal says that the one-line crack about hiring Quebecers is only the latest cause for annoyance with Carroll, and that several key Liberals have already tried urging Dion to dump him.

He questioned Carroll's understanding of the Elections Act and bemoaned the party's woeful fundraising record.

Party sources last May said deputy leader Michael Ignatieff tried urging Dion to dump Carroll.

Although displeased with Carroll's public musings, sources said Dion indicated that he would not fire his hand-picked choice for the party's top administrative post.

Ignatieff was incensed by comments from Carroll in a new book, "Against the Current.''

In it, Carroll expressed doubts about Dion's decision to extend an olive branch to his former leadership rivals and said he loses sleep at night worrying about how they might undermine the leader.

The Tories wasted little time in joining the flock criticizing one of Dion's top lieutenants.

"Carroll made some really bizarre, eye-raising remarks. Apparently Liberals themselves find them, at best, distasteful,'' said Conservative cabinet minister Jason Kenney.

"He seems to be insulting two different groups at the same time, showing terribly bad judgment.

"This doesn't reflect well on Stephane Dion, who should hold this guy accountable.''

What else can you say? Michael Ignatieff, Denis Coderre, Robert Fragasso, Marie Poulin, Pablo Rodriguez -- all openly attacking Stephane Dion's judgment in allowing Jamie Carroll to remain in his role as national director.

What was that about pulling together and teamwork?

Update: An expanded version of the story of the anti-Dion revolt has been published. A new element to the story has been added:

[A] candidate who was set to run for the party called The Canadian Press without any prompting - saying he was asked to do so by a well-known Liberal - and announced he was no longer interested.

Paul Leduc, a three-term mayor of a large Montreal suburb, says that he's changed his mind about running for the Liberals and that one of the party's household names provided him with phone numbers for journalists and urged him to go public with his story.

The former Brossard mayor had been endorsed in April by the Liberals' provincial election commission to run without a contested nomination - but he said Dion kept him cooling his heels all summer.

"I never heard any news from Mr. Dion or his entourage," Leduc said.

"A leader who doesn't follow a recommendation, I call that inaction and indecision and it's a lack of respect not only for me, but also for the commission, and for members of my riding."

Leduc's decision not to run follows a similar one from astronaut Marc Garneau.

So a senior Liberal is looking for reasons to humiliate Stephane Dion, and is actively pursuing a course of action to make sure that happens.

Stephane Dion has clearly failed to unite the party. His enemies, old ones and people who have only recently decided that Stephane Dion is a liability, are trying to take him down, and are making little effort to hide that fact. Indeed, their openness exacerbates the problem for Dion. What can Stephane Dion do? A wholesale purge? Can Stephane Dion pull it off? Would he even try?

If he tries, he'll have to do it quickly, while Jamie Carroll is still the national director. It might be a matter of hours before Stephane Dion loses this key ally.

Update: Add Liberal blogger Antonio DiDomizio to the list of people demanding that Jamie Carroll be fired.

Update: Add federal Liberal National Vice-President (French) Brigitte Legault to the list of people demanding that Jamie Carroll be fired:

Brigitte Legault, the party's francophone vice-president, said she can't see how Carroll can remain the party's top manager.

"I find it inconceivable for someone to think like that," she said.

Add former Liberal cabinet minister Liza Frulla to the list of people demanding that Jamie Carroll be fired:

Liberals like former Heritage minister Liza Frulla said Dion has no choice but to fire Carroll.

"It is not only shocking, it is revolting," she said.

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