Angry in the Great White North

From Google:

Anonymous Sources
4 hours ago by Jason Cherniak
I'm hearing that Jamie Carroll will not be leaving his post as National Director. If that turns out to be true...
Cherniak on Politics - http://jasoncherniak.blogspot.com/

So Jason Cherniak, plugged in as he is, thought Jamie Carroll would not be leaving his post as National Director as late as three o'clock this afternoon.

We don't know what Jason Cherniak, candidate for the Central Region President for the LPC(O), thought about this scoop, because Jason has removed the post from his blog.

But even this little tidbit is interesting. Jason Cherniak is tight with Liberal Party leader Stephane Dion. If Jason was so far off base, I have to wonder if even Stephane Dion knew what was really going on. Maybe they were both clueless. We know that Stephane Dion and the Management Committee were at loggerheads over the issue of Jamie Carroll:

Senior members of the party's management committee demanded Thursday that Dion fire Liberal Party national director Jamie Carroll over remarks he is purported to have made about hiring more bilingual Quebecers for Dion's entourage.

Dion has rejected the calls for his national director's resignation, saying he doesn't believe Carroll made the comments that are being attributed to him.

Apparently Jamie Carroll confronted the Management Committee today with Stephane Dion's public support and demanded a vote of confidence. The committee ignored Stephane Dion's opinion on the matter, and did not give express confidence in Jamie Carroll:

Jamie Carroll, attacked by the Quebec wing of the party for remarks he made at a Liberal management-committee meeting a couple of weeks ago, is said to have provoked the confrontation that led to his pending departure.

Carroll reportedly demanded a full-fledged endorsement of his position from the management committee – something not all members were willing to offer. In effect, that refusal could also be seen as continuing defiance of Dion, a sign that Carroll's departure may not solve all the Liberal leader's internal problems, especially in Quebec.

So while Stephane Dion and his supporters thought they had the Jamie Carroll issue under control (and Jason Cherniak was reporting only 4 hours ago that Carroll would be keeping his job), the rest of the Liberal Party had taken control of the situation and were making decisions without much concern about Stephane Dion's "leadership".

I wonder what Jason Cherniak thought the implications were if the fairy tale he had been told about Carroll keeping his job was true. Since Jason has seen fit to delete the post, we might never know.

Perhaps it is his run for Central Region President that is prompting him to sanitize his blog.

And I have to wonder where he was hearing this nonsense that Jamie Carroll would be allowed to keep his job. From deluded Dion supporters? Or maybe an opponent of Jason's wanted to see Jason embarrass himself and so fed him this story?

Jason had better be careful. As a prominent Stephane Dion supporter, he might be targetted by enemies of Dion. I wonder if Michael Ignatieff supporters in the Central Region have decided that Jason Cherniak's decision to support Stephane Dion, and to continue to support Stephane Dion with what sometimes seems to be blind faith, can be described as an example of poor political judgment that can be used against Jason as he continues his march up the ranks of the Liberal Party.

Well, anonymous sources are tricky things.

Update: The Missing Man

Jason responds on his blog:

There's a lot of crap going around right now in the media. All I can say is that Liberals are smart. We will pull together and we will survive.

Bryon Wilfert was right that we aren't ready for an election right now and I think today's events are proof of that. However, when we are ready the Canadian people will have a chance to pass their judgement.

I have no fear of that day.

Is it just me, or is Stephane Dion conspicuous by his absense? We can pull together behind Stephane Dion. A chance to pass their judgement on the real Stephane Dion. I have no fear of that day nor does Stephane Dion.

You can't read too much into most things, and especially into things that are not there. But one thing I watch for in people's writing is those subtle shifts in perception. And Jason Cherniak has just painted a picture of a rejuvenated, rebounding, and united Liberal Party.

And Stephane Dion didn't appear in the picture, or at least not in a noteworthy way.

Compare that with this piece about a successful Liberal Party sometime in the near future with Stephane Dion as prime minister posted just last Wednesday.

Interesting.

I wonder how many other Liberals arre starting to see beyond Stephane Dion. And for every one of those Liberals merely looking beyond, how many are focused on a Liberal party without Stephane Dion? Are those Liberals just a step away from starting to actively work for a Liberal Party without Stephane Dion?

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