Jamie Carroll story winds to a close, and we tally up the score
When Jamie Carroll allegedly told Quebec Liberals that if followed their advice to hire more Quebecers, he would have to hire more Chinese too, Quebec Liberals went ballistic.
A crisis quickly erupted as Quebec Liberals, none of them fans of Liberal Party leader Stephane Dion, went to the press to tell any reporter who would listen just how awful Stephane Dion's handpicked team leading the Liberal Party really was.
At first Stephane Dion said that Jamie Carroll was misinterpreted, and that no action was required.
Then Stephane Dion fell silent, and the Liberal Party made it known that Jamie Carroll would be shuffled out of his position as National Director and into another role.
Then Liberal Party fell silent, and a leak revealed that Jamie Carroll was threatening to sue the Liberal Party for defamation unless he was generously compensated.
Finally, over a week after the alleged comments that kick off this whole episode, Jamie Carroll is gone. Apparently action was required, and there was no role for Jamie Carroll in the Liberal Party after all. As for compensation and lawsuits, no word on those subjects. Presumably no lawsuit, but money remains a "confidential personnel matter".
The Liberal Party issued a press release designed to end the Jamie Carroll story. As suspected by many, the only choice left was to fire Jamie Carroll -- no sideways shift, no equally valuable role, no attempt to use the skills he's built up over the years.
One of Stephane Dion's closest advisors is out the door:
Jamie Carroll has resigned as both the Liberal party's national director and deputy national campaign chairman, more than a week after reports emerged he would be shuffled to another post.
"On behalf of our National Executive, I would like to thank Jamie for his service to the Liberal Party," Senator Marie Poulin, the party's national president, said in a press release Wednesday.
"His loyalty to our leader and to our party reflects his deep commitment to the values of all Liberal Party of Canada members, and we trust that these values will serve him well in his future endeavours."
Of course, we know what "future endeavours" means: Whatever you hoped to be doing, it'll have nothing to do with us.
The real story, of course, is the end of the power struggle between Stephane Dion and his Ottawa team, and the Quebec wing of the Liberal Party.
It is clear that the Quebec wing won, and won big.
If you are really into conspiracy theories, you might believe that the plan started back with the Outremont by-election. The Quebec wing throws the election, allowing Stephane Dion's hand-picked candidate Jocelyn Coulon (seen by many to be a Dion look-a-like) to suffer a humiliating loss. Having succeeded at humiliating the much-loathed Stephane Dion and having suffered no reprecussions (no mass firings or even veiled criticism), they go for bigger prey. Jamie Carroll meets with these Liberals, and says something that might be construed as denigrating to the French language. Heck, Carroll might not have said anything at all -- all that mattered was that they had one of Stephane Dion's most important and trusted people alone in a room with the door locked.
Just over a week later, Jamie Carroll is out of a job, Stephane Dion's leadership has taken yet another blow, and all the people who publicly called for Jamie Carroll to resign over what he might or might not have said are still in firm control of what is left of the Liberal Party in Quebec.
So here's the score:
Quebec Liberals:1. Stephane Dion: 0.
Or to put it another way:
Federal Liberal Party: 0. Canada: 1.
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Comments
Well... we certainly know who is running the show in the Liberal party, and while it's definately Quebecors, it's not Mssr. Dion. Wonder what marching orders they'll give him next.
Posted by: Joe Calgary at October 10, 2007 07:05 PM
The Liberals are going to go LEFT, big time, as in let's beat the NDP at their own game and, come to think of it, with their own, Bob Rae!!!
For shame.... I pity the day Canada falls for it...
Posted by: at October 10, 2007 08:44 PM
The Quebec Liberals had to be placated in order to keep the Party from disintegrating. However, I believe most of the Quebec Liberals were Ignatieff supporters and Ignatieff appears to be losing influence in the Party. That other Quebec arm of the Party is in charge now and Bob Rae is the leader-in-waiting.
As for Outrement, I think Dion himself did all the damage there by his apparent lack of communication with the grassroots, leaving them waiting for a candidate until they fell far behind the NDP while star candidates who offered to run were rejected. Then they were saddled with Dion's choice who obviously wasn't popular. It was the incompetence of Dion and his close advisors that were responsible for Outrement. They can't get rid of Dion but the advisors are expendable.
Posted by: muttsrus at October 10, 2007 11:12 PM
i stil prefer mafia as govn't of canada ....more honor
Posted by: george at October 11, 2007 12:01 AM
The Quebec Liberals had to be placated in order to keep the Party from disintegrating. However, I believe most of the Quebec Liberals were Ignatieff supporters and Ignatieff appears to be losing influence in the Party. That other Quebec arm of the Party is in charge now and Bob Rae is the leader-in-waiting.
Posted by: muttsrus at October 10, 2007 11:12 PM
...................................................................
Interesting observations that require more analysis.
1. Has Ignatieff lost influence in the Liberal party now? He had ~30% grassroots support going into the leadership convention as the frontrunner, while Rae had ~20% grassroots support. Conversely 70% rejected Ignatieff and 80% rejected Rae. What has changed since the convention?
2. Is Rae the leader-in-waiting, and if so what is Dion's function in the Liberal party? Is Dion just an interim leader now, and has he accepted that status? If Dion is on the way out, the Liberal party executive must have explained to him why he cannot remain as leader, and he accepted that fate.
3. Now that the Quebec (Ignatieff) Liberals have been placated, is Ignatieff a unity leader, or is Rae the unity leader? The Liberal establishment brokered the leadership convention and selected Dion as their unity leader and that is now an unmitigated disaster. Can we truly say that Ignatieff or Rae are unity leaders?
Personally, I see Ignatieff as the true Liberal renewal leader, but that means brutally purging the party of those responsible for damaging the Liberal brand, and that means all the old Liberal politicians clinging to power. I see Rae as the left-wing solution to Liberal losses to the NDP when soft lefty Liberals fled to the NDP in the last two elections. If the Liberals can reclaim those votes they could conceivably win the next election. Now that Powercorp is apparently backing Rae, that may be too tempting for Liberals to reject, because it means money and privilege courtesy of Powercorp.
Canadian politics is becoming quite Byzantine now.
Posted by: Observer at October 11, 2007 10:40 AM
... money remains a "confidential personnel matter".
If I were a card-carrying LPC member, I would sure want to know if any money was paid to Carroll by way of settlement, and how much.
Posted by: Brian in Calgary at October 11, 2007 04:01 PM
LOL George,....
I'm just glad to see a liberal lose a job to affirmative action they are ususlly happy to let everyone else lose promotions, jobs, bursaries, etc, etc, etc.
Good to see whats been comming around for so long finally go around.
:)
Posted by: DrWright at October 11, 2007 04:04 PM
The Quebec Liberal party that has represented all of Canada since Trudeau will soon, if Harper continues to kiss their arse, also rule the Conservatives. I think we should hold a referandum in the rest of Canada on whether to seperate from Quebec. Think how more advanced Canada would have been if Trudeau had not been a coward and served his country and maybe not returned like a lot of Canadian young men.
Posted by: Alonzo at October 11, 2007 08:35 PM
... and maybe not returned like a lot of Canadian young men.
I'm a Tory partisan, and I think that is one of the most outrageous and uncalled for remarks that I've seen on any blog, Liberal, Tory, NDP, etc.
Posted by: Brian in Calgary at October 12, 2007 11:29 AM
Well Brian in Calgary- maybe your family was one of the lucky ones - our family lost 3 during WW2 while Trudeau toodled around on his motorcycle in Montreal wearing a German helmut.
Posted by: alonzo at October 12, 2007 06:16 PM
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