Angry in the Great White North

The Liberals, facing the possibility of an election while suffering from what seems to be chronic organizational meltdown, are hedging on supporting the Conservative's Throne Speech. Stephen Harper has made it clear -- as far as Canada is concerned, Kyoto is dead.

Given that Liberal Party leader Stephane Dion has based his leadership on being the Green Liberal, this has to seem intolerable.

Still, many Liberals are saying that the Throne Speech must be tolerated:

Roiling disarray in his Liberal party is making Stephane Dion's decision about whether to bring down the Harper government even more complicated.

There was mounting evidence that his Liberal team - particularly in Quebec - is not ready to fight an election.

The Liberal leader lost both his Quebec lieutenant and the director general of the party's Quebec wing just hours before Prime Minister Stephen Harper unveiled the government’s blueprint for the new session of Parliament.

Dion dipped into Liberal ranks in the Senate to fill one vacancy but was still scrambling late Tuesday to find a replacement for the other.

During a morning caucus meeting to discuss how they should respond to the throne speech, sources said only six of 30 speakers said Liberals should vote against the speech and topple the government.

But insiders say that Dion himself, despite receiving virtually unanimous advice to the contrary, is hawkish about forcing an election. He fears his reputation as a champion of the environment and progress he's made wooing Green and other left-wing voters will be seriously hurt if Liberals don’t vote against Harper's anti-Kyoto message.

So do the Liberals support the Conservatives, or topple the government?

Quite a stark choice.

But then according to Ralph Goodale, it's a lot more complicated than that:

The Liberals are considering all options today as they come to a decision on whether to support Tuesday's speech from the throne, or whether to vote against it, a move that would trigger an election.

Liberal House Leader Ralph Goodale said all options are open to his party, but no decision has been made yet. He wouldn't rule out supporting the throne speech, however, and said that option will be among several discussed during a 10 a.m. ET caucus meeting.

Several options? What other options are there? Even the lead in to the article outlines the two options -- support the speech or vote it down.

There might be tactical discussions about how many MPs ought to abstain, and whether they should be present but not vote (which looks bad on them) or not be present at all and leave the Liberal benches looking empty (which looks ban on Stephane Dion).

But I wouldn't have characterized that as an "option".

Perhaps he meant options like supporting the Throne Speech but then voting down a subsequent piece of legislation. But if the Liberals support the Throne Speech, the damage to their crediblity is done, which comes back down to two options -- stick to principles and vote against the speech, or support the Throne Speech look like a bunch of trough feeders worried only about the perks of being an MP.

I wonder what options Ralph Goodale is talking about. Ralph Goodale supported Bob Rae in the leadership race, switching his vote to Stephane Dion when Bob Rae dropped out.

I wonder if he is reconsidering that option.

Stephane Dion is facing his caucus, having been painted into a corner by his own words and by Conservative strategy. Now it has come to a make or break moment with the Throne Speech. This should have been an opportunity for the Liberal Party, but under Stephane Dion's leadership, it has become a moment of political terror. No MP is safe. The Quebec caucus is furious with Stephane Dion (the farce with Marcel Proulx is just the latest). Other MPs are edgy. Nothing in the media reports and in the blogging by Liberal supporters suggests confidence or determination, but rather a rising edge of panic.

So I come back to my original question. What options besides supporting the Throne Speech and not supporting the Throne Speech are there?

I suppose one option is to have someone else make that decision.

I think Stephane Dion is going to hear plenty of discussion about his tenure as leader during this caucus meeting. That the Liberals will let the Throne Speech pass is almost a given. Since that is pretty simple decision to take, the rest of the caucus meeting is going to be filled with something. I'm thinking recrmininations and a lot of them. Even a few calls for a resignation and a chance to reboot the party under a new leader.

When Stephane Dion offered the position of Quebec lieutenenat firts to MP Denis Coderre and then to MP Pablo Rodriguezeahc in turn said no. Open defiance?

And if Stephane Dion demands an election for fear of his reputation as an environmentalist being tarnished? How many more Liberals will simply turn their back on him, or speak up and demand a new leader?

The leadership of the Liberal Party is broken, and it's likely irreparable. Recall that Ralph Goodale said that the caucus would be discussing options that were open to the party, and not about the options open to Stephane Dion.

I think there are a lot of options being discussed at the Liberal Party caucus. I suspect many, perhaps even most, have nothing to do with the Throne Speech.