Angry in the Great White North

During the last set of by-elections held on March 17, the Liberals went in with four ridings, and left with three (and came within 200 votes of leaving only with two).  The riding they lost was Desnethe-Missinippi-Churchill River is Saskatchewan, where Conservative Rob Clarke beat Joan Beatty.  Joan Beatty was an NDP MLA who had just won her provincial seat, and then almost immediately resigned in order to run in Desnethe-Missinippi-Churchill River for the federal Liberals. 

She was appointed as the nominee directly by Liberal Party leader Stephane Dion, on the insistence of Ralph Goodale (or so it is commonly believed).  That appointment caused the premature cancellation of the the ongoing nomination contest.  One of the potential nominees was David Orchard, the anti-free trade populist who was played a role in Stephane Dion winning the Liberal leadership.  Orchard's ejection in particular, and an appointment in general, caused a lot of very bad feeling among voters in the riding.  It is said that Ralph Goodale was adamant that Orchard not be given the chance to become an MP (and potentially overshadowing Ralph Goodale).  Many hold that Stephane Dion showed yet again a unique ability to take a riding that was winnable, meddle directly in the local campaign, and promptly lose the riding.

But at the time, Stephane Dion and other Liberals thought appointing Joan Beatty was a winning move:

Federal Liberals brought out the big guns in support of Joan Beatty amid ongoing controversy over leader Stephane Dion's appointment of the former provincial NDP cabinet minister as the Liberal candidate in Desnethe-Missinippi-Churchill River.

Beatty was joined in La Ronge Wednesday by Wascana MP Ralph Goodale, Saskatchewan Senator Robert Peterson, Toronto MP and hockey legend Ken Dryden and Bob Rae, the former Ontario NDP premier and Liberal leadership candidate who, like Beatty, is running in a March 17 byelection.

Rae said all Liberal candidates for nomination are well-aware that the leader has the power to appoint a candidate and that it is always a possibility, especially in cases such as this one where there is a tight timeline for the vote.

"I think we'll find over the next few days and weeks that people come together, recognize that we've got a terrific candidate who lives, represents and has grown up in and has a feeling for what is really one of the most unique constituencies in the country," said Rae of Beatty, who was the first aboriginal female elected to the Saskatchewan legislature and appointed to cabinet.

Tight timeline for a vote?  The by-election was scheduled for March 17.  According to Elections Canada, the deadline for submitting nomination papers was February 25.  Joan Beatty was officially appointed as the nominee on January 3, almost seven weeks ahead of the deadline.  The nomination fight that was preempted had already been underway for three months, and would have wrapped up shortly.

Other observers say the real reason was two-fold.

First, Joan Beatty is a woman:

In the northern Saskatchewan riding of Desnethe-Missinippi-Churchill, he appointed former New Democrat Joan Beatty, the first aboriginal woman to serve as a provincial cabinet minister, to run for the Liberals. This infuriated supporters of David Orchard, an anti-free trade activist who was seeking the nomination. Although Orchard did not have deep roots in the party – he twice ran for the Progressive Conservative leadership – he had spent three months campaigning in the constituency.

The Liberal party hasn't treated talented women well in the post-Chrétien era.

It took Martha Hall Findlay four years and three electoral cycles to persuade party officials to let her run in a winnable riding. In 2004, she was parachuted into Newmarket-Aurora to face then-Conservative star Belinda Stronach. She came within a hair's breadth of winning. But when Stronach crossed the floor, Hall Findlay was shunted aside. Only now, having proved her mettle in the Liberal leadership race, has she been nominated to run in Willowdale.

Deborah Coyne, a constitutional lawyer brimming with energy and ideas, was dispatched to Toronto-Danforth, the riding held by NDP Leader Jack Layton, for her political debut. She was clobbered.

Second, Joan Beatty isn't David Orchard:

Orchard, a one-time anti-free trade activist who twice ran for the leadership of the defunct Progressive Conservative party, is credited with delivering more than 100 delegates to Dion at the 2006 Liberal leadership convention. Orchard's camp has blamed Goodale, currently Saskatchewan's only Liberal MP, for convincing Dion to appoint Beatty to block Orchard.

So what is the story now?  Well, the nomination contest in Desnethe-Missinippi-Churchill River is wide open.  Joan Beatty will now have to beat David Orchard for the nomination, as both are running, and Stephane Dion is not interfering. 

Dion was not available for comment Wednesday.

Senator David Smith, national co-chair of the Liberal campaign, said unusual circumstances, such as the timing of the byelection, led to Beatty's appointment and normal nominating procedures would be followed this time.

"We wouldn't play favourites. It's a level playing field from our perspective," he said from Toronto.

"What's that old song . . . accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative, so let's move on. What happened happened."

Beatty indicated after her loss she would seek the nomination again. John Dorion, who had planned to contest the nomination earlier this year, is another prospective candidate. Nomination meetings are expected to be held in June.

So that was the main reason for the appointment in the first place?  There was a scant seven weeks left to complete a nomination that had been underway for three months already in a riding that had been open for six months? 

David Smith seems to have forgotten the other issues at play that he used to justify Stephane Dion's move to appoint Joan Beatty:

David Smith, co-chairman of the national Liberal campaign, on Friday defended Dion's decision to appoint Beatty. He noted that Dion has made it a priority to get more women involved in politics, and said Beatty - the first aboriginal woman to be elected to the Saskatchewan legislature - is exactly the type of candidate the Liberals need.

"Sometimes politics and leadership are all about making tough decisions, and Stephane decided that this was the right decision so he made it," Smith said in a telephone interview from Toronto.

"We're prepared to bite the bullet to demonstrate that our commitment to increasing our number of women candidates - particularly well-qualified ones - is very real."

Smith made no mention of the "tight" timeline back then.  Back then it was a gender thing.  Back then it was bold and brave decision by Stephane Dion.  But now the story has changed.

No mention of Ralph Goodale's pressure.

No mention of gaming the nomination process in order to meet gender goals.

No mention of how gutsy Stephane Dion is.

Instead, now we are to understand that Stephane Dion was compelled to step in, court a sitting MLA from another party, preempt a nomination race that was reaching its conclusion three months ahead of the by-election, all because the Liberal Party felt rushed to appoint a nominee for a riding that had become open when the former MP Gary Merasty resigned all the way back in August 2007.

OK, that makes no sense whatsoever.

But the story, as silly as it is, is designed to shield Stephane Dion from blame.  Was Joan Beatty a good choice?  Obviously, in retrospect, she wasn't.  But you can't blame Stephane Dion for that.  If was the "timing of the byelection" that forced Stephane Dion to make a snap decision. 

Forget about all the "bite the bullet" stuff.

Right.  Sure.

That other story?  The one that says that Stephane Dion was strong-armed into making this move by Ralph Goodale who feared having David Orchard in caucus and threatening Goodale's position as the Saskatchewan power MP?  The story that says that after that bending to Ralph Goodale's will, Dion clumsily jumped at the chance to appoint a woman despite the fact that by her own words she was only looking for power ("When [the NDP failed to win the provincial election], Beatty said she decided to pursue a seat in Ottawa because the Liberals have a shot at forming government federally") and despite the angry words that rumours of the appointment had generated?  Yeah, that story.

Never mind.  Never happened.  It was the timeline.  Just the timeline.