Angry in the Great White North

The Halton Liberals are in a pathological state.  The personality (and antics) of Garth Turner so defined the Liberal presence that even now, months after the election that saw Garth Turner lose to Conservative Lisa Raitt, the riding association continues to push Garth Turner.

I've already discussed how Garth Turner's upcoming book launch is being used to drum up funds, so obviously there is a focus at the website on Garth Turner right now.  Once the book launch is over with, you would expect Garth Turner to fade away and the Liberals to turn their attention on a nomination process for a new candidate.  The website would presumably reflect that shift to looking to the future.

I think, though, that this won't happen.  There doesn't seem to be an appetite for moving past Garth Turner.  It's a little thing, of course, but it suggests that no one in the riding association sat down after the election loss and said, "Let's move on."

What I'm looking at is the meta data fields on the Halton Liberal riding association website:

<meta  name="keywords"content="Halton, Federal Liberal Associations, Liberal Association, Ontario Liberals, Halton Liberals, Garth Turner"/>
<meta name="Description"content="Halton Federal Liberal Association, helping get the liberal message out and provide support for our local M.P."/>

The website pages have been updated, and by hand, so it's not like no one has had an opportunity to clean this up.  And it might very well be an oversight, but I think when you look at the how the riding association president Steve Savage praises Garth Turner in a letter posted on that page, and reports on concerns that Garth Turner can't be replaced, it all points to the Halton Liberals being unable, or unwilling, to get out from under Garth Turner's long shadow.

My bet is that the plan is to have Garth Turner run again.  I think Steve Savage's letter will discourage potential nominees, and that this might be deliberate.  I'm wondering if the pieces are being put in place for Garth Turner to run unopposed to be the candidate for the Liberals again.

Or in the case of updating the website, the pieces are being left just as they were when Garth Turner was the MP.  No point in changing something if you know you're just going to have to change it back again.

And no, there is no occurrence of the word "Ignatieff" anywhere in the site.  Confirmed by Google.