Why isn't anyone asking for Michael Ignatieff's resignation?

It's proof that Bay Street runs both conservative parties. Ignatieff's designated role is to prevent the 62% majority from excercising democracy in our Northern Puerto Rico with a few polar bears and some pipelines. Iggy's a bought and paid-for stooge same as Harper. Iggy could be in the PMO. It's not in his colonial administrative job description though. His job is to be an impotent prop for the phony minority conservative government and that's all. History will show him to be a most forgettable stooge.

Eventually they'll have to remove the trash, preferably before more of their neighbors and the general public at large start to demand it.

I don't think Justin Trudeau would be much of a catch for the NDP. He strikes me as a bit of an airhead. I think that if the NDP wanted anyone from the Trudeau family, they would be better off talking to his brother Sascha!

Stockholm wrote:

What would be the point of getting rid of Ignatieff?? We will have an election within the next year and a half at the absolute latest. If Iggy quit, the financially starpped liberals would have to have a full-fledged expensive leadership campaign - and all for what? To go into an immediate election being led by Justin Trudeau or Dominic LeBlanc??

I think Liberals are now resigned to the fact that they have made their bed with Ignatieff and now they will have to lie in it!

True.  They're stuck with Ignatieff.  He was one of the worst people they could have picked.  A Conservative Liberal who spent most of his life outside of Canada and who had no political experience or ability to connect with ordinary people.

There are a few Liberal MP's left who could be decent leaders, but they'll have to wait until after Ignatieff blows up.

I don't think it is over for the Liberals-- I wish that were true but I don't see why it would be. The party is damaged and may do badly in this election but a change of leader and the population forgets and a change of leader is just about certain after the election. Their problem could be who the new leader will be-- I'll bet now that it won't be a Trudeau because I don't think they are that dumb.

They would need to take a tested leader-- even Ujjal would be a better choice if he holds his seat-- Ralph the Good is another choice that would not leave them screwed. If they want to preserve the alternation principle they are more limited. Victor Boudreau from NB could be an option. They could also look to Dominic Leblanc.

Alternately if they wanted to take a risk but make a statement they could look to Phil Fontaine (at age 66 he would be a one term guy but that would not be the end of the world). Or Audrey Poitras (Métis leader in Alberta who also is related to Gabriel Dumont...)-- but these are riskier-- they should have gone after Fontaine after Chrétien rather than Martin.

Sean in Ottawa wrote:

Ralph the Good is another choice that would not leave them screwed.

That would also give the Liberals a chance to build support in Western Canada. Question is, after having sat at the Cabinet table, would he want to wait years in oopposition for his time to come, considering how long he's been at this game?

Goodale speaks no French GONG!

Rae is also getting to be as old as the hills. He is about 63 now and I think that after Iggy, the Liberals will want some generational change and a leader who is under 50.

The Liberals are idiots.

 Last time they held a leadership vote, Ken Dryden won 6% of the vote (yes, I did buy a Liberal membership and vote for him).

 Make all the Big Bobby jokes you want, he'd cruise easily to victory over Harper or anyone short of Elvis and might well govern in favour of lesser humans.

And even Don Cherry couldn't get away with calling him a 'pinko'.

D'ya think he could win in Quebec ?

I was reading the comments and I was thinking who could take the reigns of the Liberal Party and I was drawing a huge blank.

Canadians gave Chretien a majority---twice...So it's not like the Liberals need a second coming of any type.

The fact that Harper won 2 minorities is testament of the shitty leaders the Liberals have gone with after Chretien was turfed by his party.

Back to my original point,I never thought about Ken Dryden...That's a VERY interesting thought.

Unfortunately,the option of firing Ignatieff right now is not there.

There'd have to be a leadership race that would take alot of time and money and Harper would IMMEDIATELY call an election and he'd probably get his majority.

The only solution would be to continue with Iggy until after the next election and THEN find someone people would likely vote for,someone that will throw back punches when the Cons do their usual tactic of defamation.

Find a qualified leader and make sure this one has a pulse.

ALL of these polls are virtually meaningless as real people, unlike us, are barely even aware that Ottawa exists these days.  We'll see when we get an election who has mojo and who doesn't.

Yes, I totally agree, LTU. But if Iggy is removed as leader, then shouldn't Layton be removed, especially if his party remains mired at the 18% level?  He's had several elections, maybe he's reached his best 'before' date. Time for someone more dynamic and inspiring to lead the party I think, with all due respect to Layton who nevertheless remains the most popular leader.

ETA:

Did I say 18%? This is from the new National Post poll today:

excerpt:
 
The new survey shows the Tories have a 16-point lead over the Liberals, led by Michael Ignatieff. The Grits, who have been trying to stoke voter anger over the government's performance, have the support of 27% of voters, up by two points.
 
Jack Layton's NDP appears to be in political decline as it makes demands to the government over what should be in the budget. The New Democrats would receive 13% of the vote, down by five points.

The biggest problem for the Libs is that those who could easily have taken on Harper (come on down Frank McKenna, John Manley & Brian Tobin) decided to play it safe.  Having Bob Rae, Gerald Kennedy and Ken Dryden as your remaining bench players isn't very inspiring.

Aristotleded24 wrote:

Stockholm wrote:

Goodale speaks no French GONG!

Didn't he read budgets in French as a Finance Minister?

I'm sure he could easily learn in any case.

I think he might have read out a phonetic transcription of part of his speech in French without knowing what he was actually saying. Perhaps you have never tried to leartn a new language from scratch as an adult. Its NOT that easy to just "learn French". It might be possible if Goodale were a 4 year old child in an immersion program - but for adults mastering a second language takes years and years and years of study and immersion and even then its tough to shed a heavy accent.

I've taken some Spanish lessons and I think that before I would take part in a leaders debate in Spanish in an election campaign, it would take me about 5 years of intensive study, plus several entire summers in an unilingually Spanish speaking environment in Mexico or Spain - and even then I'd think twice about it.

LOL, discussing the Liberals, here at babble, as  if they were a viable progressive alternative to the CONs as  the governing party, is truly hilarious. At best.

Totally agree, remind, but 27% of the voting public apparently believe the Libs are a viable alternative to the Cons, versus only about 18% who support the NDP. And that ridiculous NP poll has the NDP down to 13%.

alan smithee wrote:

bekayne wrote:

Is there any Liberal leader, any Leader of the Official Oppostion (of any party), anyone who poses a threat to the Conservatives, any living Canadian, who could survive a barrage of unanswered attack ads?

Way to hit the nail on the head.

It's pathetic how inactive the Opposition is with these attack ads.

I've said it before,attacking the Cons would be like shooting fish in a barrel but the Opposition just lies there and does nothing.

They come across as wimps and I think that's poisoning public opinion in favour of the 'Conservative' Party.

You'd think atleast ONE party strategist or ONE MP from any of the opposition parties would throw grenades right back at these pricks.

Pathetic.

Problem is, the grenades are very expensive

I doubt it - Rae comes off better than Iggy in my opinion. Right now, though, he looks tired of playing second fiddle; if he had been Liberal leader instead of Iggy all along, I bet you his attacks on Harper would be more fierce, although he's been pretty good - he just doesn't get up in QP enough.

remind wrote:

LOL, discussing the Liberals, here at babble, as  if they were a viable progressive alternative to the CONs as  the governing party, is truly hilarious. At best.

Problem is, they are the only alternative, much like the two faces of comedy and drama.

Apparently the only people that Bob Rae hasn't managed to nauseate by his very presence are some of his fellow liberals.