Glenn Thibeault has issued this statement:
Quote:
“I am proud to announce that I will be running as the Ontario Liberal party candidate in the upcoming by-election in my community of Sudbury.
The need for this by-election was sudden and unexpected, and I have come to the decision to move to provincial politics after much reflection and discussion with those people close to me. Anyone who knows me, understands that I put representing this community first and foremost. It is something I have done with pride over the past six years. It is my belief that I can continue to do so from a different vantage point working as part of the Ontario Liberal Government."
Issues Pages:
Regions:
So another NDP MP leaves the Mulcair caucus.
At what point do NDPers have to agree that this reflects on Mulcair's leadership?
The best response is for the NDP to win the by-election. That would give poor Glenn time to think about what party he really supports. Who knows, maybe he's a Tory.
Maybe Thibeault is a lurker here at Babble, and he has been so impressed by Debater's arguments that he decided to get with the program, and join the winners of the world.
More likely Thiibeault read this week's year-end polls (Mulcair in a distant 3rd in Ontario) and wondered if Sudbury might return to its traditional Federal Liberal roots in 2015.
Website already pulled down:
http://glennthibeault.ndp.ca/
And that makes him an?
Sounds like a leadership problem, too bad he is only a manager.
Atcually, all but 2 of the NDP defections have happened in Quebec, where the Party was traditionally weak pre-2011. Going from 1 seat to 59 in one single election presents all kinds of structural challenges for the Party that Jesus Christ Himself would have a hard time handling.
When a team is built around a single personality, in this case Jack Layton, it is often a balancing act with a variety of figures vying for position within the group. The group holds cohesion because the leadership figure assembled the team. It is always difficult, when a new person comes into that position from the ranks of that group because the group has become unbalanced. Losing some figures from the original group is normal, as a new team, with a new leader.
That doesn't mean that the new person does not have leadership skills, because in fact Mulcair clearly does. It just means that the common cause of the old team has come undone, and a new one has to be formed.
Thibeault gave an interview on Power and Politics in which was asked a number of times if he now supported the Trudeau Liberals. He dodged the question.
Oh, nicky, I hope you're not trying to be misleading and take a shot at Trudeau over this already, are you?
Thibeault has just joined the Ontario Liberals. As he told Evan Solomon, he's been an OLP member for *8 hours*. He wasn't expecting to suddenly be asked whether he would be supporting Justin Trudeau when he was in the Mulcair NDP as of yesterday.
But I'm pretty sure that Thibeault will be supporting Justin Trudeau soon enough once he makes the transfer. As Solomon told him, Wynne is a big Trudeau supporter, so no doubt Thibeault will be soon.
I can't agree at all with your post.
And that is the difference bewteen the NDP and the old-parties. The former was fromed by activists outside Parliament, the latter formed by poloiticans.
Thibeault is a pathetic opportunist and should be ashamed to show his face in the Parliaments of Ontario or Canada. I hope he loses.
It is easily demonstrable. There is always falling out in the team when the person who assembled the team disappears. Its pretty normal. I can't think of a single example where it does not.
Personal relations aren't fixed in stone. The fact is that the NDP had no options but Mulciar, given the sudden passing of Jack Layton. The option was Brian Topp" selected by the party establishment, and probably the worst case scenario. Only Mulcair had the potential to hold onto Quebec -- it is up to the regional leaders to do their part to keep the ship afloat.
Glenn Thibeault did the opposite. He quit.
I am donating to that cause.
Thibeault sacrificed everything he's ever worked for as a politician, he has no honour, no loyalty, and I hope he gets utterly crushed like the sellout deserves.
And Jesus only had 12 MPs... I mean disciples!
Maybe if Mulcair would walk on water or turn water into wine, maybe Debater would whine less about Mulcair's leadership skills.
And since you asked for it Debater, I'll be more than happy to take a shot at your Annointed One:
Justin Trudeau is a clueless, vacuous twit with absolutely NO leadership skills.
And no, I am not underestimating him. If anything, I am probably being too generous. ;-)
Statement from NDP caucus chair Irene Mathyssen.
“I am saddened and disappointed to lose a respected friend and colleague. I understand the allure of power for some, but don’t really understand his choice since Ms. Wynne’s Liberals have proven time and again they are not a progressive government. The real progressives in Ontario are Andrea Horwath’s New Democrats. People are cynical about these kinds of actions; but regardless of Mr. Thibeault’s decision, we in the NDP remain focused on holding Stephen Harper’s Conservative government to account. We will continue to propose the practical ideas that help Canadian families with their important priorities like childcare and health care.”
Meanwhile Christina Blizzard says this is Andrea's fault
One thing this demonstrates is the shocking inability of New Democrats to hang on to their MPs and MPPs.
Cimino quit Nov. 20, with just 12 days left in the Legislative calendar before the House rose for the Christmas break. No matter what overwhelming personal issues he was dealing with, it surely shouldn’t have been too much for NDP Leader Andrea Horwath to convince him to hang in for those few days.
Let him take time those days off, if necessary, to deal with the issues.
In a majority parliament, it wouldn’t have made much difference.
As it is, the NDP will be hard pressed to hang on to the seat, although voters will view Thibeault’s defection with great skepticism.
http://www.torontosun.com/2014/12/16/liberals-may-feel-public-wrath-over...
What article did you read? Blizzard litteraly doesn't even mention Mulcair or Horwath. Instead, she rightly condemned the arrogance and opportunism of Thibeault and the Liberals. And the Thibeault's disgusting betrayl of a party that got him elected.
Rokossovsky, you are making an interesting point about team cohesion in politics. What you describe is often true -- and often not true. For example, Brian Mulroney did a brilliant job reuniting the Tories after he defeated Joe Clark for the Tory leadership, working with Robert Layton as his whip -- Jack Layton's father, from whom Jack learned his own team-building strategy and tactics.
With regard to your "worst case scenario" thing, I guess we'll never know.
Your "party establishment" are my friends and colleagues, young and old, new and experienced, men and women, former premiers and new members, committed New Democrats all, still loyal to our party and now working hard to get it elected under our leader Tom Mulcair. We all got over the leadership race long ago. Maybe you should, too.
Justin Trudeau is a formidable politician with strong leadership skills. That's why no MP's have defected under his leadership, whereas half a dozen have already done so under Mulcair!
It's also why the Liberals are entering 2015 with a strong chance of beating the NDP. Even Stockwell Day (certainly no Liberal!) just predicted on Power & Politics tonight that Mulcair & the NDP are in serious trouble and that Trudeau will beat Mulcair next year. (Day predicted Harper will finish 1st, Trudeau 2nd & Mulcair 3rd.) It remains to be seen whether Harper will be 1st, but the point is that even Conservatives can see which Opposition leader has done the best job over the past 2 years.
Brian. You should never have even run in that thing. You have never held an elected post, or been a front man for a political organization, let alone the leader of the official opposition.
I have no idea why this foray was pursued at all.
I was simply observing a fact, about the obvious merits that Mulcair had in comparison to the other leadership contenders. Making Mulcair the leader was practically a forced play, in regard to criticism of the NDP leadership choice.
I gues both the tories and liberal have problems retaining thier people too...you know since Stronach, Martin, Brison, Emerson etc etc etc have all crossed the floor as well. Do tell how this is just an NDP problem. Might I again note Emerson just 2 weeks after the election left the liberals. I guess you guys must have been saying the same thing..oh right you were complaining about how shitty and trecherous it is. But that was then and this is the NDP right.
Scumbag Glenn (found on Reddit): https://imgflip.com/i/fdu3i
Maybe the ONDP (or fed NDP) should get the disabled person the Liberal forced out to run for them? http://www.northernlife.ca/news/localNews/2014/12/15-liberal-bobmshell.aspx
The so called leadership had to have a revolt with fundung witheld over the summer before they changed their tune about policies. Mostly on traditional NDP core items. I have complaints about our policies, but the liberals sure make it hard to be a critical voice when they are just spew bullshi on here that you have to counteract, but that is exactly what concern trolling is all about. Taking time and energy away from proper discussion. Which our liberal friends are very good at.
I don't approve of all floor-crossing. But you can't lump all those people into the same category.
And the David Emerson defection was disgusting. Because it happened just a few days after he was elected. That one is practically in the record books. He definitely deserved to be criticized. I agree with you on that one.
But how can you put Scott Brison in the same category? He made a change for largely principled reasons. He was a gay man who was uncomfortable with the way the Canadian Alliance took over the old PC party. Remember that he was a PC MP -- he didn't want to be part of the new Conservative Party that took the Progressive out of its name and which still to this day won't let a single CPC MP come out!
Brison was representing a riding (Kings-Hants) which had voted for the PC's far more often than it had for the Liberals historically, so he took a risk by becoming a Liberal. It's not as if Kings-Hants was a Liberal stronghold. It voted Liberal in 1993, and then was right back to the PC's again in 1997 & 2000. But because Brison is well-respected locally, he has been able to get elected repeatedly since 2004, 2006, 2008 & 2011 as a Liberal.
Omniscience is a rare skill in politics, congratulations.
I'll let you get back to your thing now. Just one more note before I go: I don't share your ungenerous opinion of our colleagues in the race. That was an impressive slate of candidates. Notwithstanding your views they all had every right to put themselves forward as options for the party to consider, as did I. The party was lucky to have good choices before it. It made it's choice. And then we all moved on. That is what democratic life in a democratic party looks like. Sorry if that baffles you.
Of course Brian Topp should have run, leadership untested is weak, look at Trudeau, the challenge put forth by Brian and the others only made Mulcair stronger just as running against Harper and Pierre Elliot Trudeau's ghost will make him stronger.
I waa watching Marco Polo tonight and one thing stood out in my mind. The most important trait in a hunter is patience. Mulcair hasn't come this far amd faced the challenges he has, as well as his predassors have, for us to be intimidate by bad polls.
Blizzard CHANGED her article. In an earlier version she wrote "One thing this demonstrates is the shocking inability of New Democrats to hang on to their MPs and MPPs."
The old version was posted in the afternoon. This new version has been time stamped at 6:10 PM.
She completely deleted any criticism of the NDP in her earlier version, and re-wrote it to slam the Liberals.
Thunder Bay MP John Rafferty, who calls Glenn Thibeault his best friend on Parliament Hill, was completely in the dark. He knew Thibeault "was unhappy" but thought it was just a matter of missing his kids.
Glenn Thiebeault will be like Ken Coran, the former president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation. Coran "negotiated" against the McGuinty government on a new teachers' contract. In fact the secondary school teachers rejected the initial proposals. Later, Coran ran for the Ontario Liberals in a London riding. He was a turncoat who lost. I think it will be the same for Thebeault. The Sudbury riding will be strongly targetted both provincially and federally by the NDP.
Being strategically challenged is a bit of an NDP specialty.
Chow running for mayor was a clear mistake from the perspective of the NDP at least. And, if you check my record on this board, I said it before she decided to run. It distracted from the main issue, which was to win federally, expended resources on what amounts to a political side show, with serious long term consequnces for the organization in Toronto. Nonetheless, that doesn't mean I don't understand her personal decision.
If there is one thing that I would say would benefit the NDP it is this: "beware Liberals bearing gifts".
Selecting Mulcair was a rare moment of NDP strategic clarity. Mulcair was the only choice that made strategic sense, regardless of the quality of the candidates, and a rare moment of strategic clarity. Nikki Ashton was definitely my personal favourite, but that doesn't mean I supported her, precisely because of the objective factors.
Simillar objective factors weighed against yourself, as well.
That isn't a personal thing.
I know I have repeated myself in other comments elsewhere, but I do think Tom Mulcair will shine during the next federal election campaign.
I agree with Brian, they had the right to run. It was good that Mulcair was challenged it helped him prepared for his current rule and his future role.
Holy fuck, do the Liberals get any sleazier and corrupt? They forced aside a disabled candiate who was more then qualified for an NDP turncoat. Just when the Liberal can't seem to sink any lower they do. And Herbert wonders why the NDP hates the Liberal party, its about more then power, alot more then power for the NDP.
-
Brachina I think you meant to say Holy Fudge.
Sounds like this has been in the works for a while, since November at least. That suggests pure opportunism, as opposed to policy disagreements on gun control.
Situation frustrates Sudbury Liberals
Something to do with a local tycoon named Gerry Lougheed too.
Bottom line is that there is going to be some money spent in the North with the Ring of Fire deals, and it sounds like Thibeault wants to have the keys to the trough.
Anything is possible, but is there any evidence to suggest that Mulcair will be a much more effective campaigner than he as been thus far?
A general election is different in some ways from by-elections, but it also has some similarities. Mulcair has not yet demonstrated the ability to inspire voters or to motivate them to vote for him. He has also not demonstrated that he can beat Stephen Harper at the ballot box.
The NDP may target it provincially, but it may be harder federally. Remember that Sudbury is normally a Liberal stronghold at the Federal level. It's only recently that the Liberals have had trouble winning it. (2008 & 2011). Sudbury even remained Liberal during the 1984 Mulroney Landslide when John Turner was reduced to 40 seats.
Now that there is no NDP incumbent, word is going out tonight from Gerald Butts to the Liberals to find a strong candidate to run for the Liberals in Sudbury. With Justin Trudeau far ahead of Tom Mulcair in Ontario and more likely to resonate with Franco-Ontarians, the potential exists for a Liberal return in Sudbury.
As for the provincial scene, I agree that the Ontario Liberals & Kathleen Wynne may not have handled this transition with Glenn Thibeault as smoothly as they should have. There are some angry Liberals in the provincial riding association and this is getting some bad press tonight. It's hard to know whether it will harm Wynne's prospects in Sudbury now, or whether it could also harm Horwath's. Maybe it could even increase PC support in the area if people are fed up with both of them. I'm not sure it's directly comparable to Ken Coran, though. There are at least 2 differences. Coran was not a well-known incumbent MP. And Coran also antagonized the teachers & unions into organizing against him and helping the NDP instead.
Everyone knows the current polls are utter nonsense and don't mean a thing, especially seeing as how many pollsters, and how much of the mainstream media, are connected at the hip to the Liberals.
Trudeau, if he performs as good as has shown so far, during the election campaign might secure 40 seats maximum for the Liberals.
But it will be an improvement over Ignatieff's performance nevertheless, and if Trudeau does that well, and I'm not saying he will, but if, and that is a big if, we should give credit where credit is due.
I agree a thousand percent. On top of his winning personality he is very competent. Competence means a lot to people.
Interesting comment:
Sounds like P3 troughing featuring local business tycoon Gerry Lougheed, who seems to be notorious in Sudbury.
Apparently Lougheed thought it was a good idea for the police to be able to convict people of crimes and punish them without a criminal conviction, by allowing them to fail them on a criminal background check.
I'm not sure if it has been brought up but Thibault actually supported Mulcair in the leadership election.
Thibeault may have jumped to the OLP for personal gain but I can also see how Thibeault might want to be able to be on the government side in order to affect some reall changes for people.
This may end up causing legal trouble for Wynne and the Liberals. When she says there was no "specific offer" to the candidate to step aside you have to wonder about the word"specific". If the candidate was offered an unspecified position within the gov. the Libs may find they have some serious explaining to do.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/ndp-s-glenn-thibeault-proud-to-def...
This whole thing is going to backfire for Wynne, just like Adam vaughan / Christine innes saga backfired for Trudeau. A bit rich for the NDP to criticize GT when mulcair was himself a prov. Liberal , and part of a right wing govt. For years he tried moving NDP to the right, and after losses he suddenly remembered that the NDP was a progressive party.
I couldn't care less that this guy has switched parties, but he's not likely to go straight into cabinet, is he? If not, he'll be just another backbench MPP in a majority government. His job'll be to vote with the government. Any Liberal can do that. I fail to see anything special about this guy that would make him a better candidate to effect change than any other Liberal who might've run instead.
Apparently he considers himself a champion for disabled people, but Ontario Liberal governments have proven themselves to be no friend of people with disabilities. It seems an odd choice.
The only poll that counts is election night. Lose that and he has no need for patience, except for standing in the unemployment line
Pages