Here, reproduced under the Fair Dealing provisions (§29) of the Copyright Act from today’s
Globe and Mail, is the first of a handful of articles dealing with the Coderre imbroglio:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/wounded-ignatieff-faces-test-of-leadership/article1304791/
Wounded Ignatieff faces test of leadership
Liberal Leader loses Quebec lieutenant as party puts forward no-confidence motion
Daniel Leblanc and Les Perreaux
Ottawa and Montreal
Tuesday, Sep. 29, 2009 03:18AM EDT
Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff took direct control of his party in Quebec after his lieutenant reignited infighting Monday by quitting over interference from unnamed “Toronto advisers.”
Montreal MP Denis Coderre's bitter resignation press conference, prompted by Mr. Ignatieff's reversal over the choice of a candidate in the riding of Outremont, heightens French-English and Toronto-Montreal tensions among the Liberals at a time when the party is trying to bring down Stephen Harper's Conservative government.
“The message sent by recent events is this: If you want to have what you want in Quebec, all you have to do is short-circuit the party's Quebec authorities by talking to the leader's inner circle in Toronto,” Mr. Coderre said in the most direct challenge to Mr. Ignatieff's leadership since he took power last January. Several Quebec organizers are expected to leave with Mr. Coderre's resignation as lieutenant for the province.
Mr. Ignatieff and Mr. Coderre had picked businesswoman Nathalie Le Prohon to run in Outremont, but Mr. Ignatieff buckled under internal pressure last week and approved the candidacy of former Liberal cabinet minister Martin Cauchon.
Mr. Ignatieff's inner circle of advisers consists of Toronto-based political operatives who helped him win the party's leadership and who dominate both the leader's office and the party's leadership. But Mr. Ignatieff dismissed Mr. Coderre's comments on their influence as unfounded.
“The thought that this party is managed in Toronto makes me laugh. It makes people laugh in British Columbia, it makes people laugh in Alberta, it makes people laugh in the Atlantic provinces,” Mr. Ignatieff said. “I lead a pan-Canada formation.”
Mr. Ignatieff added that he will not name a new Quebec lieutenant to replace Mr. Coderre, dropping the parallel structure that is unique to the province and decentralizes the party's organization.
Mr. Ignatieff said his party is in good shape in Quebec thanks to Mr. Coderre's recent work, with 68 candidates already picked for the province's 75 seats.
The latest round of internal discord undermined Liberal efforts to focus on a motion the party moved Monday and to be put to a vote on Thursday, that the House “has lost confidence in the government.”
The NDP has said it will abstain or vote against the motion, ensuring the survival of the Conservative minority government, which may be just as well for the Liberals, given the discord in Quebec.
At his news conference, Mr. Coderre said that in the case of Outremont, Mr. Ignatieff chose to listen to “Toronto advisers who know nothing about the social and political realities of Quebec.”
Mr. Coderre refused to provide names. Liberal officials said he was likely referring to Liberal Party president Alf Apps, who courted Mr. Cauchon as a candidate in recent months, and Liberal MP Bob Rae, who publicly supported Mr. Cauchon's efforts to return to politics after a five-year absence.
Mr. Coderre said he will continue to serve as a Liberal MP, and insisted he remains loyal to Mr. Ignatieff.
Mr. Cauchon was silent through the day, having been told to refuse media requests for comment.
Theories vary on why Outremont became a flashpoint, but the consensus in Liberal circles is that there was an overall lack of communication, fuelled in part by rivalry between Mr. Coderre and Mr. Cauchon, who represented the riding from 1993 to 2004 and was minister of justice in the Chrétien government.
Both have leadership aspirations, and they clashed in the 2006 leadership race, with Mr. Coderre supporting Mr. Ignatieff, and Mr. Cauchon in the corner of Mr. Rae.
Sources said that Mr. Apps approached Mr. Cauchon last June about a return to politics, and that Mr. Cauchon asked for the summer to mull it over.
However, Mr. Coderre worked with other Liberals in Quebec in recent months to persuade Mr. Ignatieff to appoint Ms. Le Prohon in Outremont, long a party stronghold.
After an initial decision was made in favour of Ms. Le Prohon, Mr. Cauchon's team obtained the support of Mr. Rae, who publicly called for a reversal of the decision.
A Liberal official said that Mr. Ignatieff's office “panicked” as the controversy raged and urged the leader to go back on his decision. Unaware that Mr. Coderre was about to quit as his Quebec lieutenant, Mr. Ignatieff heralded the decision as a show of unity on Friday.
“The true strength of the Liberal Party is on display today,” Mr. Ignatieff said in a news release.
With a report from Bill Curry
Coderre has dealt a real
body blow to his own party – something he may think is a necessary prelude to his own attempt to become leader and, he hopes, prime minister, sooner rather than later.
There are, still, some hints of the old left/right St Laurent vs Trudeau etc,
debate that has fractured the Liberals for 40+ years but it is not clear to me that it is at the core of this dispute.
Prince Michael’s “team” in Toronto looks,
to me, like a bunch of unreconstructed Trudeauites – but maybe most Liberals “activists” and
true believers are that way.
I remain unsure of where
Iggy Icarus stands on most issues; I have hear/read the platitudes but for about a year now there has been
nothing of substance from anyone in the Liberal Party of Canada. (In fairness there hasn’t been
much any substance from the Conservatives, either.) Ignatieff simply
slithers from position to position in order to satisfy some particularist audience’s
cause du jour.
I
think this is, rather than a continuance of the old fracture,
three simple “power plays” that have, accidentally, merged into one:
1.
Coderre vs Cauchon for the “leadership” of Québec’s federal Liberals because one or the other plans to take over when
Iggy Icarus does fly too close to the sun. Both of these
ugly ducklings have to move fast before the Québec Liberals find a
swan to lead them;
2.
Rae vs Ignatieff for the “leadership” of the Liberal Party of Canada because many, many Liberals are frustrated that
Prince Michael was
anointed (by a gang of Toronto insiders) rather than elected at a convention where the very active left wing of the party might have prevailed; and
3.
Québec vs Canada for the
soul of the Liberal Party. I
think that some (many?) Québec Liberals believe that
Conservatism (which isn’t very
conservative) is overtaking
Liberalism (which is certainly not
liberal) in “New Canada” – the growing regions West of the Ottawa River. They note that, since 1947, only
Francophone/Québec leaders have “succeeded” as Liberal prime ministers of Canada. (St Laurent, Trudeau and Chrétien all won multiple majorities, Pearson, Turner and Martin all won minorities or failed to win at all. Dion is the exception that proves the rule and they think Ignatieff will follow suit.)