CTV News: "Sheila Copps could defect to NDP next week"

[Minstrel Boy]

Longtime Liberal MP Sheila Copps is putting out signals that she is planning to defect to the New Democrats early next week, says CTV's Mike Duffy.

"Every sign indicates she is making preparations to switch to the NDP," Duffy reports.

...

Copps lost her right-hand man, Ian Capstick, to the NDP on Thursday. But Capstick insists the move was not meant to pave the way for her.

...

Capstick says he's defecting because he's among thousands of disaffected left-wing Liberals who are fed up with the party right-wing tendencies. He pointed to the party's renewed interest in missile defence and the party's "further corporatizing of government" through public-private partnerships.
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1076678658420_29/?hub=TopStories

Liberal Warren Kinsella says, about Capstick's defection, "This represents a big loss to the Liberal Party.... He's smart, effective, and just the kind of person that a political party (any political party) needs to succeed. We live in interesting times, no?"
http://www.warrenkinsella.com/musings.htm

[Screaming Lord Byron]

1. I've got two answers. One (if it's true) it's a brilliant coup for us,

worth a couple of percentage points in the polls. On the other hand, do we really want her? I'm not sure. Still, the partisan political side of me would be very happy at the blow it would cause Paul Martin.

[Minstrel Boy]

2. An added wrinkle is the sponsorship scandal, and how

Martin is playing this as representing the bad old days of the Chretien regime. Never mind that he himself was a prominent figure in it; Copps is still advocating for that era, and served for some of it as Deputy PM. If she jumps to us it could blunt, to some degree, Layton's attack.

Still, I want her to jump. Just because it would make things so, well, interesting. :D