Dion will stay on as leader until May.

[HeresyLives]

So kindly ignore all the media stories from the past week. :rofl:

[Caradoc]

1. Exactly...

The Canadian media has been a total joke in this election. The Star wanted Dion gone and didn't even care about Harper's brownshirt shenanigans. The jobs-for-life types at the CBC weren't going to threaten their cushy sinecures now that Harper has installed his own cyborgs in management...I mean, the CBC now carries Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune for criminy's sake!!! What on earth for? CTV was even more lame and in the bag for the tories than usual and basically raised obsequious fawning to a whole new level...can we stop referring to Mike Duffy, Tom Clark and Graham Richardson as unbiased journalists already? The list goes on and on...the Star, which now owns well over 100 small market community newspapers in Ontario (hello CRTC? Anybody there? Anybody care about corporate media concentration?) and cares only about cornering the print ad market, has become particularly hypocritical...Chantal Hebert and Haroon Siddiqui and sometimes Thomas Walkom is all the Star has now and precious little else. The Globe and Mail still rules in style and substance.

All in all, very disappointing. The Star didn't want Dion to win...they just wanted him gone and were obviously happy to let Harper slide so their own little agenda within the liberal party could be served.

[HeresyLives]

2. Still doing it, too.

I've never seen so much wild speculation, and with such seedy guests, as have appeared in our media lately.

I don't know what they have against Dion, and why they like Harper so much especially after the way he's abused them, but they are making an all-out effort to permanently trash a decent man, whatever you think of his policies.

When the media is against you, there is no chance of winning whatever.

Who was the media type who was once quoted as saying 'gentlemen, we have a prime minister to elect'?

[Caradoc]

3. Sounds familiar...

...and sounds like a line from 'Yes, Minister'!

I agree with you 100%; Stephane Dion got sandbagged by liberals more than anyone else, really. Harper's negative ads were entirely predictable, but the way that the Star and the CBC spent the first three weeks obsessing with 'are liberals happy with Dion' was exasperating. Dion did great in the debates and still ranks as a better pick for leader than both Ignatieff and Rae; and I have met Bob Rae many times and like him very much, but leader? Uh-uh...he can't deliver Ontario, pure and simple.

The only good news in this election is that conservative majorities are a thing of the past; no one trusts them with a majority and they'll never have two better opportunities than these last two elections. I noticed the day after the election that a Globe & Mail column said 'Dion's gone but so is Harper.'

[HeresyLives]

5. Yes, Harper had the perfect opening

in the last three elections, and still can't manage more than a minority, so I doubt he'll be around for the next one.

What the Liberals thought they were doing, I have no idea, but they did themselves in by sniping at Dion rather than Harper, and the media piled on.

There is some other 'good' news. The financial meltdown will hit the Conservatives, but of course it will also hit the country badly, so it's a mixed blessing, or bittersweet, or whatever you want to call it.

Maybe this is a good time to push for a merger as well. That 'unite the left' thing people always talk about, but never actually move on. Liberal Democrats?

[daleo]

4. The corporate media shills for the corporate candidates

It still amazes me how far out of favor the Liberals have fallen with the corporate media. I mean, this is the Liberals - it's not like they are some radical bunch, like the NDP (lol). Still, Dion's mild environmentalism was a bit of a departure from the capitalist norm. I think that's why they piled on so hard.

[HeresyLives]

6. I also think the environmentalism did it.

New, you know. Tree-hugger stuff. Possibly perilous. Oil and gas and Bay St corporations they understand.

CTV owns the Globe and Mail, and CTV definitely, blatantly, attacked Dion this time while the G&M endorsed Harper. Perhaps they believe Harper will get rid of the CBC for them.

[CHIMO]

7. Should Be

Interesting times.

Liberals 'need to get on with' leadership race, Rae says

"I think Mr. Dion is a leader who was elected by the convention," he said. "He won fair and square. He beat me and he beat Michael and beat others and he's there. He's just there.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/10/21/rae-leadership.html

And Iggy should be right in there now with torture being accepted.

So the Liberals should be verry cautious. They don't want Martin's guy and they don't want Jean's guy. So Dion still has everything in his hands. He could come out of this smelling like a rose. It is now all up to him!

[HeresyLives]

8. Well he has two cards to play.

One is finances. They aren't broke by any means, but they aren't so loaded they can afford to waste money on silly stuff. They have to be practical.

Two, they can always put in a call to Layton and Duceppe.

[CHIMO]

9. Not The Way

I see it.

a) We are going into a recession/depression.
b)There is a budget in Feb. (at least it used to be in Feb)
c) The budget will provide the opportunity for defeat of the government(Unless Harper aligns with the Bloc)

Against this the Liberal MP's have to decide if they support him or are willing to hand everything over to the NDP.

From my view of it all he has to rely on those that got him there(You dance with the one that brung you) With all the worts that they may have in his eyes he has to learn that his objective and his method of achieving that objective have not worked to date. It is up to him to correct the weakness.

[HeresyLives]

10. Yes, a budget in February.

However, the NDP hasn't the numbers to defeat the government.

Nor do they have the numbers to win an election. And certainly the Bloc doesn't.

So they either all band together, Liberal, NDP, and Bloc, in a temporary working coalition, or they shutup and pass the budget.

[Bassic]

11. In my view, Stéphane Dion got a shitty deal from the get go.

Though I am by no stretch of the imagination an admirer of his, I believe that this man is intelligent and competent. From the day of his election, his position was weakened both by a deliberate effort to destroy him by the Conservatives, and by the attitudes of some of his party.

The Liberal party better get its fucking act together and work to reunite.

[HeresyLives]

12. I'll agree with that.

Wholeheartedly.