Coderre quits as Liberal Quebec lieutenant

[CHIMO]

OTTAWA – Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff has lost his Quebec lieutenant, Denis Coderre – a blow to party unity and a potential portent of serious unrest in Liberal ranks.

Coderre's resignation came this morning at a news conference in Montreal and is a direct fallout from a dispute last week over who was picking the candidates to run in key Quebec ridings – specifically, over where former justice minister Martin Cauchon would be running.

Late on Friday, Ignatieff overruled Coderre and opened the way for Cauchon to run in the riding of Outremont, which had been set aside for a new, "star" woman candidate, Nathalie Le Prohon. Instead, Ignatieff said that Le Prohon would run in the riding of Jeanne Le Ber.

Coderre remained quiet until this morning and then abruptly announced he was stepping down as Ignatieff's chief in the province.

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/702064#

Currents and undercurrents.
Perhaps Martin/Chretien are still around?

[CHIMO]

1. Update

Liberal MP Coderre quits as Quebec lieutenant
Last Updated: Monday, September 28, 2009 | 9:42 PM ET
Longtime Liberal MP Denis Coderre has resigned as the party's Quebec lieutenant and defence critic, blaming unnamed "advisers from Toronto" for interfering with his home province's affairs.

The situation creates problems for Ignatieff, according to Jean Lapierre, a former Liberal cabinet minister and MP in Outremont.

"For a leader who's never been in the trenches, he doesn't know what loyalty is all about," said Lapierre, who now works as a political analyst in Montreal. "But he'll find out very soon, because when you go up, the people that you walk on ... you always meet them when you go down."

Lapierre said Ignatieff is hard-pressed to mend fences quickly in case of a fall election.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2009/09/28/quebec-coderre.html

Coderre’s old habits die hard
The Star’s Susan Delacourt combs the archives:

The executive of the Quebec youth wing of the Liberal Party will ask for the resignation of party leader John Turner at a news conference scheduled for Monday in Montreal.

Time has run out for Mr. Turner, Denis Coderre, the president of the Young Liberals of Quebec , said in a telephone interview yesterday.

Mr. Coderre, once a strong Turner loyalist, co-ordinated the pro-Turner youth movement at the convention that confirmed Mr. Turner’s leadership last November, and was also youth organizer during his 1984 leadership campaign.
http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/09/28/coderres-old-habits-die-hard/

Denis Coderre quits Quebec post in Liberal feud

Coderre quit in protest after being overruled in a nomination dispute in the province. Martin Cauchon, a former justice minister and potential leadership rival to Coderre in the future, had wanted to run in his old riding of Outremont, now held by the NDP. Coderre, who'd reserved the riding for a "star" female candidate, business executive Nathalie Le Prohon, late last week came up with another riding for Cauchon – Jeanne-Le Ber.

But that didn't quell the controversy. Former prime minister Jean Chrétien reportedly threw his influence into the tussle, placing a call to Coderre, and Toronto MP Bob Rae declared publicly that a place needed to be found for Cauchon.

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/702420

Interesting events happening.