According to Emmanuelle Latraverse, Radio-Canada, the executive of the Quebec wing of the party is calling an emergency meeting tonight to discuss the future of it's President, Robert Fragasso.In fact, I think my language is too tame. Two VP's are prepared to table a motion tonight to ask for his resignation claiming that he has not done enough to prepare for an election.
She reported that war rooms and phone lines are not lined up, nor has a deal been struck to print signs. They only have 40 candidates, sigh, the list goes on.
Come on! Really? I obviously do not know if that is true, but if it is it's time for someone to draw a serious line in the sand and either replace him or get everyone possible on the front lines to be ready next week.
I mean really, what the hell has been going on? Fragasso was an Ignatieff supporter and that is being bantered around as the reason, but so were the 2 vp's who are bringing the motion forward so cut out the the back stabbing rumour. Perhaps it's a case of incompetence? Who knows?
Where is Céline Hervieux-Payette in all of this? Well she came out today and supported Fragasso. Even before she did though, the general consensus was that Fragasso would survive. Fine, that's all inside baseball and I'm nowhere near the dugout, but if that is the case surely to goodness this is a big wake-up call and one that must be heeded immediately.
I know it's easy to blame everything on Dion and we've surely seen a piling on this week, by media and by bloggers, but people, get a grip.
I thought about the Liberal Party as a corporation today and just how incredibly vast it is. The head's of corporations that large obviously depend on those beneath them, on the org. chart, to be overseeing what goes on day to day, level by level. Anyone who thinks the one who heads the company is intimately aware of what is going on in a regional office, is dreaming. The head of an organisation should be concerned with the concept of time span and complexity. That is the continuum that a leader would work by. That, I am sure is what Dion is working by.
I won't get into what that means and sadly, that fact seems to soar over the heads of those who give us our news but suffice it to say, those of you who believe that Dion should be involved in Quebec tonight, first hand, have no idea of what you are speaking of.
That said, the ability to inspire down the line is important and perhaps Dion has not done that, but I go back to time span and complexity. Remember the Herculean task he was up against once being named leader.
The race had gone on too long perhaps and there was a vacuum there. There was a lack of policy, direction, strategy, introducing yourself to the grass roots and the country, simultaneously. The Conservatives, playing their political role, practically from day one, began a character assassination campaign. It could be argued that Dion should have been focused there, but who in their right mind would believe that the Con's could show cartoons and be believed? Who in their right mind as leader, would focus there? Dion instead chose to focus on what really matters, but the press is not interested in that stuff. Sad isn't it?
So, we are where we are and it's time to either rally or go away. What should happen is that the Quebec wing will realise what is at stake and pull it together, now and I mean now.
Get it together or pack your bags. I for one am done with lot of you who speak to the press in an effort to produce what? Give Harper a majority?
Are you nut's?
Time's up!
8 comments:
The Quebec wing has been in disarray since the Sponsorship Scandal broke.
Personally, I believe Mr. Dion should just blow the whole damn thing up, run the Quebec organization from the centre and rebuild from scratch over the next two or three years. The Liberal Party would be stronger in the long run for it.
As for the media, whatever.
Steve had a post over at his place about voter turnout. He stated that politicians need to give Canadians a reason to vote. Very true, but if they did they would still be ignored by our media.
The Canadian political media cares not one whit about policy. They are solely focused on strategy and the internal machinations of the various parties.
The reason is deeply psychological. I find many of the political commentators to be political strategy wannabes who cannot get a job as real political strategists because they are lousy at it. However, their editors give them an avenue to exhibit their "strategic prowess" and they take advantage of it. As Scott Reid once said you can get political advice from the media for a dollar and it is worth about that much.
As well, many journalists like to demonstrate that they are "in the know" and that they have important sources on the inside. Reporting policy statements that are made public to everybody is counter to that. So they ignore it and quote "unnamed senior party official" instead about a whole host of issues that nobody really cares about.
Our MSM is broken. It stopped caring about reporting news a long time ago and switched to backing a narrative. And as we have seen the narrative is never as true as the MSM would have us believe.
One small point here. La Presse had a story a few weeks ago, wherein Dion issued a personal release to all the ridings in Quebec, telling them to get ready for an election. The call was mostly ignored, or at the least, people didn't react with urgency. That speaks to leadership, and while Dion doesn't take all the blame (the corporatioin analogy is certainly fair), he sure seems to lack the ability to inspire the troops, which gets into ottlib's point relating to my own on inspiration.
As far as blowing it all up, seems to be it already has blown up, what with a ridiculously low number of party members. You start kicking all these people out, you are left with nothing, with a leader that Quebecers don't like, so don't expect many replacements. That's the real dilemna, and that might be why Dion can't purge, it's already skeletal.
As for the media Ottlib, the US version is far more superficial, far more sensational, and yet we see what happens when people are able to inspire. The media can easily get caught up by a wave, but a leader must have the capacity to start the ripple.
Don't blame Fragasso for not being ready for an election. Celine Hervieux-Payette is Dion, leutenant and chief organizer for Quebec. Along with the executive director of LPCQ, they should have found an office, made arrangements with Bell for phone lines, got some kind of an organizational chart for the election. The campaign signs are not ready and she doesn't know what to do.
Either she's grossly incompetent or she is just working for Bob Rae, undermining Dion and not listening to what he wants. Just before the vote on the budget, Dion had said that the machine and to be ready, she didn't do nothing.
Well said ottlib about the media ottlib.
Our MSM is broken. It stopped caring about reporting news a long time ago and switched to backing a narrative. And as we have seen the narrative is never as true as the MSM would have us believe.
Of course it's not...they wrote the narrative they back.
There was a time though when that narrative was countered. That's rare to see now.
It would be nice to see someone with means and a strong desire to fix media enter that market.
A pipe dream, I know.
Steve, I take your point, (here, I haven't yet read your post), but only so far.
There are people who will not be inspired by anyone or anything. There are also people in organisations who believe they know better than the one who leads them.
I don't know what the specific's are in Quebec but getting ready for an election is not so much about inspiration as it is about a competent team able to implement what is required. I've worked for plently of people who didn't inspire me, but that didn't prevent me from doing my job.
jean, I'm not letting her off the hook, or that was not my intent anyway.
I do not have either her nor Fraggaso's job description in front of me to determine who was responsible for what and frankly I don't care.
I do care that those who have a job to do, do it.
knb, you're so way off.
It is indeed the leader's responsibility for all facets of the organization.
You seem to think that a leader shouldn't multi-task, which is what any worker in any decent organization is supposed to be able to do.
Should he micro-manage the Quebec affairs? No. Should he have the proper people in place to do so? Yes.
And you think Dion has it rough? Harper took over a party that was 8% in the polls, led a merger movement with a former arch-rival, and took on the formidable Liberal machine in two elections, winning the latter.
You see, that's leadership. Whining about being attacked or local organization isn't. And lord knows Harper faced those, and much more, on his way to the top.
dennis, there is a difference between taking the ultimate responsiblity for what happens in an organisation and being responsible for it happening.
You seem to think that a leader shouldn't multi-task, which is what any worker in any decent organization is supposed to be able to do.
You cite both leader and worker in the same sentence. Each would multi task within the parametres of their respective duties.
Leaders have to rely on others to determine that the right people are in place. If it's determined that they are not the right people, then yes, it's up to the leader to make changes.
Don't bother to regale me with stories of Harper and the backstabbing MacKay. I've never said that Harper wasn't cunning, but a dictator is not a leader in my books.
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