Liberal Party of Canada Leadership

[Edward Campbell]

And the saga of Liberal Party of Canada financial mismanagement continues from Dion through Ignatieff to Trudeau according to this article which is reproduced under the fair Dealing provisions of the Copyright Act from the Ottawa Citizen:

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Coyne+owes+after+failed+Liberal+leadership/9038515/story.html

Coyne owes $61,000 after failed Liberal leadership bid

BY GLEN MCGREGOR, OTTAWA CITIZEN

OCTOBER 15, 2013

OTTAWA — The Liberal Party appears headed for a repeat of the 2006 fiasco over unpaid leadership campaign loans, with one candidate in this year’s race already reporting a large debt she has been unable to pay off.

Financial reports published by Elections Canada on Tuesday show that long-shot leadership contender Deborah Coyne’s campaign still had $61,000 in unpaid loans outstanding after the vote wrapped.

Coyne, a lawyer, was able to fundraise only about $44,000. The rest of the money to finance her campaign came from loans Coyne made to herself in the amount of $75,000 at a 5 per cent interest rate.

The $75,000 entry fee required of the party was responsible for much of Coyne’s debt, the return shows.

She has repayed only $13,800, according to the report filed in May.

Coyne now faces the onerous task of raising money to finance a campaign she has already lost — the same circumstance that befell six candidates in the 2006 leadership race, including winner Stephane Dion.

The story was an ongoing embarrassment for the Liberals under Dion and later, Michael Ignatieff, as they passed the hat at fundraisers while facing a restriction of a $1,100 limit on donations from each supporter.

Liberal MP Hedy Fry and former MPs Joe Volpe and Ken Dryden, who both lost their seats in 2011, faced steep debts that they couldn’t pay down seven years after the leadership race ended.

Although the Liberals were found in breach of election finance rules, the Commissioner of Canada Elections Yves Côté admitted this summer that there wasn’t any action he could take against them under the current legislation.

Several other 2013 leadership contenders whose returns are not yet public are also expected to show unpaid loans.

By contrast, Justin Trudeau’s winning campaign was a juggernaut, raising more than $2 million in donations while spending $1.4 million, without incurring any loans.

Liberal MP Joyce Murray borrowed $50,200 to fund her campaign but repayed all the money, her return showed.

© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

The Liberal party of Canada knew, going in, that the $75,000 entry fee would be a problem for most leadership contenders but it, the Party, is so desperate for money that it imposed the fee anyway.

The simple fact is that too few Canadians give a damn* about the Liberal Party ~ not enough, anyway to support it financially.

_____
* A damn being defined as caring enough to spend even $10.00 for a party membership.

 

[a_majoor]

Don't worry Edward. Elections Canada will ignore the statutory limits for repayment, fail to impose fines or sanctions and allow Liberal leadership candidates to walk away from their debts/illegal campaign contributions.

There is already plenty of precedent for that.

 

[Edward Campbell]

And it gets worse; the National Post reports that "Financial reports published by Elections Canada on Tuesday show Liberal MP and unsuccessful leadership contender Marc Garneau was left with $45,000 in unpaid loans and another $54,100 in unpaid bills owed to two consulting companies ... [and] two long-shot candidates also ran up big debts: Deborah Coyne’s campaign still had $61,000 in unpaid loans outstanding and while Karen McCrimmon’s campaign reported owing $47,000."

As I understand it (and I'd be very happy to be corrected) the Elections Act doesn't allow Elections Canada to punish either the candidates or the Liberal Party ~ which is where any punishment should fall ~ for this sort of nonsense.

 

[a_majoor]

I'm not sure why EC thinks the sanctions are "unenforceable", since the law requires candidates to repay their debts within 18 months of their election includes penalties of $1,000 and up to three months in jail, but here are the gory details. It will be interesting to see the headlines in Oct 2014:

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Failed+Liberal+leadership+candidates+left+once+again+with+large+unpaid+campaign+loans/9038515/story.html

Failed Liberal leadership candidates left once again with large unpaid campaign loans

OTTAWA — The Liberal Party appears headed for a repeat of the 2006 fiasco over unpaid leadership campaign loans, with three candidates in this year’s race reporting large debts they have been unable to pay off.

Financial reports published by Elections Canada on Tuesday show Liberal MP and unsuccessful leadership contender Marc Garneau was left with $45,000 in unpaid loans and another $54,100 in unpaid bills owed to two consulting companies.

Two long-shot candidates also ran up big debts: Deborah Coyne’s campaign still had $61,000 in unpaid loans outstanding and while Karen McCrimmon’s campaign reported owing $47,000.

Garneau had borrowed $60,400 to run his campaign, including $10,000 from Kanata’s Plasco Energy Group and $25,200 from a Zenon Domanczuk of Montreal. He also lent his own campaign $25,200. His return shows repayments of only $15,400.

They now face the onerous task of raising money to finance a campaign they have already lost — the same circumstance that befell six candidates in the 2006 leadership race, including eventual winner Stéphane Dion.

The story was an ongoing embarrassment for the Liberals under Dion and later, Michael Ignatieff, as they passed the hat at fundraisers while facing a restriction of a $1,100 limit on donations from each supporter.

Coyne, a lawyer, was able to fundraise only about $44,000 for her 2013 bid. The rest of the money to finance her campaign came from loans she made to herself in the amount of $75,000 at a 5 per cent interest rate.

The $75,000 entry fee required of the party was responsible for much of Coyne’s debt, the return shows. She has repaid only $13,800, according to the report filed in May.

McCrimmon, a former Canadian Forces aviator, borrowed $67,000 — also from herself — but had returned just $20,000, according to her report.

All candidates were required to file financial reports six months after the leadership vote.

Returns for four other 2013 leadership contenders have not yet been posted publicly and may also show unpaid loans. Nine candidates launched campaigns but three withdrew before the final vote in April.

The 2006 leadership race left Liberal MP Hedy Fry and former MPs Joe Volpe and Ken Dryden with steep debts that they couldn’t pay down even seven years after the leadership race ended. Although the Liberals were found in breach of election finance rules, the Commissioner of Canada Elections Yves Côté admitted this summer that there wasn’t any action he could take against them under the current legislation.

Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand has said the provisions respecting unpaid loans and other claims are unworkable and a reform of the Canada Elections Act is urgently required.

Coyne finished fifth in a field of six candidates, capturing less than one per cent of the votes. Garneau withdrew before the final vote. McCrimmon was dead last.

Even though they all owe the money to themselves, the loans cannot be forgiven because they would then be deemed donations, and would be far in excess of the $2,200 candidates may contribute to their own campaigns.

Garneau’s campaign reported unpaid bills incurred with A and C Strategies Inc., and Dawson Ferguson Communications Inc. — a company run by former Liberal advisor and journalist Derek Ferguson and his wife Anne Dawson, also a former journalist.

Compared to his challengers, Justin Trudeau’s winning campaign was a juggernaut, raising more than $2 million in donations while spending $1.4 million, without incurring any loans.

Liberal MP Joyce Murray borrowed $50,200 to fund her campaign but repayed all the money, her return showed.

Coyne, Garneau and any others with unpaid loans will have until October 2014 to pay off the loans. If they fail, they can apply to Mayrand for an extension and, later, to a court for more time.

Neither Coyne, Garneau nor McCrimmon could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

With large amounts outstanding, the Liberals could face pressure to leverage leader Trudeau’s celebrity to help pay down the campaign debts, perhaps by holding fundraising parties for the leadership challengers he vanquished.

“We are expecting the campaigns to retire their debt in the coming months,” Liberal Party spokesperson Andrée-Lyne Hallé said in an email.

“They can do so in different ways, e.g. through fundraising events.”

 

[ModlrMike]

They should be prohibited from running for a seat until they repay their debts. Senators in the same situation should be barred from the upper chamber until they clear their debts.

Not like there's any chance of that happening.

 

[a_majoor]

The blogger did not leave the link to the actual interview, but the transcript answers a lot of questions about the LPC:

http://bcblue.wordpress.com/2013/12/09/liberal-mp-leblanc-lets-slip-why-trudeau-is-so-unprepared/

Liberal MP LeBlanc lets slip why Trudeau is so unprepared
December 9, 2013 — BC Blue


After reading this Global  interview of Liberal MP Dominic LeBlanc, I’m left wondering who is less prepared for their position – LeBlanc or Liberal leader Justin Trudeau?

You have to shake your head when someone who has had a life-long immersion in federal politics can look so silly during an interview and out their leader as lazy like LeBlanc did:

I ask him if he is the one who decides on the questions.

“Um. You’re taping, eh. Ah,” he says, hesitating for a good 13 seconds before explaining that ultimately he “sort of calls” the decisions.

What about Justin Trudeau?

“He doesn’t participate in that,” says LeBlanc.

“Sometimes he will ask us…to give him advice on where we thinks he should start. Like, what subject should he start on.”

So what is Trudeau doing while his caucus prepares for the day?

“He’s probably dropping his kids off at school,” LeBlanc says, insisting neither Stephane Dion nor Michael Ignatieff attended such meetings.

“I mean, I don’t know what he’s doing at 8 o’clock.”

Using Dion and Ignatieff as examples of Parliamentary success is bright right?

Then he follows up with this flat-out lie:

“He [Mulcair] appears to have a short temper. I’ve never seen Justin Trudeau lose his temper.”

 

[Edward Campbell]

In this article, which is reproduced under the Fair Dealing provisions of the Copyright Act from the Ottawa Citizen['i], Andrew Coyne argues that Justin Trudeau has secured his hold on the Liberal Party of Canada in a way that no one has done since ... Chrétien? Trudeau (père)? or even St Laurent?

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/national/Justin+Trudeau+continues+grow+leadership+role/9541687/story.html

Justin Trudeau learning to carry mantle of leadership

BY ANDREW COYNE, POSTMEDIA NEWS

FEBRUARY 23, 2014

Le parti, c’est lui.

How total is Justin Trudeau’s control of the Liberal party after this convention? So total that, the leader having brutally kicked the party’s senators out of caucus, suddenly, unilaterally and in explicit contravention of the party’s constitution, the party voted, in a “sense of the convention” resolution, to deem it constitutional, and to direct that the constitution be amended to make it legal.

So total that speaker after speaker at the convention, several with vastly greater life accomplishments, took the podium to praise the leader, not merely with the usual “next prime minister of Canada” boilerplate, but in terms faintly suggestive of a religious cult. So total that, though he had already left the convention — ducking out the back door to avoid reporters — delegates gave him a rousing standing ovation anyway, just for practice.

This isn’t just his party. He is the party, and with good reason. He owes them nothing; they owe him everything. It isn’t just a matter of having won the leadership with 80 per cent of the vote, most of whom have long since vanished. (Of nearly 300,000 “members and supporters” signed up during the race, and 140,000 who registered to vote, just 70,000 paid members remain.) And it isn’t just a consequence of the party’s current standing atop the polls, or its recent success in fundraising, or the raft of star candidates it has attracted, almost certainly on the strength of his dynastic appeal.

It is because he continues to grow in the role. The Trudeau who spoke to the convention Saturday afternoon was a different person than even the Trudeau of last spring’s leadership race. Gone was the theatrical shake of the head, the exaggerated pauses for effect; so, too, the uncertain Question Period performer was for the moment also a memory. In its place was a poised, relaxed, and engaging speaker, if not yet prime ministerial in tone and temper than certainly more identifiably leader-like. (A rival party adviser sniffed: “they’ve finally got his hair right, at least.”)

The speech itself was very strong, subtly weaving together several related arguments around the theme of “justice as fairness.” It was not deep but it was precise: he has been honing his indictment of the Harper government, and though of course it was largely written for him it was well within his range. It felt and sounded like something he would say, and believe, and to quote the old Henry Kissinger line, it had the added advantage of being true.

The negative, attack-dog politics of the Harper government (the argument was also addressed at times to Tom  Mulcair’s New Democrats, but it seemed tacked on) was here cast not as a complaint (see: Michael Ignatieff) but as a distraction: rather than solving your problems, he told his notional audience of “middle class” Canadians, they are exploiting them. It was a practical, as much as a moral argument. “Anger might be a good political strategy,” he said, “but it makes for lousy government.”

It’s a neat trick, attacking your opponent for his negativity without yourself sounding negative: hence the low-key, almost rueful tone of the speech, the “more in sorrow than in anger” appeal to disaffected Tories who wonder where the Stephen Harper who, “as a young idealistic reformer, was a principled man,” has gone. If the speech was itself devoid of specific solutions, it was likewise phrased with centrists in mind, stressing equality of opportunity rather than outcomes while acknowledging that “governments can’t do everything.”

If so, someone neglected to tell his party. If the party seemed unusually of one mind — only two resolutions failed, while most passed without debate — it may have been because, with rare exceptions, they were not asked to make any choices. Whatever your pet cause, whatever use for public funds you could imagine, the party was for it. While there were some bold proposals in the mix — a parliamentary reform package, with the promise of a serious look at proportional representation; a guaranteed annual income; legalized assisted suicide — there was enough new spending to kill us all. If the Trudeau speech was intended to persuade centre-right voters to cross over, the Trudeau party was doing its best to scare them away.

No matter, perhaps. The whole thing was mostly for show: the platform will be whatever the leader says it is. But it is a delicate balance Trudeau and his advisers are attempting. The new emphasis on spending suggests they believe they have split off as many Conservative voters as they are going to, and are now taking aim at the NDP. There may be merit in this — while Ignatieff was never going to lure voters away from Jack Layton,  Trudeau’s chances would seem rather better against Mulcair — but it’s not a given that they can hold onto those disaffected conservatives.

For now, however, the task was merely to press his stamp upon the party. The speech wasn’t likely to find many television viewers on an Olympic Saturday afternoon, but it wasn’t really aimed at them: it was to showcase his new-found mastery to, and of, the party. The party, for its part, seems only too happy in his agreeably totalitarian grip. If there were none of the old internal enmities that enlivened past Liberal conventions, it is because the rival camps have been mostly obliterated. If there were few references to party history, or to any party leader since Trudeau the elder, it is because this is less the Liberal party than it is the Trudeau party. It believes what he believes. It wants what he wants.

The professional cadres have been sent out to work in the fields. The senators are seated in self-criticism circles. It is the Year Trudeau.

© Copyright (c) Postmedia News

I need to repeat: I wish the Liberal Party well ~ not too well, I am a Tory, after all ~ because I know we need them as a government in waiting because, inevitably, the Conservatives will grow old, fat, corrupt and lazy in government. Some will argue that's already happened.

But I see dangers in the way the Liberals have embraced M. Trudeau, by which I mean the way they have embraced the unknown.

 

[vonGarvin]

It's telling that he break a party "law", and then the law be changed after the fact. This isn't leadership; this is an absolute monarchy.

 

[Rifleman62]

Obamaism.

 

[OldSolduer]

It's telling that he break a party "law", and then the law be changed after the fact. This isn't leadership; this is an absolute monarchy.

You mean like Comrade Greg in Manitoba?

 

[Fishbone Jones]

It's telling that he break a party "law", and then the law be changed after the fact.

International Talk Like a Pirate Day 2014 is Friday, September 19 not Monday, 24 February

 

[Kirkhill]

Some place between "Man on a White Horse" and "Rule of the Technocrats".......

Democratie has yet to be learnt.

 

[BorisK]

Obamaism.

Exactly like it. 

 

[a_majoor]

All the CPC and NDP really have to do is quietly arrange for more speaking engagements by the Young Dauphin and then sit back, the pin is already pulled on that grenade and the safety lever will fly off all on its own:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/justin-trudeau-under-fire-for-ukraine-joke-1.2549392

Justin Trudeau under fire for Ukraine joke
Liberal leader joked Russians already in bad mood over Olympic hockey loss
By Laura Payton, CBC News Posted: Feb 24, 2014 1:50 PM ET Last Updated: Feb 24, 2014 6:48 PM ET

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau is under fire from Conservative MPs after joking about Russia 's Olympic hockey team going without a medal during a discussion about Ukraine violently suppressing demonstrations.

In an interview taped on Thursday, which aired Sunday night, Trudeau said that Russia was upset about its men's Olympic hockey team losing out on a shot at a medal in Sochi.

Trudeau was answering a question about whether Canada should do more to help Ukraine, where violence had hit its worst point since the Soviet era, with 75 people killed in two days. The EU and Canada announced economic sanctions against President Viktor Yanukovych that day.

"Canada should do more," Trudeau said in the interview on Radio-Canada's Tout le monde en parle, a French-language interview show that's enormously popular in Quebec.

The Liberals had been urging the government to do more, Trudeau went on to say in French.

"President Yanukovych has been made illegitimate. It's very worrying, especially because Russia lost in hockey, they'll be in a bad mood. We fear Russia's involvement in Ukraine," Trudeau said.

'Extremely serious'

"Just because of hockey?" asked Guy Lepage, the show's host.

"No. That's trying to bring a light view in a situation that's extremely serious," Trudeau said.

Another guest, singer and actor Dan Bigras, then pointed out they were talking about massacres, something Trudeau agreed was horrible.

Conservative MPs took aim at Trudeau Monday on Twitter, including Employment Minister Jason Kenney and Industry Minister James Moore.

"So Justin Trudeau, whose favourite regime is 'the basic dictatorship of China,' thinks the deadly crisis in Ukraine is a laughing matter," Kenney said on Twitter, referring to Trudeau citing China as the country he most admired other than Canada.

Moore simply tweeted the quote and the word "Unreal."

'Offensive comments'

In an interview with Evan Solomon, host of CBC News Network's Power & Politics, Ukraine's ambassador to Canada said people have to be careful about what they say when there is killing in the streets of Kyiv.

"Jokes are inappropriate these days when we have hundreds [of] people [dead]," Vadym Prystaiko said.

Prystaiko said Trudeau's joke was inappropriate and that he will ask him to apologize.

Liberal Deputy Leader Ralph Goodale and Liberal foreign affairs critic Marc Garneau defended Trudeau on Twitter.

The Liberals, Goodale said, had discussed the crisis in Ukraine over the weekend and adopted a resolution with Trudeau's "unequivocal support."

The resolution was voted on during the Olympic gold medal men's hockey game between Canada and Sweden, however, which Trudeau was watching in a different room.

Outside the House, Garneau denied Trudeau had put his foot in his mouth, and blamed the uproar on partisan attacks from the Conservatives.

Immigration Minister Chris Alexander said he was shocked to hear Trudeau's comments in the interview on Tout le monde en parle.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Trudeau apparently thinks the situation in Ukraine is something to joke about. We don’t. And we are concerned that there is not just one statement of this quality. There’s a pattern here of support for communist dictatorship, in belief in budgets balancing themselves, and now of whimsical comments, offensive comments, about Ukraine’s future based on the result of a hockey game in Sochi," said Alexander, a former ambassador to Afghanistan.

 

[ModlrMike]

But I see dangers in the way the Liberals have embraced M. Trudeau, by which I mean the way they have embraced the unknown.

It would seem that they have continued the practice of deifying their leader... which leads to this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64KlhfIN5qY


Never pass up an opportunity for a Python reference.

 

[daftandbarmy]

All the CPC and NDP really have to do is quietly arrange for more speaking engagements by the Young Dauphin and then sit back, the pin is already pulled on that grenade and the safety lever will fly off all on its own:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/justin-trudeau-under-fire-for-ukraine-joke-1.2549392

I just saw the clip on the National. 9erD had to stop me from trying to punch him in the face... on our TV  ;D

 

[a_majoor]

Damage control. The Young Dauphin apologizes for his remarks about the situation in the Ukraine:

http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/02/25/justin-trudeau-apologizes-after-drawing-fire-for-silly-olympic-hockey-ukraine-joke/

Justin Trudeau apologizes after drawing fire for ‘silly’ Olympic hockey-Ukraine joke
Canadian Press and Postmedia News | February 25, 2014 | Last Updated: Feb 25 5:00 PM ET

Justin Trudeau sat down Sunday with Tout le monde en parle, a Radio-Canada show, to talk politics to the backdrop of a live studio audience.
Grab from Tout Le Monde en ParleJustin Trudeau sat down Sunday with Tout le monde en parle, a Radio-Canada show, to talk politics to the backdrop of a live studio audience.

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau has apologized for remarks made on a Quebec talk show in which he joked that Russia could intervene in Ukraine after the Olympic host country’s hockey humiliation.

Trudeau said he spoke to Paul Grod, the president of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress President, and said “I’m sorry to have spoken lightly of the very real threat Russia poses to Ukraine.”

Vadym Prystaiko, the Ukrainian ambassador to Canada, said Trudeau also visited him Tuesday to sign a book of condolence for the people of Ukraine, apologize for his comments and discuss the evolving situation in the country. He said he did not hold Trudeau’s comments against him.

“What I wanted to hear, I heard,” Prystaiko said. “He made a mistake. People do mistakes. It’s silly mistakes, not something really grave.”

The Liberal leader made the contrite statement after a serious backlash from the Conservatives and a call from Ukraine’s ambassador to Canada to apologize.

Robyn Urback: Justin Trudeau shows his greenness. Again

Last week, just as the Liberal convention was gearing up in Montreal, Liberal leader Justin Trudeau sat down with Tout le monde en parle, a Radio-Canada show, to talk politics to the backdrop of a live studio audience. The discussion touched on the future of the Liberal party, the values charter in Quebec, changes to the Canadian Senate and the ongoing angst in Ukraine. Trudeau did fine, until Ukraine.

Prystaiko told CTV’s Power Play on Monday that Russia’s relationship with Ukraine is much more important than a hockey game and Trudeau’s tongue-in-cheek remarks minimized the upheaval in Kyiv.

“You have to be extremely careful when you talk about 82 people who died fighting … for their future and everyone’s in danger,” Prystaiko said. “[Trudeau's] just sitting in a nice room, and talking about things in such a light manner; it’s just inappropriate.”

The Conservatives took aim at Trudeau after the bad joke was aired on Radio-Canada’s humour-infused current events program “Tout Le Monde en Parle” Sunday night.

“So Justin Trudeau, whose favourite regime is ‘the basic dictatorship of China,’ thinks the deadly crisis in Ukraine is a laughing matter,” Employment Minister Jason Kenney wrote in a tweet.

Citizenship Minister Chris Alexander criticized Trudeau when speaking to the media outside of the House of Commons.

“This is another case of the Liberal leader simply showing bad judgment, saying foreign policy … could be determined by one country’s mood after losing a hockey game,” he said.

Trudeau should “disavow the comments,” Alexander told CTV. “We shouldn’t be joking about these things.”

Industry Minister James Moore also took to Twitter to draw attention to Trudeau’s joke on Radio-Canada’s “Tout Le Monde en Parle” on Sunday night. “Tout Le Monde en Parle” is a humour-infused current events program.

The NDP, meantime, put up a YouTube video featuring his comments.

In an interview that was taped last Thursday — a day after Russia’s Olympic men’s hockey team was eliminated by Finland — but not aired until Sunday, Trudeau was asked about the situation in Ukraine and the prospect of Russian involvement.

Trudeau, consistently ahead of the Tories and the NDP in public opinion polls, joked that Russia could be fuming after being eliminated from the medal round in Winter Games hockey.

Since Russia lost in hockey, they will be in a bad mood
“It’s very worrisome,” Trudeau said after telling the panel that he now considers Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych to be illegitimate. “Especially since Russia lost in hockey, they will be in a bad mood. We are afraid of a Russian intervention in Ukraine.”

“Only because of hockey?” the show’s host, Guy A. Lepage, asked Trudeau.

“No,” Trudeau replied. “It is an attempt to bring a light view of a situation that is extremely serious.”

Yanukovych is in hiding, his regime in tatters, following months of pro-Western protests in Ukraine.

“I believe it’s silly… He did this simple and funny thing attaching it to hockey. Hockey is good, but Ukraine is much more important to Russians than any hockey game,” he said. “We hope that he would be able to apologize.”

Liberal MP Marc Garneau chided the Conservatives for their attack on Trudeau, noting how Liberal delegates at the party’s policy convention in Montreal had just a few hours earlier passed an emergency resolution calling on the support of a transition to democracy in Ukraine.

The resolution also called on Prime Minister Stephen Harper not to allow “any foreign power” to interfere with the will of the Ukrainian people.

“James Moore and Jason Kenney are trying to take advantage of this for cheap partisan reasons,” he said.

“If you look at the entire transcript, you’ll see that Justin Trudeau spoke very seriously about the situation in Ukraine, and anyone who’s been on ’Tout Le Monde En Parle’ knows what kind of show it is.”

John Crean, national managing partner for the public relations consulting firm National, said Trudeau’s latest gaffe is unlikely to hurt his standing in public opinion polls, but that the Liberal leader’s team needs to be careful Trudeau is not making repeated gaffes.

“They need to kind of get a handle on that and ensure these mistakes don’t continue happening because it becomes really death by a thousand cuts and eventually he’ll start to bleed,” Crean said.

“The broader gaffe story for him is does it reinforce this narrative that he doesn’t have the intellectual strength to lead a party and lead the country.”

Patrick Gossage, former press secretary to Pierre Trudeau, said he’s “not particularly worried” about the implications of Trudeau’s comments and that his apology puts the issue to rest.

“His willingness to apologize is quite unusual for a politician. How many times have you heard a politician apologize? Not very often,” he said.

With files from the National Post

Quite frankly, there is already more than enough on record to demonstrate that he does not have the "ntellectual strength to lead a party and lead the country.", and both the Conservatives and the NDP can craft plenty of material from it. Between now and 2015, I think the game plan will be to try to put the Young Dauphin in a situation where he can be asked a tough question outside of a controlled environment and let him speak. True, the legacy media will probably not follow up, but there are now legions of social media outlets that will do the job, and judging from what happened here politicians will have to react to social media even if the fawning legacy media is willing to give it a pass.

 

[Edward Campbell]

John Fewings, in the Ottawa Citizen, examines the Liberal Party of Canada's communication strategy:

Source: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/opinion/editorial-cartoons/index.html
Reproduced under the Fair Dealing provisions of the Copyright Act from the Ottawa Citizen

 

[GAP]

Personally, I would rather they just let him babble on.....rather than correcting him each time he flops....come election time it would be wonderful to have a plate full of Trudeau witticisms ......

 

[Edward Campbell]

It seems, to me, that M. Trudeau is a genuinely "nice" and "likable" young man. He is, most assuredly, not Stephen Harper, a politician Canadians, broadly and generally, actively dislike. Being "nice," and being "liked" may be enough, in the absence of attractive Conservative policies, to make him prime minister.

Now, I expect the CPC to have policies ready for the 2015 election. I anticipate that they will be attractive to most Canadians ... which means that I will, almost certainly, be disappointed, again.

The issue, for me, is: which of the two centrist to right of centre parties can produce the least objectionable policies?

The Liberal Party has a long way to go to earn my trust again. I believe, strongly, that Pierre Trudeau led the LPC far too far off the centrist track and into statism and socialism, both of which I regard as destructive to the national commonwealth and to liberal democracy. Unless and until a Liberal leader renounces Trudeauism (s)he, and his or her party are unlikely to regain my trust. (It is interesting to note that in the run-up to the LPC leadership convention and on a couple of important policy issues M. Trudeau fairly explicitly renounced his father's ideas.)