Sunday, January 11, 2009

The Disaffected Lib


I thought this would be an ideal time to change the name of this blog.

After 41-years as a faithful Liberal Party supporter I have ended that allegiance to become an independent progressive. That doesn't mean that I won't vote Liberal again in the future nor does it mean that I'll now cast my support to the New Democrats. No, independent means independent.

I dropped my Liberal affiliation over what I consider the rank opportunism of Michael Ignatieff. He's not the first Liberal Party leader whose policies I've opposed in the past. I've had differences with them all, respectful and supportive differences. Ignatieff, however, crossed a line and I'm not willing to go there with him and the party. To use that hackneyed phrase, I didn't leave the party, it left me.

I don't believe that Canada needs two conservative parties and I think that Mr. Harper supplies more than ample conservative leadership for this country, particularly in this challenging time. Perhaps Mr. Ignatieff sees the way forward, for him at least, in rendering the LPC politically androgynous but I doubt that will be good for the party in the medium or the long term.

So goodbye that really long and awkward name and hello The Disaffected Lib. It's a bit sad to take my leave from liblogs because I'm leaving behind some interesting people I've come to consider friends. Oh well, they can always find me when they're looking for me.

10 comments:

Robert McClelland said...

nor does it mean that I'll now cast my support to the New Democrats.

Why not? If you join now you get a free tote bag.

susansmith said...

Robert - LOL. You are such a card!

Steve V said...

Are there any "I voted against a Throne Speech" t-shirts still available?

The Mound of Sound said...

Hey, what kind of tote bag? It's not one of those CBC cheapies is it? Let me know, I can be bought.

Skinny Dipper said...

That NDP tote bag better be enviro-friendly. If you join the Conservative Party, you'll get a body bag. You'll just have to pay a user fee if you actually have to use it.

Anonymous said...

I wonder what you get if you join the BQ?

Has to be better than the free lobotomy, Mila Mulroney's crotch-stained underwear and "dinner with "dr. roy" offered by the Conservatives...

Fish said...

Mound my friend, I would very respectfully urge you to reconsider. It is not by walking away from the party that you can have any form of positive change.

Whatever you decide, please count me among those you have come to consider a friend.

The Mound of Sound said...

Fishman, nice of you to stop in. In spite of your respectful urgings I won't be returning to liblogs.

I'm simply too old to put up with that pissant Cherniak. I am but one of four to have departed lately - foottothefire, LeDaro, James Curran & me. We all were booted or left (or both) and Cherniak was at the root of it.

When I wrote that Israel was stupid to attack civilian targets where Hamas was using the innocents as human shields, that troll laid into me calling my argument an outrageous justification (defence) of the tactic and opining that I didn't belong in the Liberal Party.

That was, for me, the last straw. I've always found Cherniak somewhat odious, an obsessive self-promoter and a "my country right or wrong" sort of guy when his country happened to be Israel.

I think Cherniak has been very successful of cleansing liblogs of focused criticism of Israel and kept it safely within the Kinsella/Cherniak/Levant fold. It's good that he's been called out on it. Even some of his "board" have noted that all the recent explusions/desertions featured this Israel/Cherniak dynamic.

I know some, such as Red Tory, delight in these threads in which people go back and forth sticking pointed things in each others' eyes. To me that's just puerile and boring. Perhaps that's something that comes with age, I don't know.

Anyway as I've said I'm not disappearing. Anyone who wants to read what I'm writing can find me easily enough.

I just feel better,freer, somehow a little cleaner, having parted company with liblogs.

Ed said...

MoS,

I, for one, am glad to see you sticking to your guns. Israel deserves all the contempt and scorn sent their way of late. The Liblogs aggregator is no longer worthy of merit if Cherniak is in charge and strictly enforcing his pro-Israeli stance across all affiliates.

But beyond that, your criticism of Ignatieff, has of late, been spot on. He is a wretchedly opportunistic prick and seems intent on shifting the Liberals to the right.

Consider, perhaps, parking your vote with the Greens. I tend to lean centre-right and have voted Green since the end of the PC party.

The Mound of Sound said...

Interesting suggestion, Ed. I'll definitely keep it in mind when the time comes. I can't see voting for either of these jokers who seem intent on putting the crosshairs squarely on the backs of our soldiers in Afghanistan.