Just got the word from Ralph Goodale. The LPC Deputy Leader suggests if the party can just get another $50-grand by midnight, they'll be able to send an even stronger message to the Cons and NDP that the Libs "won't be pushed around ever again." I found the italics in Ralph's e-mail interesting.
What I don't get is how $50,000 means the Libs won't get pushed around "ever again." Is money going to fix the Liberals' maladies? Is that what sunk them in the last election and the one before that - money?
Sorry, Ralph, but I'm anything but convinced that money - or lack thereof - is your party's problem. What the Liberal Party needs is vision. It needs policies and a leader who can connect with them to the Canadian people. And, no, I don't mean funding for the arts and daycare. Let's talk about what actually matters to Canadians today and to those who will follow. Let's talk about income inequality and a determination to strengthen our society by sharply closing the chasming gap between rich and poor. Let's talk about the environment and what is needed to deal with climate change and do Canada's bit to ameliorate global warming. Let's talk about what we need to do to chart Canada's course so it works in ways that really matter to the guy on the street - the one who sees no reason to go to the polls.
Ralph, if you want money it's time you earned it. Get back to me when you're ready to do that.
7 comments:
It's not just the Liberals, the NDP is soliciting donations as well, so that they can go HEAD TO HEAD WITH STEPHEN HARPER. Apparently they have a strategy to get Canadians working again, I just wonder why they won't tell you about it before taking your money? (Not that they're getting any of mine). If I give them money then apparently "Together, we’ll take on the Harper Conservatives and show them that we won't back down". Fat chance of that now that he has his majority.
Of topic, but I wonder how a Liberal-NDP merger led by Rick Mercer would come out during an election. Not that I want to see this...
Anon 10:48 They are getting some of your money. It's called taxes.
Alright Anyong, true, as official opposition, however I was talking about political donations, as was the topic of this post. And I would rather they get it then King Harper any day.
$50K is a drop in the bucket. The Libs need hundreds of thousands of dollars - if not millions - to wage war on the Cons. The latter won the last election by fearmongering and attack ads.
A leader can only do so much. Vision, PR and slogans will win every time. As Twitter has shown, distilling one's message into a clear, arresting, humorous short statement wins the most followers. It works with politics, too.
I disagree Jymn Parrett, I don't think it won the most followers. I think it turned off the most people. That's why something like 26% of eligible voters were able to choose a majority government. The last election wasn't won by fear mongering and attack ads it was lost with apathy and disgust.
There was certainly abundant apathy and disgust. Painful as it is to admit it, the Libs got what they deserved. Its leaders consigned progressivism to the backseat, well out of their way. I believe Ignatieff thought the way forward was to transform the LPC into a northern version of the Democrats just as Harper has always aspired to institute Republican policy and leanings in the CPC.
If the Libs at this stage can't realize the hold they dug for themselves and resolve to crawl out of it they have nothing worthwhile to offer their disaffected former supporters.
Giving them money to bitchslap a prime minister at the start of a reasonably strong majority government is futile.
I have a great deal of respect for Ralph Goodale but I'm convinced the LPC is in urgent need of fresh blood. The Old Guard has been around too long, has been too compromised. At this point the best they can do for the party is canvass about and recruit the best and the brightest to enter as their successors. It's about rebuilding a team that finished out of the playoffs.
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