Winston Churchill used to say "However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results." To those Liberals who disagreed with the "blanket-opposition scorched earth" strategy that their Czar was about to embark on up in Sudbury, I am pleased to announce that you can say "I told you so". Look at the polling results. As I was watching Ignatieff withdraw support for the government in the frozen north, I blogged that it was a tactical error to blindly oppose every piece of legislation. I had Liberals return fire with "you are a Conservative blogger and therefore the Liberal party should do the opposite of what you think." A scholarly rebuttal to say the least...
Have you been following opinion polls? The Liberals were flying high when they were making government work. Ekos even had a poll where the Liberals were within striking distance of a majority! I wrote about Ignatieff's Poll Dancing in April, back when he was setting the terms for his support of government legislation. The Prime Minister took some flak from his own side for stepping to the left and overspending to reach Iggy's terms. The Liberals were active participants in government while Jack Layton was bleeding support in part for his blanket opposition.
The Sudbury speech and resulting strategy was a mistake. I am having flashbacks to the film Patton. There is a scene where Patton lures Rommel's top Panzer division into a trap, and as the Krauts are being crushed he screamed:
"Rommel you magnificent bastard! I READ YOUR BOOK!!!"
Charisma is vastly overrated. Slow but steady progress is dismissed at your peril. Ignatieff though his flash, dash and international profile was more than enough to dominate the Canadian political scene. It would appear he spent way too much time out of country and was not prepared for the rough and tough of Canadian political reality. Its almost tragic. Cheers.
ReplyDeleteA couple of things to reinforce some of your points: 1. The Sudbury ultimatum, when it first came out, didn't feel well planned out. It was a relatively small press release in the late afternoon. It smelled of desperation, positioning and hollow. 2. Pundits, and now mainstream media fellows like Rick Mercer are starting to poke fun at the no-content Iggy strategy. Sure, the platitudes of building a better country in a red sweater are good but, they only last so far and they are way past overdue. Sure, you can throw down your "report card" strategy to get the Tories working but, once they actually work - well, the game is up. Iggy needs to put meat on the policy bones, explain - in detail - how he is going to change this country. He won't and he is becoming irrelevant because of it. 3. The Coderre fiasco in Quebec guarantees that the LPC won't form a majority anytime soon.
ReplyDeleteThe question is who pushed the hardest for this toppling of the government strategy? Bob Rae I imagine wants to rebuild the "Coalition".
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