I don't know what Iggo Waffle been smokin' but he believes that their win in Winnipeg North is a sign of things to come for the Liberals. He believes that the public is starting to fall in love with the Liberals all over again.. Yes they won handily over the NDP in the by-election that was held last month but that was only because the Liberal candidate was well known and the NDP candidate was not and volunteers were exhausted from working for Judy W's .mayoralty race.. Voter turn out was extremely poor too. Plus Conservatives never had a chance there anyway. The NDP will easily regain that seat next general election.
OTTAWA -- Voters in one of the country's most troubled ridings voted for hope over fear when it comes to battling crime, Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff said Thursday.
During a day of year-end interviews with national reporters, Ignatieff told the Free Press the results in the Nov. 29 byelection in Winnipeg North are significant.
"Winnipeg North is a community that has been devastated by crime," said Ignatieff. "And yet we stood up there and fought it block by block and street by street, blew the NDP away, blew the Conservatives away with a message that said 'yeah we need to be tough on crime but we need to be smart on solutions.' "
Kevin Lamoureux won the byelection for the Liberals, defeating the NDP in a riding it had held for more than a decade. The Conservatives finished a distant third. Much of the Conservative campaign was focused on the party's tough-on-crime approach.
Ignatieff called that the "politics of fear" approach and said Winnipeg North voters, who deal with violent crime every day, rejected it.
Umm.... has he forgotten about Vaughn, a Liberal stronghold which they held for 22 years?Conservatives were able to break that stronghold. Voters there must have bought the Conservative message over the Liberal one. Thus we have Julian Fantino a new Conservative MP in caucus.
He later claims his leadership is fine at the same time you have a poll that came out just a few days ago stating
a good number of Liberals who want a new leader.
He thinks Liberals are ready for an election.but
you have this from a senior Liberal.
This is where the divisions emerge, because Mr. Ignatieff is clearly to the right of many Liberals, who would dearly love for their party to consolidate the progressive vote.
Says one senior Liberal: "There are all kinds of problems -- money, candidates, the leader's various issues -- but they could be overcome to a very large degree if the party had the courage to chart a clear, values-based progressive course. That ain't going to happen under His Igness, who is basically a conservative dressed up as a progressive."
This is an argument that seems to be being whispered with increasing volume.
He believes he's connecting with voters?
“I think I am connecting with the voters who are paying attention,” said Mr. Ignatieff. The situation is far better than it looks, he insisted. “The party believes in itself, believes in its message, the organization is good.”More important, he maintained, the Liberal Party remains the most legitimate party of the centre, which is where most voters are. “The Conservatives only win when they pretend to be a liberal party. They have to defang themselves.”
Most Canadians still believe in public health care, help with post-secondary tuition, a meaningful pension plan and the protections of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, he maintained.
“The Liberal appeal is: we’re the people who put that granite under your feet,” he said. “The message is as persuasive now as it ever was – in fact, more so, because that middle class is under a lot of pressure.”
But for the past three elections, more of those middle-class electors have turned to the Conservatives than to the Liberals. Mr. Ignatieff can only hope that once a campaign is under way, they will be open to changing their minds.
The Liberal Leader is ready to find out sooner rather than later.
Wow! Is he deluded or what? That fact is voters are not turning away from the Conservatives and flocking to him and his Liberals. They are quite satisfied with the current government and not hankering for change. Allow him to have his delusions. If he want's an election, bring it on. I gotta feeling he'll be heading back to Haavard or where ever asap after the election. But when all is said and done, even though he's saber rattling about bring the government down right now, I bet he'll find a way once again to climb back down that hill.
