(Canadian) Liberal MP quits; hints at move to Tories - canada.com

[Screaming Lord Byron]

http://www.canada.com/national/story.asp?id=CD22581E-F5A2-4EB4-91C4-AEC2FDA93734

OTTAWA -- Liberal MP John Bryden announced Tuesday that he is quitting the party and hinted he may join the Conservatives, dealing another political blow to the Liberals in the wake of the sponsorship scandal.

A terse news release from his office read: ''Liberal MP Bryden quits party. Looks to the Conservatives.''

The Hamilton-area MP scheduled a news conference for Tuesday afternoon to discuss his decision, which took even his own office staff by surprise.

The Conservatives and the Prime Minister's Office also said the announcement caught them off guard.

-What the hell? Is this Martin's doing? His nomination had been challenged due to Martin's new rules.

[Minstrel Boy]

1. Just saw Bryden's press conference on Newsworld.

Laid the blame squarely on Martin. Said Liberal backbenchers, for all Martin's talk of reforming parliament, are more constrained than ever. His nomination was being challenged by a Martin loyalist.

In some respect, apart from the timing, this isn't particularly bad news for Martin. Bryden's on the right of the party, and his defection can be said to be balanced by gains of "progressive" Conservatives like Scott Brison. Martin clearly wanted him out of the party, and he's got his wish. And the riding is a good bet to be a Conservative pick-up anyway.

Lot of shake-up in the Hamilton area. Hoping to hear news from Copps in the next couple of weeks. Sales of memberships in her riding have closed, and both her and Valeri are claiming to have a majority. Her slate of candidates was elected on the weekend for the executive; Valeri decided to leave it uncontested. I don't know if that means Copps really has the numbers, or the Valeri/Martin camp want to sucker Copps into thinking she does, so she contests the nomination and loses, making her spoiled goods for the NDP.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

2. I think Valeri has a plan for Copps. The rope-a-dope, perhaps?

I'm hearing (or rather, seeing) a lot of chatter from Tories about more Liberals to defect. I'll believe that when I see it, but this defection did come out of the blue, so who knows.
Copps should defect now, or not at all. We are not going to take damaged goods.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

3. There is no way that the conservatives can get into power....

anytime soon is there???

I pray that the rightists stay out of power for a long
time.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

4. Situation too fluid to tell. Martin won't call an election if he can't win

but who knows. I doubt the Tories can do much, this is probably just a situation where the nearest opposition party benefits from the government's disarray.

[Minstrel Boy]

5. Still extremely unlikely,

but I have to say, nothing's impossible. There's more flux now than there has been in years. Lots of things are up in the air now. Hard to predict how it's going to play out.

But there are many factors against the Conservatives. One is they have vanished from Quebec. That's 75 seats that are out of play for them right off the bat. They would need to virtually sweep the rest of the country to offset that loss. I can't see a scenario in which that happens.

And the Conservatives haven't chosen a leader or had a policy convention. Once they're led and have set forth a program, their numbers will drop. All three of the leadership candidates have strong negatives in one region or another.

A much more likely outcome is a Liberal minority government that is prodded leftward by the NDP. Such an arrangement has, traditionally, given Canada its most progressive legislation.

[iverglas]

8. aaaaargh

"I pray that the rightists stay out of power for a long time."

It's too late!!!!!!

The "rightists" are in power -- they're called the Liberal Party. Most especially the Liberal Party with Paul Martin at the helm.

(Heh, heh, that's a Paul Martin joke. He owns, in all but name these days, a huge transnational shipping company with ships flying flags of convenience, crew paid wages that attract only the desperate from the developing world, and corporations registered where his dollars won't be subject to Canadian taxes thanks to his efforts as Finance Minister. Corruption is the rightest-wing thing of all.)

Sheeeeze. Would anybody in the US suggest that the "rightists" are not in power just because Pat Buchanan isn't president??

.

[Holly]

6. Sour grapes

Martin wouldn't protect him, plain and simple. If this guy goes to the Cons, another bigot has found his perfect home. Did you catch his funniest line, I'll paraphrase; Martin hurt the party, by not covering up the scandal like ol Jean Chretien would have done. LOL
Maybe he didn't like the memo, any Liberal who "covered up the scandal" come forward and resign. He was on the Public accounts committee. Did he cover something up? You gotta wonder?

[Screaming Lord Byron]

7. To be fair, he doesn't seem like much of a loss to anyone.

Makes you wonder why he was in public life, anyhow.