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Liberal Caucus Retreat Plagued By Controversy, Disarray
Thu Aug 24, 7:48 PM

By Joan Bryden

VANCOUVER (CP) - The fabled big red machine desperately needs a tune-up.

That's the conclusion some Liberals have drawn following a three-day caucus retreat that was chaotic at times, obscured by self-induced controversy at other times. Interim leader Bill Graham insisted Thursday that the gathering was a great success.

He told reporters Liberal MPs left the retreat "with a determination to go out of this caucus meeting united, prepared for the fall session of Parliament and prepared to give a principled opposition to Mr. (Prime Minister Stephen ) Harper's government."



But the first two days of the retreat were consumed by yet another lapse in caucus discipline and another show of division over the Middle East, sparked by Toronto MP Borys Wrzesnewskyj's suggestion that Hezbollah should be dropped from Canada's list of terrorist organizations and that Canada should negotiate with the militant Islamic group.

That controversy subsided only with Wrzesnewskyj's resignation Wednesday from his post as the Liberals' deputy foreign affairs critic.

He is the second critic to resign in the past few weeks. Mississauga MP Wajid Khan gave up his post as deputy defence critic after agreeing to act as special adviser to Harper on the Middle East and South Asia.

Graham insisted the Liberal position on the Middle East is now "very clear."

"We are totally united in our support for the state of Israel as a democratically elected state in an area faced with tremendous challenges to it by Hezbollah and Hamas, which we ourselves listed as terrorist groups and must be dealt with as terrorist menaces."

Graham said Liberals also agree the government should be "more aggressive" in pushing for peace negotiations and in building relationships with all parties in Lebanon that want peace.

"We recognize that violence and military solutions will never solve the problems in the Middle East."

Graham acknowledged that it is more difficult for him, as an interim leader, to impose caucus discipline and keep MPs singing from the same song sheet while the party's leadership contest continues for another four months.

Liberals are full of ideas, he said, and during a "period of transition when we're looking for a new leader it's very important that those ideas be ventilated."

"I think, frankly, it's my role as interim leader to allow that free exchange of ideas," he said.

"That said, we recognize that in the House of Commons we want to be disciplined in opposition to Mr. Harper."

Graham said the discipline he can impose is "not the discipline of a prime minister or somebody with a mallet" but will depend on the self-restraint of MPs.

"The discipline of this party is in the willingness of the members themselves to put their self-interest aside in favour of the collective good. We are going to do that this fall."

While most MPs appreciate that Graham is in a difficult position, some privately criticize him for not booting Khan out of caucus, for allowing a free vote on a motion to extend the Canadian mission in Afghanistan, which split the caucus, and for failing to ensure adequate numbers of MPs in the Commons for crucial votes, such as the budget.

One MP suggested Thursday that part of the problem is that Graham is operating with a small staff that keeps changing. Since February, he's had two chiefs of staff and the second, Andy Mitchell, is leaving in October.

He has also been operating until recently without deputy leader Lucienne Robillard, who was sidelined by a badly broken leg.

Graham acknowledged Liberal MPs have been lax about Commons attendance but vowed they will be out "in force" for the fall session.

Beyond the Wrzesnewskyj affair, there were signs of disorganization throughout the retreat.

Party officials provided reporters with three different times and two different locations for a leadership candidates' forum on Monday night.

Leadership contenders were given only a few hours notice that they'd be given a few minutes each to speak at a party rally Wednesday night.

The rally turned out to be a cocktail reception and by the time the candidates were introduced, the well-lubricated crowd was so boisterous that contenders had to shout to be heard above the din.

Martha Hall Findlay issued a piercing whistle to try to bring the crowd to order. She was ignored, as were all the other candidates.

Some Liberals said the party can't be blamed for the disorganization since both the forum and the rally were organized by local Liberals.

"You have to remember that we're in a city that's not used to having this size of meeting, to move 200 politicians around," said Senator Terry Mercer, a former national director of the party.

Mercer declined to comment on another, more serious foul-up which the various leadership camps blamed squarely on party headquarters in Ottawa: The release Wednesday of the latest lists of donors to each of the leadership contenders.

The party posted the lists late in the day on its website, pages of donations that were not tallied to provide totals for any of the candidates.

Reporters were in the midst of adding up the numbers themselves when the party shut down the website, having discovered that it had "inadvertently" posted the home addresses and phone numbers of the candidates.

Privately, senior organizers with various camps were furious that the party had not posted tens of thousands of dollars worth of donations which had not yet been processed by the party, through which donations are funnelled for the purpose of issuing tax receipts.

The party has been taking three weeks or more to process donations, a delay that most cash-starved camps find incomprehensible.

Moreover, some camps were irate that the reporting of donations was inconsistent from candidate to candidate. For instance, loans were reported for some candidates but not for others.

By Thursday, the party had re-posted the donation reports, with totals but without any of the names of donors.

The confusion had senior organizers privately grumbling about the "incompetence" of party officials and demanding a thorough "house cleaning" at headquarters.

Several insiders suggested party officials know their jobs will likely be over once a new leader is chosen in December and are, thus, putting in only half-hearted effort now.

But another insider said party officials are bogged down in paperwork, overwhelmed by all the new rules and financial reporting requirements imposed by reforms to political financing laws in 2003. This is the first leadership contest to be run under the new laws.

Tories Slip Back To Election Level: Poll
Fri Aug 25, 7:57 AM

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservatives have slipped in popular support to the level they garnered in January when they won a minority government, a poll released on Friday showed.

The SES Research survey put the Conservatives at 36 percent, down from 38 percent in its last poll in May and identical to what they won on January 23.

The Liberals recovered to 30 percent, again the same as in the election. In May they stood at 28 percent. The leftist New Democrats, who had 17.5 percent in the election, polled at 18 percent.

"As the numbers from our latest national survey came in Wednesday evening, this pollster had a serious case of deja vu -- pretty well exactly the same numbers as the last federal election," SES President Nik Nanos said in a statement.

SES polled 886 committed voters, with a margin of error of 3.3 percentage points 19 times out of 20. The firm also found 12 percent of those it called were uncommitted.

Nanos singled out a softening of support in Quebec as worrisome for Harper. He unexpectedly made inroads in the French-speaking province in the last election and needs further gains if he wants a majority in Parliament.

The Conservatives still lead the Liberals 26 to 22 percent in Quebec, compared with the electoral result of 25 to 21 percent. But they had led by 35 to 19 percent in May. The Bloc is at 42 percent, the same as in January but up five points from May. The Quebec numbers carry twice the margin of error, plus or minus 6.6 percentage points.

Nanos pointed out that Harper had gained early in his term by focusing on five domestic priorities, including cleaning up government, cutting the sales tax and cracking down on crime, but spent more of his effort this summer on the Middle East.