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courage is contagious
Viewing cable 09OTTAWA324, THE LIBERALS GETTING THEIR GROOVE BACK
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Reference ID | Created | Released | Classification | Origin |
---|---|---|---|---|
09OTTAWA324 | 2009-04-29 19:36 | 2011-04-28 00:00 | UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY | Embassy Ottawa |
VZCZCXRO2511
OO RUEHGA RUEHHA RUEHMT RUEHQU RUEHVC
DE RUEHOT #0324/01 1191936
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 291936Z APR 09
FM AMEMBASSY OTTAWA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 9373
INFO RUCNCAN/ALL CANADIAN POSTS COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 OTTAWA 000324
SIPDIS
SENSITIVE
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV CA
SUBJECT: THE LIBERALS GETTING THEIR GROOVE BACK
REF: 08 OTTAWA 1543
¶1. (SBU) Summary: Since December, interim federal Liberal Party
leader Michael Ignatieff has set in motion changes to overhaul
fundraising, to centralize administration, to restore confidence,
and to rebuild the party's claim to be Canada's "natural governing
party." The biennial Liberal Convention in Vancouver beginning on
April 30 will formally confirm him as leader. Without any of the
usual leadership race glamor, the event may live down to predictions
of a "Seinfeld Convention" about nothing, but the behind-the-scenes
focus will be on making the party battle-ready for a federal
election, likely within the next ten months. The test for Ignatieff
in coming months will be whether he can define appealing policy
prescriptions -- especially on the economy -- that differ
substantially from the Conservatives and are at the same time easy
to explain to the electorate. End summary.
BACK ON COURSE
--------------
¶2. (SBU) Federal Liberals will convene in Vancouver from April 30 to
May 3 formally to ratify Michael Ignatieff as leader, to boost
morale, to hone election techniques, and to approve proposed reforms
to party organization. Since Stephane Dion's hurried departure in
December (reftel), Ignatieff has largely expunged his predecessor's
legacy -- especially support for an unpopular coalition with the New
Democratic Party, as well as Dion's signature "Green Shift" policy.
He has begun to steer the party back to the political center,
recruited new staff, and reached out to experienced players from
three back-to-back Liberal majority governments in the 1990s. In
April, newly-appointed National Director of the Liberal Party Rocco
Rossi described the aim of the upcoming convention as primarily to
demonstrate that Liberals are "back on course" and are "people who
have their act together, who can govern themselves and, therefore
are earning the right to govern." As a down payment on that
promise, he forecast that the Liberal Party would retire its
remaining October 2008 election debt by the end of May.
¶3. (SBU) In order philosophically to move on, the Liberal Party will
open the convention with a traditional tribute, of sorts, to Dion,
although many were startled to learn that the party had engaged the
same videographer who produced the now infamous out-of-focus film in
December that accelerated Dion's resignation. Organizers will even
hold a fundraising reception to pay off Dion's remaining debt from
his 2006 leadership race, which stood at C$200,000 as of December
¶31. Nine other 2006 leadership candidates also still owe money from
that race, but Ignatieff and foreign affairs critic Bob Rae have
paid off their own loans.
FOCUS ON THE NUTS AND BOLTS
---------------------------
¶4. (SBU) Liberal Party sources and media have predicted that
between 1,500 and 3,000 delegates would gather in Vancouver, far
fewer than those eligible to attend. Delegates will have some
opportunity to air policy ideas, but the focus will be on election
readiness, feel-good team-building, and organization, or as one
senior party official described it, on "plumbing, and engine-room
stuff." The hardware reportedly includes new voter database
software purchased from the Obama presidential campaign. To make
maximum use of this technology, the Liberal Party is taking steps to
centralize administration, fundraising, membership lists, and
election preparation to help it better to compete with the
Conservative's proven voter tracking and fund-raising machine. The
organizational changes, which will face a formal vote by convention
delegates, would effectively end the Liberal Party's traditional
Qdelegates, would effectively end the Liberal Party's traditional
structure as a loosely federated body of provincial and territorial
associations. In the past, provincial wings have jealously guarded
their membership and donor lists, as well as their autonomy, and
resisted efforts at centralization.
¶5. (U) Ignatieff will also push delegates to approve a one-member,
one-vote system for electing future party leaders in place of the
present delegate system, despite the failure of a similar proposal
at the 2006 convention. The reform's supporters argue the mechanism
is cheaper and more democratic, if less politically flashy.
PUTTING TOGETHER THE TEAM
-------------------------
¶6. (U) On Parliament Hill, Ignatieff has restructured his own
Opposition Leader's Office (OLO) and the separate Liberal Research
Bureau (responsible for Question Period research, strategy, and
running the Liberal "War Room" during elections) in order to unify
operations, election preparation, and communications. In addition
to Principal Secretary Ian Davey and acting Chief of Staff Paul Zed,
Ignatieff has hired Don Guy, an experienced strategist and former
Chief of Staff to Ontario Liberal premier Dalton McGuinty, as
campaign director. Chretien-era Liberal insider and Toronto
political consultant Warren Kinsella (whose mockery of then-Canadian
OTTAWA 00000324 002 OF 003
Alliance leader Stockwell Day in the 2000 federal election was
partly credited for a Liberal victory) will reportedly return to run
the Liberal War Room in the next election. New National Director
Rossi comes from a highly successful fundraising stint at the Heart
and Stroke Foundation. Insiders expect the convention to acclaim a
second Ignatieff confidante, Toronto lawyer Alfred Apps, as new
National President, in charge of party administration.
¶7. (SBU) In March, Ignatieff recruited former party whip and
four-term Liberal MP Karen Redman as a senior aide in his office to
work on tactics, logistics, and election readiness. Redman replaced
veteran Liberal Chretien-era cabinet minister Don Boudria, who had
stepped in temporarily to help out in December.
¶8. (SBU) The inner circle is supported by what one Liberal staffer
approvingly described as a "very young, but very smart, and highly
energized" staff in the OLO. When Parliament is in session,
Ignatieff meets each morning with a newly-created 12 member Strategy
and Tactics Committee, or so-called "Kitchen Cabinet," made up of
experienced MPs (including former British Columbia premier Ujjal
Dosanjh, House Leader Ralph Goodale, and defence critic Denis
Coderre) and chaired by Ontario MP Albina Guarnieri, an organizer
for then-PM Paul Martin. The Committee reviews strategy for
Question Period, monitors issues, and liaises with caucus. The
Committee has been notable for its deliberately low-profile and
absence of leaks, as well as its effort to be "inclusive" of caucus,
which had often complained of being kept in the dark by Dion's
advisors.
LOOKING AHEAD
-------------
¶9. (SBU) Ignatieff has apparently imposed greater discipline within
caucus, notably improving caucus confidentiality. In March, the
party announced that it would protect all its 77 incumbent MPs from
nomination challenges as candidates in the next election, as long as
individual MPs could show by June 2009 that their riding [district]
associations had at least 400 members as well as 40 party donors who
donate C$10 or more on a monthly basis.
¶10. (SBU) The leader has also appointed renewal and policy platform
committees to replenish the party's policy book. The party has
solicited grassroots input in online forums such as the new Liberal
members-only website "EnFamille," and there is a separate process
for caucus members to channel policy proposals. According to
Liberal MPs tasked with program development, however, the leader is
ultimately responsible for the content of the election platform.
Ignatieff had pledged to hold a "Thinker's Conference" early in his
tenure as leader to bring together Liberals and academics to
brainstorm ideas for policy and election strategy on the model of a
seminal 1960 Liberal Party conference. Liberal MPs have privately
confirmed that these plans are still on track for the summer or
fall; Ignatieff deliberately chose to wait until after his formal
ratification as leader rather than holding these strategic
discussions during his "interim" phase.
¶11. (SBU) Arguing that they need to hold their cards close to their
chest to avoid the other parties "stealing" their ideas, the leader
and Liberal MPs have delineated only a few "broad strokes"
priorities, such as "nation-building/national unity," citizenship,
"social coherence," social justice, and "national values" as the
basis for their platform in the next election. Ignatieff has urged
Canadians, notably in his latest book -- "True Patriot Love," a
story of his maternal ancestors and their contributions to Canada --
to "think big" about the country. However, apart from promoting the
Qto "think big" about the country. However, apart from promoting the
construction of a high-speed rail link between Quebec City and
Windsor, Ontario, arguing for changes to loosen eligibility for
Employment Insurance, and promising that no Canadians would be "left
out" under a Liberal government, he has remained vague on details or
other policy priorities. The Conservatives have thus far held off
from the kind of attack ads they successfully deployed against Dion,
but they have taunted him repeatedly for his offhand comment that
Canadians eventually would have to face higher taxes to pay for
current deficit spending on stimulus packages.
AHEAD IN THE POLLS, JUST
------------------------
¶12. (SBU) As Liberals head into their convention, they do so ahead
in the polls. In an April 23 Harris-Decima poll, the Liberals edged
in front of the Conservatives at 32 pct to the Conservatives' 29 pct
nationally, largely based on gains in the key battleground provinces
of Ontario, Quebec, and British Columbia, the collapse of
Conservative support in Quebec, and strong support among female
voters. A series of polls since March have confirmed the upward
trend, reportedly prompting more hawkish Liberals to press Ignatieff
to trigger an election as early as June. Liberal MPs Denis Coderre
and Bob Rae have told PolMinCouns separately that they would support
an election "the sooner the better." Other Liberal MPs, however,
predict an early 2010 election. In exchange for passing the 2009
Conservative budget, the Liberals had demanded economic "report
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cards" no later than June and December, on which they could
potentially base confidence motions in early summer or late fall to
force a federal election. The 2010 budget in February/March 2010
would be the next logical trigger.
COMMENT
-------
¶13. (SBU) In the last four months, Ignatieff has had the luxury of a
prolonged political and media honeymoon in which to begin to reshape
the Liberal Party. Most Liberals seem happy with the changes; one
staffer noted with relief that "the professionals are back in
charge." Liberals are upbeat after three years of tough times, even
though their margin in the polls is still slim. Although the media
focus at the convention may prove to be "All Ignatieff, All the
Time," delegates (many of whom will shoulder their own costs in
Vancouver) appear motivated. Nonetheless, the real test for
Ignatieff in coming months will be whether he can maintain party
spirit, continue to push through needed reforms, and define
appealing policy prescriptions -- especially on the economy -- that
differ substantially from the Conservatives and are at the same time
easy to explain to the electorate.
BREESE