The Globe and Mail, September 28th, 2007: the Liberals are "ready for an election."
The Globe and Mail, September 19th, 2007: the Liberal team doesn't yet have the "capacity to run a by-election."
I am totally impressed. That has got to be the fastest election readiness team in the history of the world!
Saturday, September 29, 2007
The Liberals: zero to sixty in nine days
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9 comments:
Missed subtext: the funding is a bank loan.
Essentially, if the Liberals go into an election now, spend all that money, and then lose, possibly triggering another leadership row, they are f**ked.
I'm sure they'd survive somehow, but I just don't know how.
Ben....actually I donate a lot more during a campaign that I do before a campaign. I always have. As long as the Libs look strong, confident and determined I think they will be alright.
Anyone have a link for the bank loan?
Sorry, slight terminology mix-up.
Duff to Taber at 0:32: "Jane, you had a good little scoopette today, that the Liberals claim that they've got the buses, the planes, and a 17 million dollar line of credit."
Of course, we heard at the end of last campaign that the Liberals were out of business for a long time, and they've bounced back to the point that they're within striking distance.
And it's certainly possible that Stephane Dion will be PM by the end of this year -- one never can tell how a campaign will go.
But they're running up the bills right now...
ben
If that is true, and the Liberals dip into it, then people have lost their heads. Use the money you have, don't mortage the future in the post-Dion reality.
It could just be a throwaway misuse of a term, but Taber didn't contradict Duffy. So who knows.
And about campaign finance, that's also murky -- how quickly can parties raise money under the post-Chretien/Harper rules? The CPC and the NDP had a head-start because of their grassroots-oriented fundraising strategies, but the Liberals are smart people who can get systems going very well themselves. (Full disclosure: I'm a CPC member and a sometime volunteer, albeit just as a canvasser in hopeless -- Halifax, downtown Toronto -- ridings during the last two elections.)
But hey, anything is possible. The Liberals went into the last campaign thinking there was no way they could lose to that guy Harper, and he stunned them. It could go the other way this time.
But it's a point worth keeping in mind when deciding whether to go or not... (I'm of two minds about it, even from the Conservative side, as to whether I want my guys to present a tough Throne Speech.)
Wow, I'm wondering who's underwriting that... that LOC sounds like a pretty risky bit of business.
On funding, remember that federal parties receive 50 cents back on every dollar spent during an election campaign, plus $1.75 per vote per year afterward. Which means that there's not much risk in spending off of a line of credit - but also that it's no great feat of preparation to secure funding which will be reimbursed quickly for any party which receives a reasonable number of votes.
Good point -- public funding is a given, these days...
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