Liberal Party leader Michael Ignatieff has rejected a coalition with the NDP, and will instead lead his caucus to vote in support of the Conservative budget.

Now that's leadership!

But disconcertingly, Judy Foote and Scott Andrews, Liberal MPs from Newfoundland and Labrador, will vote against the budget, taking their cue from Premier Danny Williams.

So who leads the federal Liberal caucus?  I guess the jury is still out on that question.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 02:26 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Jack Layton and the NDP are not just criticizing Liberal Party leader Michael Ignatieff's decision to support the Conservative budget.  They are spending money on radio ads that put Michael Ignatieff squarely in the crosshairs.

But I don't see these ads amounting to much.  If I think they're a waste of resources, then you have to think there are some in the NDP thinking the same thing.  Is that ultimately going to cause Jack Layton problems down the road?

Posted by: Steve Janke at 01:34 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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The Liberal-NDP-Bloc Quebecois coalition is dead!

The noise you hear is the chortling from the right, and though I'm pleased with this particular result, I want to focus on potential consequences that are both more interesting and more serious.

Who is in Jack Layton's sights now?  Stephen Harper?  Or Michael Ignatieff, the guy who just made sure Jack Layton is not going to have any significant face time with Barack Obama next month?

Posted by: Steve Janke at 11:20 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Liberal Party leader Michael Ignatieff has brought down his momentous decision on the Conservative budget.

It will pass!

Well, not so fast.  Stephen Harper has to deliver a report every three months.

Ironically, these reports are not going to measure Stephen Harper's success as prime minister, but will instead focus on Michael Ignatieff's progress as Liberal leader.

For his sake, Michael Ignatieff is going to have to turn things around quickly, because he's already off to a bad start.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 04:04 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Maybe it's because I'm an engineer, and not an ideologue, but I'm not frantic over the budget.  Some bloggers from the right are going on about abandoned principles and promising to leave the party or never vote again or whatever.

Relax guys.  Just remember two points.  First, every engine runs down on occasion, victim of the inevitable accumulation of friction, or sometimes of a dramatic failure of an important part.

And second, when that happens (and it will happen), get a mechanic who understands what needs to be done, but who is not in love with the idea of tinkering with your engine.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 09:37 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty and his finance minister, Dwight Duncan, are getting ready to cough up cash, a lot of cash, to meet Prime Minister Stephen Harper on infrastructure spending goals in the upcoming budget. 

That's because the expectation is that federal cash will be made available on a matching basis, and the Ontario government thinks that's fair.

That's very generous of the governing Ontario Liberals.  It is also very generous of the Ontario Liberals to give credit to the federal Conservatives for what will be in the upcoming budget.

On the other hand, the Ontario Liberals seem miserly when it comes to giving credit to Michael Ignatieff and the federal Liberals. 

Posted by: Steve Janke at 02:35 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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It's been interesting to watch Michael Ignatieff building up a collection of excuses with which to use to justify voting for the Conservative budget today.  It's important, because Michael Ignatieff wants neither to fight an election, nor be associated with the NDP and the Bloc Quebecois in a coalition.  The only other option is to allow the Conservative budget to pass, and Michael Ignatieff needs a credible way to let that happen.

I just received Michael Ignatieff's latest excuse by email.  It is very interesting on several points.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 11:51 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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The headline sounds so ominous: "Opposition threatens Tories over tax cuts"

But really, the threat is so meaningless that anyone who bothers the read the article would wonder who would be impressed by Michael Ignatieff.

My guess is that Liberal partisans are the only ones who would be thrilled by this chest-thumping display.  But the fact that Michael Ignatieff is playing to them tells me he is still engaged in repairing the Liberal Party, and that means he will support the budget after all.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 09:48 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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This is one of those stories for which the Conservative government will be guaranteed not to get enough credit for the actions taken.

Still, in the hope that maybe things can change, let's highlight this story of how Jason Kenney and his people acted decisively to save the life of Masoda Younasy, a brave woman in Afghanistan.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 02:24 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Deb Frisch has been keeping busy with her blog as the rest of us have moved on.  Long after her notorious run in with conservative blogger Jeff Goldstein, Deb Frisch continues to ply her trade in wild accusations and vicious diatribes.

A common target these days is the Eugene Police Department.   In this particular case, she is accusing the EPD, and particular individuals within the department, of dragging their heels in a case of the alleged rape of a 12-year-old girl.

Someone has to set the record straight.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 08:21 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Michael Ignatieff has revealed his list of critics, and nowhere does former leader Stephane Dion appear.

Chuckle if you will about how far Stephane Dion has fallen, but I'm thinking about what this means to Elizabeth May and the Green Party.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 10:56 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Deb Frisch is a familiar name to long time bloggers and blog readers.  She was a former associate professor who, just over two years ago, achieved notoriety when she wrote  hate mail to a conservative blogger.  The most infamous note (left as a comment on his blog) was the one in which she bragged that she would be unconcerned if the blogger's young son suffered the same fate as Jon-Benet Ramsey (a six-year-old girl who was murdered in her home on Christmas Day in 1996).

It was so over the top, even by the standards of the vitriol that many conservatives have had to put up with from liberals, the Frisch was fired (or forced to resign) and has been unemployed ever since. 

Why do I occasionally come back to her story?  Because I was sideswiped by one of her attacks on conservatives in the blogosphere.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 09:48 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Michael Ignatieff hosted a two-day retreat with the Liberal caucus this past week.  Thanks to a media leak from a Liberal insider, we have learned that Michael Ignatieff sternly warned Liberals against leaks to the media.

If irony caused global warming, polar bears would be applying suntan lotion right now.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 12:30 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Hey, what happened to the Liberal-NDP coalition?  The National Post and other papers are carrying a Reuters report on Michael Ignatieff's latest statements concerning the upcoming budget, and nowhere in the report, or in Michael Ignatieff's quotes, does the word "coalition" appear.

Based on this story, Michael Ignatieff is of the mind that there will be a budget or an election -- nothing else.

So what exactly did Stephen Harper and Michael Ignatieff chat about on Monday?

Posted by: Steve Janke at 01:06 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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In the few weeks since Michael Ignatieff was appointed leader of the Liberal Party without the bother of a leadership convention or a vote, you'd expect he'd be busy re-building the party.

And he has been working at it, but there is a long way to go.

So why is it that he keeps threatening, in very specific terms, to trigger an election that the Liberal Party is in no shape to fight?  And this is a relatively new thing -- over the weeks his rhetoric has shifted from working with the Conservatives to rolling the dice on tossing them from power.

The reason it seems so strange is that, under the covers at En Famille, where only Liberals are allowed to look, I don't see evidence of a party gearing for an election or for governance, but instead a party that has barely started on the process of rebuilding.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 10:37 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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I got some spam email today that didn't appear too spammy.  I followed the link to site that seemed sort of legit, but turned out to be a site dedicated to distributing a backdoor Trojan that makes your system vulnerable to being taken over using IRC.

What makes this site interesting is that it is a polished looking site dedicated to Barack Obama and Joe Biden.  Instead of aiming at desperately lonely men who are hoping to improve their performance with questionable drugs bought online, these criminals are trying get control of computers of Americans searching for information on Barack Obama. 

Reporters, politicians, financiers -- it's a bit scary.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 08:24 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I got an email late this afternoon from Library and Archives Canada that left me at a loss for words.  Apparently, blogs in general, and my blog in particular, have a historical value worth preserving.

Honestly, it's humbling.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 12:02 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Listen to Michael Ignatieff speak about a potential coalition government.  It always seems like he's talking about the coalition as a tool to bring out the best in the Conservatives, not a means of replacing them with Liberals and NDP MPs.

Makes you wonder how Jack Layton puts up with it.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 07:49 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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The 2008 Canadian Blog Awards have been coming to a close, and to be honest, I've been deliberately ignoring them.  But it wasn't because I didn't appreciate the nomination.  I just decided this year to not push for votes, and just let the contest run its course.

Truth be told, I was surprised by the result.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 10:51 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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NDP MP Peter Stoffer is in the news for having the temerity to suggest that Jack Layton dump the knee-jerk behaviour of a ideologue and replace it with considered thought and deliberation.

And immediately all sorts of questions come to mind.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 10:46 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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