The "Anyone But Ignatieff" forces are lining up as the Liberal Party leadership race starts to take shape.  In 2006, StopIggy.com was well known, pleading for Liberal delegates to vote for Joe Volpe even.

Well, as the media is reporting that Michael Ignatieff is lining up key supporters, someone has registered StopIggy.ca.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 09:35 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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One of the threads in the story behind the ankle-biting website StopIggy.com devoted to defeating Michael Ignatieff's bid to lead the Liberal Party of Canada was the role of Thunderline in its creation. Until it was revealed that Marsha Akman, a Liberal Party member from Montreal, was the author of the site, the focus was on David James of Thunderline.

David has contacted me, hoping to provide extra details and to set the record straight. I'm posting his email as is (minus a few technical comments about my site).

Posted by: Steve Janke at 01:16 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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National Newswatch is following a rumour that the Liberal Party is about to pull the plug on Joe Volpe's leadership campaign.

As in soon. As in today.

If true, why? The problem with the donations from minors is well in the past. Was the recent problem with recruitments enough, then, to push him out?

On its own, I'm not so sure. I do wonder, however, if it has to do with the StopIggy website. I figured that the party had to know who handed the membership list to Marsha Akman. If it was Volpe, then the recent trouble with his recruitment could very well have been the last straw.

Recruiting irregularities can be blamed on low-level campaign workers. But the membership list could only come from the highest levels of the campaign organization. That would give the Liberal Party the ammunition needed to take out Volpe's troubled campaign. It would also provide the party a shield against possible legal action by Volpe. You sue us over pulling the plug on your campaign, and we'll sue you over leaking the membership list.

Update: A highly placed Liberal tells me I'm wrong on this one. Volpe did not help out StopIggy. Back to the drawing board.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 02:03 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Marsha Akman was revealed to be the name behind the website StopIggy.com, dedicated to stopping Michael Ignatieff from becoming leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. Based on some discussions with Liberal insiders, the feeling was that Marsha Akman was not really behind the website, but that her name was being used to divert attention behind the real website authors.

I've been doing more research on Akman, and I'm reconsidering the viability of that theory.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 12:07 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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This blog announced the identity of the person behind the Michael Ignatieff anti-campaign website, StopIggy.com. It was Marsha Akman, Liberal Party activist and a member of the party's women's commission.

Well, the truth is likely more complicated. It reads like a spy novel.

Update: Re-considering Marsha Akman's role in this.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 10:27 PM | Comments (11) | Add Comment
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The fighting in the Liberal leadership campagin is getting dirty, and Michael Ignatieff is the target. So I decide to see what the most famous Michael Ignatieff anklebiter has to say, when I see that the website mysteriously disappeared (not really). But in doing so, she has revealed herself. StopIggy is Marsha Akman, Liberal Party activist and a member of the party's women's commission.

Question: Are you seeing StopIggy.com? Have I been banned?

Update: I can access the site via Internet Explorer but not through Firefox -- still reports "disabled". Odd.

Update: Or is the truth behind StopIggy.com far more complicated?

Update: Re-considering Marsha Akman's role in this.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 12:00 PM | Comments (31) | Add Comment
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The Liberal Party leadership campaign has taken a nasty turn, with someone using a confidential membership list to send out a mass emailing of comments critical of Michael Ignatieff, the presumed frontrunner. The email also points to a website that is chock full of anti-Ignatieff material. Back in June, I wrote about this website, and how it is run by a computer company that has on staff a convicted hacker who now breaks into systems to test their security.

I wonder how good the security is at Michael Ignatieff's leadership website.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 06:37 AM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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One thing you have to say about Michael Ignatieff -- he inspires people.

In this case, he has inspired someone at Thunderline Internet Solutions, a website development house in Thunder Bay, Ontario, to create StoppIggy.com, a website dedicated to achieving one goal -- keeping Michael Ignatieff from destroying the world!

I kid you not:

Every Canadian should become involved in the effort to prevent Iggy from becoming leader of the Liberal Party. This is because the reality is that every Canadian is affected by whomever leads the Liberal Party. The Liberal Party is not called the “natural governing party of Canada” for nothing. They have governed for all but a handful of the past hundred years, and every single leader of the party since Sir Wilfred Laurier has become Prime Minister of Canada. Thus, the damage that Igg [sic] can do extends beyond the Liberal Party and potentially to the entire country, and international community.

Yikes! I am freaked out. What can I do?

I wish I could say I added the emphasis, but I didn't. The website actually averages about 50% boldfaced characters.

The person behind this (the registration information says only to contact Thunderline, which is a company run by a fellow named David James) doesn't care who wins, as long as it is not Michael Ignatieff. Even Joe Volpe would be better. Here's the insightful analysis that explains why:

Although we at STOP IGGY know very little about this guy, we are happy he is running because he is NOT IGGY!

Against intellectual titans like these, what chance does Ignatieff have?

Two things of note.

First, there is a page describing how to become a member of the Liberal Party and then how to vote to STOP IGGY! (Sorry, but that phrase is somewhat contagious.) Among the advice given, sign up as many friends and family as possible to help win the vote.

Second, one of the staff at Thunderline in a young man named Justin Davis. Justin was convicted of hacking back in 1998:

A computer hacker in Thunder Bay who virtually shut down a local Internet provider's system was sentenced yesterday to six months in jail. Justin Davis, 19, was convicted of fraud for using a computer decrypting program and two counts of fraudulently using a computer password. Judge F.A. Sargent said NorLink Communications and Consulting was forced to spend thousands of dollars purchasing new equipment after the incident. Judge Sargent placed Mr. Davis on probation for two years and ordered him to make $10,000 restitution to NorLink. Defence lawyer Christopher Watkins said his client believed he was being challenged to break a code to gain entry into the NorLink system. (The Globe and Mail; September 199

Now he works for Thunderline. [Actually, this turns out not be true, according to Thunderline]:

Mr. Davis, convicted last May of offences related to illegally obtained passwords he used to gain free Internet access, now hacks for a living, legally, for Thunderline Internet Solutions, a company that tests systems, networks or Web sites to see how hackable they are.

"Most companies are just sloppy when they set up their Web sites. They don't take the time to become aware of how their systems function. Some even forget to set up passwords", he said.

I wonder if the Michael Ignatieff website is sufficiently protected against malicious hacking. Hacking is a bad thing, but to these people, such niceties fall to the wayside if it helps to STOP IGGY!

(Sorry, there's that phrase again.)

By way of a footnote, I can't be certain that the site was actually created by someone at Thunderline. That is an assumption based on the fact that the registration lists Thunderline as the administrative contact. But the site itself looks so basic that I find it difficult to believe it was created by someone who works at website development firm.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 10:01 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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1 Can't say as I'm surprised by any of this. Iggy puts himself across as someone that supposedly will take the liberal party further right than the CPC. He's really just pandering for conservative votes and to keep blue liberals from bolting from the party, problem is he's spooking the left wing of the party and particularly the liberal kook fringe. The site you found confirms that. They would rather have a leader like Volpe.

Posted by: giimbol at June 12, 2006 04:54 AM (uDj9I)

2 Young liberals have little to do in TB except cash pogy checks and vandalize the local Hortons. Strangely enough this backwoods Librano larva has unwittingly targeted the one Liberal Canadidate who IS dangerous....Iggy is a Powercor backed horse ...the other is Bob Rae....Desmarais Powercor like to hedge their bet by putting 2 players in the leadership to make sure one wins....probably Iggy when Rae takes his support to his Powercor running mate in the 3rd ballot. Personally I think Iggy will tank the LPC at the polls and put the final needed nail in the coffin for the Desmarais Powercor legacy of owning the occupant of the PMO Of course this may escape juvenile Liberano hackers in TB who are munching too much space cake.....comic book global doom scenarios with villainous neocon tyrants are so much more appealing.

Posted by: wlyonmackenzie at June 12, 2006 10:05 AM (sdMWv)

3 I have a unique perspective on this since: a) I am from Thunder Bay b) I've operated a company competing with Thunderline for 5 years, and know some of the norlink/starlink people quite well. It wouldn't suprise me at all if this site was done by a 'professional' company (and I use that term loosely). Most 'professional' web design firms here are little more than teenagers with a copy of frontpage and a 'frontpage for dummies' book on their desk. I've actually had to tell potential hosting clients that the only way I'd agree to host their site is if they allowed me to re-do the design of their site. I simply couldn't allow myself to host some of these abominations, lest they be considered indicative of my work.

Posted by: Paul Morrison at June 12, 2006 12:12 PM (9gyLH)

4 Second, I'd like to comment on this: >Young liberals have little to do in TB except >cash pogy checks and vandalize the local >Hortons. That's not a true characterization, and as a Tory, I'm very much interested in what is true. People vote Liberal up here for a variety of reasons. One of them is the high amount of unionized workers up here (mostly pulp and paper). I cannot fault people who work in unions, and whose unions get them fairly high wages, for voting for parties which are union friendly, even if it has a negative impact on the rest of us. They are doing what makes sense to their bottom line, and while I don't like that, I do understand it. However, the comment seems to imply that Thunder Bay residents are lazy, unemployed layabouts. That's totally untrue. Thunder Bay residents are some of the toughest workers around. I'd like to see some of the keyboard warriors here last a day working in a mill. I'm not aware of anyone vandalizing any Tim Horton's either.

Posted by: Paul Morrison at June 12, 2006 12:13 PM (9gyLH)

5 Interesting events unfolding here: other candidates jumping on Volpe for his fundraising practices and now this mental defective and his "OH SO RATIONAL CAMPAIGN". It would appear that the Liberals have begun to overpopulate and like rats are starting to eat each other. This can only be a good thing.

Posted by: vieux loup at June 12, 2006 11:19 PM (e+lSi)

6 Gosh, I didn't realize Canadian politics were so ruthless. In my numerous visits to your beautiful land I've never encountered any angry Canadians. You're my first BTW, thanks for posting such a well documented expose of partisan party politics; it was enlightening.

Posted by: Michele at June 13, 2006 01:57 PM (FJ2Bh)

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