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Liberals have a new logo

The Liberals are desperately trying to reinvent themselves. The obvious programme of Liberal “renewal” is in full gear this week as Sheila Copps and Steve Mahoney were recently jettisoned from the sputtering Liberal machine. In fact, the mumblings within the Liberal camp have pointed out that the upcoming election is going to be about nothing else except for Paul Martin, Paul Martin, Paul Martin. Nevermind what party he’s running for, it’s all about Paul. Indeed, the Liberal Party of Canada is trying to reinvent itself as the Paul Martin Party of Canada. They’ll ask us to forget the Sponsorship Scandal, Swawinigate, and the HRDC and gun registry boondoggles. Forget VIA Rail, Canada Post and the corrupting of the RCMP. From western alienation to the self-destruction of our military: please remember, it’s all about Paul now.

So, how fitting for the Liberal Party to cap off such an interesting week of purgings by purging the old logo. The new logo falls short of my expectations, but setting aside my obvious bias, I don’t believe that this new image will help the Liberal Party.

The most striking difference is the new font of the logo. It appears as if someone has taken a big bite out of the “b”. Is this indicative of the faltering support for the party? My favorite feature is the leaf/arch over the “era”. This stylistic feature makes it appear as if Canadian popular support is setting like the sun over the Liberal era. Poetic isn’t it?

I hope that the Liberals don’t believe that Canadians will be fooled by a revamped image of the Liberal Party of Canada. The only thing that will save that party from a thrashing in the next general election is the absolute truth, yet it is unlikely that they will find it vindicating.

Leadership debate part II

Today at 2pm, Stephen Harper, Belinda Stronach and Tony Clement will be debating the issues on CPAC. This is the final debate between the three candidates before the leadership vote on March 20th. Therefore, I encourage all Conservatives and indeed, all Canadians, to tune in.

For those of you without cable, you can watch it live online at 2pm today

CPAC live feed (please select language below to watch the debate live at 2pm)
English | Français

Sheila Copps out

Former Liberal leadership hopeful Sheila Copps lost her nomination bid yesterday in Hamilton East-Stoney Creek. CTV’s Mike Duffy reported that the margin of votes that separated Ms. Copps and the victor, Tony Valeri, was 315 votes. There were 5,313 ballots cast.

It appears as if Paul Martin is making every effort to usher out his predecessor’s inner circle. When Mr. Martin was leadership runner-up to Jean Chrétien in 1990 he received a cabinet post as Minister of Finance. In 2002, Ms. Copps was runner-up to Mr. Martin in the Liberal leadership race and now she’s been tossed aside. At the height of her career, she was the Liberal deputy PM. Now her party has denied her the chance to run in the next election.

I’ve heard that Valeri’s scrutineers had close ties to the PM. About 400 Liberals were turned away from the meeting and were deemed ineligible to vote. Ms. Copps’ mother and the riding association president were also challenged according to Copps.

Ms. Copps has said that she’ll take a week to “consider her options”. Before the vote she remarked, “Tony, whatever happens in this fight, we’re all believing in the building of our great party and we’ll do it together”. We’ll see if she runs as an independent as the NDP has already deemed her “damaged goods”