Jay Currie

With Stéphane Dion announcing he will step down as Liberal Leader before Parliament resumes in January, Mr. Rae and his supporters had sought to block a move to have MPs choose a successor at a meeting tomorrow, instead hoping to delay it until next month and give party members a say.

Late last night, the party’s national executive chose a middle option for selecting an interim leader by Dec. 17 – allowing the party’s riding association presidents, club presidents, and defeated candidates to weigh in, in addition to Liberal MPs and senators. globe and mail

The whole point of a coup is that it’s quick. The old leader is sent into exile (or shot), the new leader is installed and the peasants barely notice the change. No fuss, no muss…

The current Toronto Party, which cannot even get a video shot properly, has managed to dispense with the advantages of a coup without gaining the legitimacy of a democratic process. Which is, one must admit, a neat trick.

I don’t follow the ins and outs of Liberal Party politics as I once did but I suspect that the “riding association presidents, club presidents, and defeated candidates” tend to be a) activists, b) distinctly to the left of the party. Think of all those Prairie Liberals including Truther Lesley Hughes and you will get a sense of the sorts of “Liberals” who will now have a franchise.

And there are so many more of them compared to the Liberal Executive and Caucus. 308 riding Presidents, 231 defeated candidates, God alone knows how many campus clubs (not Iggy friendly), womens’ commissions, youth commissions and aboriginal commissions. Call it 700 at a minimum vs 77 MPs, 50 or so Senators and, say, 30 Executive members.

Iggy could be utterly out maneuvered here.

Joy. Joy. Happy. Happy.

The Liberals are screwed.

The Jackal’s vacation is spoilt.

And they are about to be entirely beclowned!

Christmas comes early at the Harper House.