Whistling through the electoral graveyard

Jean Lapierre has thrown down the gauntlet to Little Stevie and the Conservatators, an election if necessary but not necessarily an election. With the Tories finding themselves at the suddenly dizzying heights of 36% support, the ole election drum is getting a pretty hearty workout in the city on the Canal.

Apparently taking a "C'mon' on if you dare" approach to Parliament these days, Lappierre said that his boys were ready to rumble if Little Stevie (and to a lesser degree gleeful Gilles) decides to go to war, this despite trailing the Conservatives by 9% and trailing the Bloc charge by a whopping 44% in that province that so was lavished with sponsorship moolah (now doesn't that seemed to have worked out well eh Jean?) .

An even more disconcerting little bit of news for the Liberals is the fact that for the first time in decades, they are having problems finding willing candidates to run for office in Quebec, normally a direct line to a fully indexed pension . But Lappierre seems quite bullish about his Party's chances or perhaps that's another form of that word we should be thinking of, regardless it seems in the Liberal camp the best defence these days will be a strong offence. And Jean is ready to take the ball down the field and run it hard.

Bravado seems to have been dished out with the morning croissants in the Liberal caucus room. Lapierre put on his best face and said that he didn't believe the polls that stated the Bloc had benefited so heavily by the Liberal's aromatic dysfunction in La Belle Province. And in a line that gives one a wish for Jack Nicholson to suddenly appear on the Hill, Lapierre said "I hope that we aren't close to an election because we want the truth". Oh can't you hear Jack warming up his vocal chords for that one "You can't handle the truth" comes to mind as a rather obvious answer to the Gomery mess.

But hey, for the Libs things are going well eh! The PM's upcoming fundraiser has already sold 700 tickets at 500 bucks a seat at the rubber chicken table. And they point to surveys that state the Canadian Public doesn't hold PM the PM responsible for the Sponsorship saga, perhaps, but one suspects that he may thus become collateral damage as they say in the upcoming bombing of all things Liberal.

Wonder how good a whistler the PM is?