Stéphane Dion enters the halfway point of the election campaign under fire from members of his own party, many of whom have already given up on forming government.
Some Liberals are framing the weeks ahead as a case of salvaging what they have currently – 95 seats – and ensuring the election campaign does not end in the devastation seen in 1984, when John Turner's Liberals were reduced to a mere 40 seats....
Despite such actions, the negativity is found even in the Liberal-friendly city of Toronto. One candidate is demoralized as he hears from former Liberal voters, “I'm not really sure about this Stéphane Dion.
The senior campaign staffer there says they are emphasizing “the team” over the leader.
And after five hours of door-knocking over the weekend in his riding north of Toronto, a Liberal incumbent candidate heard complaints about his leader from 80 per cent of those he spoke to.
“[The candidate] is very discouraged and says that the only thing that may help him is that he is not identified as a Liberal and can run on his personal popularity,” a campaign insider said.
Quebec, according to some Liberals, is a “disaster.” The Liberals have 11 of the 75 seats.
A perfect storm - plus unpopular Dion - dooms Liberals
But these are different times for the Liberals, especially in British
Columbia, where the party's popularity has hit a historic low. The
Liberals won eight seats in B.C. in the last election. They could lose
them all this time around.
On the West coast the Liberals are in fourth place, In Atlantic
Canada the NDP is at 31%, Harper's base support is not growing and to
stop him from sneaking into a majority, people are turning to the
strong leadership of the NDP.
This means everywhere across the country people are turning to
excellent NDP candidates like our Liam McHugh-Russell,
and turning to Jack Layton for Prime Minister.