Friday, April 21, 2006

Let The Mania Begin

Joe! Joe! Joe! Joe!

posted by calgarygrit at 10:46 a.m.

30 Comments:

  • I guess somebody has to post something.

    "Fort McMurtry"

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12:13 p.m.  

  • Joe-mentum.

    Stop by for a cup of Joe.

    Keeping up with the Joes.

    Happy happy Joe Joe.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12:22 p.m.  

  • sound of crickets....

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12:23 p.m.  

  • I think a lot of smug yuppies are going to be surprised when Volpe winds up with more delegates from Toronto,Montreal and Vancouver than Gerard Kennedy.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12:37 p.m.  

  • I can't resist.

    Joe Who?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12:40 p.m.  

  • I thought for a second you meant Joe Clark!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12:49 p.m.  

  • Since when is there a benevolence requirement for party leaders? Why should only the competent be allowed to run? Is there no place for the deeply creepy? You guys just want to run a narrow, exclusionary party.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12:55 p.m.  

  • Lets not underestimate Joe Volpe. I'm sure he will build a strong organization and with the support of immigrant communities (more pizza dinners) he will have the delegates to be a force during the convention.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 1:33 p.m.  

  • Mr. Wells.

    STFU


    CG,

    Be prepared to eat your words when the Hon. Joe Volpe has one of the strongest number of delegate after the selection meetings are done with. Joe has a great team of experinced orgainzers across the country that will sell membership by the truckfull to eager new Liberals that want to let the Grassroots have a say in how the Liberal Party is run.

    The days when elitist snobs like Calgary Grit and Paul Wells can play in the backrooms to get stuffed suits like Kennedy or Ignatief elected are over. Joe Volpe is going to be a fresh breeze for the Liberal Party.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 1:49 p.m.  

  • Shouldn't Paul Wells be reading the NY Times Magazine so he can get a headstart on his next hobby-horse (e.g. election in Belarus). With bated breath I await his fresh and authentic take on regurgitated news from superior sources.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 2:05 p.m.  

  • He's alot better then Kennedey, at least Volpe has earned a B.A.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 2:05 p.m.  

  • Toronto Liberal needs his own blog ASAP!

    The guy comes with pure gold in every post he makes here!

    "Mr Wells STFU"

    I'm not one for internet slang, but excuse me for a second here. LOL!

    Joe Volpe is a cancer for the Liberal Party and represents everything that was wrong and bad about the Martin era. I don't care if he is good as mass signups that prey on the immigrant community, I would rather have 1 highly committed and passionate immigrant who cares deeply about the Liberal Party than 100 people that have a membership payed for them by Joe Volpe, are bused out to vote and are never heard of again.

    It does not build a party.

    If Volpe is kingmaker, than the Liberal Party is truly a national joke. Him helping pick the leader would kill the Liberal Party faster than David Orchard antics at the last PC convention.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 2:07 p.m.  

  • As a Liberal member that is proud to live Mr. Volpe's riding and has worked with him since 1988 I find it disgusting and sad that so called Liberals are attacking a man that has worked so hard for the party.

    Support someone else if you like, but please remember that we are all Liberals and that Joe Volpe does deserve the ridicule he is getting on this, usally fair and good blog.

    Also Mr. Wells as a member of the press don't you at least have to try not to insult national political figures because of some long ago grudge?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 2:12 p.m.  

  • As a Tory, I must confess that the thought of Volpe leading the Liberal party is almost too good to be possible. Corrupt, creepy, and inarticulate. The only candidate who would be more poisonous for the Liberals would be Toronto Liberal himself!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 2:22 p.m.  

  • ^

    Why is Mrs. Volpe posting on this site? Don't you think you should be out in the cities spreading money around like water to ethnic community leaders?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 2:23 p.m.  

  • If Volpe wins I'm moving to Quebec and becoming a separatist. Honestly, the man represents everything that's wrong with both the Liberal party and politics.

    By Blogger A View From The Left, at 2:24 p.m.  

  • Volpe's ground game will give him a larger number of delegates than he deserves, if it was a race based on merit, he wouldn't even run. Everybody who is a contender will have good teams in Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver...not to mention Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Hamilton, Ottawa, etc. Even if Joe Volpe wins a plurality in the GTA, Greater Van, and Greater MTR, (unlikely) that's only ~85-90 ridings. How are Sukh and Jimmy K's networks going to sign up people in Yorkton, Timmins, Sydney, or Drummondville? Volpe might surprise and be #4 or #5 on the first ballot, but he won't grow. Unfortuneatly, he will probably be a kingmaker of sorts, and assure himself a role in a future Lib government.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 2:30 p.m.  

  • Volpe is not bad, but Jimmy the "K" is a wackjob. I'm a former Liberal Hill staffer, and I'm telling you that NOBODY has a worse reputation than Jim in Liberal circles in Ottawa. Going door-to-door to stomp out grow-ops in his own riding??? Yelling at people all the time, the guy is a bully.

    I understand that many of Volpe's former staffers have declined participation on his leadership campaign. That's telling when the people who work with you every day say "While I'm flattered by the offer Sir, I'm sorry, but Martha Hall's vision spoke to me."

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 2:43 p.m.  

  • Reg Alcock the former Manitoba Minister has a lot of time for Volpe.

    I don't think it's enough to make Alcock leave Dryden, but Volpe has a lot of freinds all around the country.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 2:47 p.m.  

  • I also live in Volpe's riding, though claim no allegience to his party.

    I will say this, though. He is very seriously plugged into the immigrant community. Not becuase he resonates intelligence, competence, leadership, etc... Quite the opposite. He is a bafoon of spectacular proportions. He resonates becuase he is willing to pander to the selfish concerns of, well, the selfish. If that means money, then he will spend it. If that means promises, then he will make them. He is the king of the Ottawa scumbags.

    Which, frankly, makes him such an effective Liberal. I really do believe that his candidacy will be a bellweather for the "new/redifined" Liberal party. If he does well (he'll never win. He is, above all else, simply too stupid), then we can conclude that the LPC is still a fundamentally corrupted party. If he is crushed (which would be very fitting) we can, perhaps, conclude that the LPC, at long last, actually believes in something.

    I, for one, will watch closely.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 2:51 p.m.  

  • Joe Volpe for Liberal Leader!!!...


    He has a deal you can't refuse. If he can't buy you off, he'll see that you're in no condition to make it to the convention. Hard to walk with two broken legs.

    La Cosa Volpe!!!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3:14 p.m.  

  • I'll be the first to admit that I have enormous doubts about Volpe's suitability for leadership. In a situation where the biggest threat to the Liberals is on its left flank, having such a seemingly staunch social conservative as the leader would play into both Layton's and Harper's hands. The Tories could say "see? We're no farther right than they are" and the NDP could say "progressives, COME ON DOWN!"

    That said, maybe I'm missing something here, but what is it specifically about the guy that inspires such loathing? I don't know a tremendous amount about him... he's an old Martin loyalist, first gen Canadian, is strong with the immigrant special interests, tends to spend too much on dinners and wasn't a big fan of same-sex marriage...

    ...but that hardly seems to qualify him for the astounding hostility I'm seeing here.

    Sure, he may not be a good choice for leader, but why "creepy", "scumbag", or "worst aspect of the liberal party"? Inquiring pseudonyms want to know, and CG's Volpe piece never really answered that question.

    (Leaving aside TorontoLib. Which is just common sense at this point.)

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3:43 p.m.  

  • "Joe Volpe is going to be a fresh breeze for the Liberal Party."

    In other words, he's a fart.

    By Blogger Reality Bites, at 4:06 p.m.  

  • Moving on from the well accepted fact among liberals that Joe Volpe really needs to be set adrift on a political ice floe...

    Why does everyone assume that Volpe has the sort of ground muscle that he did by virtue of his connection to the erstwhile PMO (as Martin's chief screwer-with-party-democracy artist)?

    I am from one of the ridings that had the good fortune of his, um, attention, in recent years. I just can't imagine that there is the sort of consensus among party workers in the LPC(O) that there could be the sort of fraud that went on last time. No Martin, no fraud, I am not sure Volpe has anything like the influence people think he does.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 5:27 p.m.  

  • If past history is any indication, Volpe will refer to his opponents in the leadership race as "the KKK".

    By Blogger Michael Fox, at 5:41 p.m.  

  • Why is he thought of as scum? Dunno why Liberals would particularly be against him -- there must be some internal history that I don't know about.

    As for why Conservatives think the guy is a dirtbag, that has to do with his comments about a pair of Conservative MPs who were laughing at the "Libranos" posters, saying that one could see that the Klan looks like it's alive and well.

    Me, I wish the guy well. I'd love to see the Liberal Party run by someone who honestly believes that the Conservative Party is held together by a combination of racism and opposition to all that right-thinking (read: Liberal) Canadians hold dear.

    [Ok, I don't necessarily want that. But when I wear my Conservative hat, I do...]

    By Blogger The Tiger, at 6:46 p.m.  

  • Volpe will have solid middle of pack numbers.. as high as fourth after the DSM's in September.

    Can he afford to get all those delegates from ethnic communities to Montreal ?

    Can he win ? I dont see him having the growth potential.

    He will "deliver" his people more solidly than any other candidate.

    I predict Volpe will move after the second ballot, creating if not a winner, a clear frontrunner with his numbers moving as a bloc. If Dryden moves at the same time, to same spot its could make a winner of....

    See you in Montreal..its gonna be exciting!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8:24 p.m.  

  • Could Volpe be deja vu for Kennedy ?

    Kennedy lost the Ontario Leadership to Dalton McGuinty on the fifth ballot after Joe Cordiano with Volpe and Ianno at his side went to McGuinty and delivered his delegates en masse.

    Could Volpe with Cordiano at his side this time move to...say Iggy and deny Kennedy another convention win?

    Seems like a strong parallel here...

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8:58 p.m.  

  • Interesting, having seen the link it looks like Ignatieff already has the largest organization. Seeing how support is shaking down its probably going to be the case that Volpe throws his support behind ignatieff along with the rest of the socially conservative liberals. I think if Bob Rae runs he'll also wind up throwing his support behind his college room mate. Which seems to make Iggy the favourite, or at least with fairly substantial opportunity to pick up support on subsequent ballots.

    By Blogger Chris, at 11:16 p.m.  

  • As a Tory, I beg you not to elect Joe Volpe as Leader. We're paralyzed with fear at the thought of facing him in an election. He will re-invigorate the Liberal Party from one end of Toronto to the other.

    Brison is supposed to declare tomorrow in Wolfville, N.S. and David Orchard is assembling the culties. As soon as Hedy Fry declares, this will be more entertaining than the NHL playoffs. Too bad about Belinda though, she could have added so much. And by that, I mean more entertainment for Tories.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 2:16 p.m.  

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