1. 'Master smearers.' Stephen Harper's Tories are putting the summer political doldrums on hold, demanding Michael Ignatieff fire his Calgary West candidate for suggesting city police are "racist."
In a memo to party faithful circulated Sunday evening, Conservative strategists say Liberal candidate Jennifer Pollock's comment on Twitter - in which she said "Yes, [there are] some racist cops in [Calgary]rdquo; - is a "smear of the entire Calgary Policy Force."
"Michael Ignatieff should have immediately removed her as a Liberal candidate," the Tories say. "His failure to condemn this reckless policy baiting is unacceptable."
Ms. Pollock's tweet plays into the repeated Conservative criticism of the Liberals as being soft on crime. The memo says Mr. Ignatieff and his team are "not in it for our police officers. Not in it for Canadians. Only in it for themselves."
As well, the memo notes that Mr. Ignatieff, who is on a summer tour of the country, "does not stand up to embarrassing candidates."
"In fact, he even tolerates candidates who face criminal charges," the Tories say, going to mention charges against the Liberal candidate in Chatham-Kent-Essex, Steve Pickard.
Mr. Pickard was charged last month with several offences, including forcible confinement and four counts of uttering threats.
"Despite these charges being leveled weeks ago, Pickard remains an Ignatieff Liberal candidate," the Tories say. "Ignatieff's willingness to tolerate Liberal candidates who make accusations of racism without fact, and even those charged with serious crimes is deplorable."
The Liberals are dismissing this latest Conservative attack, saying they support the Calgary police and do not believe that the department is racist.
"The reality is that Jennifer Pollock was 're-tweeting' a resident's comment to make to case for the proper resourcing of Calgary's finest - it is budget time in Calgary - so that training and community outreach would be maintained even in tough budgetary times," a senior Ignatieff official said this morning.
"So, nice try to change the channel from all the bad news the Conservatives are creating (census scandal, $16 billion dollars sole-source contract, employment equity debacle, etc.), but this is not it."
The Liberal official says it's a bit rich to be accused of "smearing by the master smearers."
"Talking about smearing, we are all waiting for the 'Info Alert' that will let us know when the tête-à-tête between Stephen and Helena is take place!"
The official is referring to the recent decision by the RCMP not to pursue an investigation against former cabinet minister Helena Guergis. It still remains unclear why she lost her job.
2. 'Take a Valium.' The always outspoken Liberal Party president Alf Apps is advising the so-called "nervous Nellies" in his party to reach for a pill bottle to cope with doubts about Michael Ignatieff's leadership and his prospects for winning the next election.
In the Hill Times, Mr. Apps also takes shots at the national media, which he believes are simply reporting anti-Ignatieff rumours from disaffected Liberals.
"It's kind of like we've gotten to a point in political journalism where you have a huge amount that's printed that's purely speculative based on unattributed sources and people who won't actually go on the record, and all of a sudden the fact that their rumours end up as a newspaper story gives them a level of credibility they never had," Mr. Apps told The Hill Times in an interview.
"If you go back to the pre-Chrétien win, there was a whole extended period where the Liberals were running behind the NDP. These things happen when you're in opposition. Take a Valium."
And he notes, correctly, that both Stephen Harper and Jean Chrétien were written off as potential prime ministers when they served as opposition leaders. And look what happened to them.
"Happens to every opposition leader," Mr. Apps told The Globe in an emai Monday morning. "Media report yesterday's news, not tomorrow's. That's good for opposition leaders who understand the value of low expectations and 'being underestimated.' Chrétien did. Ignatieff does. Both have a thick skin."