What Moral Authority Might That Be?

Oops, the Liberals are at it again. Stepping all over one another in their anxious haste to prove yet again that they are in no condition to step in to governance. Their hallowed spot in the hearts of collective Quebecois has been hollowed out slightly, with the grumpy, unlovable departure of Denis Coderre, formerly the party's Quebec lieutenant while in power, and practising to duplicate that blessed time in the annals of Liberal ruling tradition.

He's gone off in a regular huff, he has, feeling that his bona fides have been sullied, his knowledge of his party and his province and his voting public having been discarded for the inferior manipulations of the Toronto-based Liberals leading Michael Ignatieff toward surely, a majority government, after discrediting the worthless Conservative-led government that Canadian voters inexplicably have found so attractive.

Just a simple instance of two Quebec-based Liberal stalwarts, attempting to positively position themselves, as adversaries each hopeful to become a future Liberal leader. Affecting the traditional position of trust and the leverage to bring Quebec into the winning circle, out-balancing the rest of Canada in their tedious pendulums of Anglo/Quebecois prime ministers. Monsieur Ignatieff this time around, Denis Coderre next time.

Imagine, the nerve, simply because a former federal justice minister under a previous Liberal regime had his nose out of joint when his rival Denis Coderre selected another high-profile candidate to run in the riding Martin Cauchon wished to run in, all the Liberal Anglos got their briefs in a knot, with Bob Rae speaking up for his former leadership campaign manager. So what if his choice agreed to run elsewhere?

His carefully laid plans of eight months' hard work organizing Quebec to line up where they could be trusted to pull weight for the Liberals come the next election, all to naught. No self-respecting Quebec politician aspiring to mount the elite level of premiership would accept that kind of usurpation of authority. Hence, Mr. Coderre's resignation, claiming his moral authority had been transgressed.

Moral authority? Moral? What would this man know about morals?

Is this not the Quebec Member of Parliament who lined up to march proudly in a 2006 protest purporting to be a pro-Lebanese rally in Montreal, aligning himself with others of a like mind, in protest of Israel's military entrance into Lebanon to battle the terrorist Hezbollah? That very militia classified by Canada as terrorists? Those very terrorists who prodded Israel to respond to attacks against its sovereignty and the safety of its people?

There was the Liberals' Quebec lieutenant, in solidarity with those who carried Hezbollah flags, in Montreal. Effectively leading any onlooker to the conclusion that the Liberal party was in agreement with the claims that a democratic country had no right of self-defence. Just another little incidental. We tend to forget these little crises, when during duress, people are inclined to demonstrate their inner character. Or lack of.

Now that I recall, was that not when Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff back-pedalled on an initial supportive statement on Israel's right to self defence, classifying it later, as disproportionate in nature? Ah, morality. Liberals know all about that. It's evident in the manner in which they press the government to increase stimulus funding in the economic crisis, then deplore the extent of the looming national debt.