Dion poised to dump top official amid Liberal squabbling

There is another article on this on the CBC site.
This is from this site.
This is all about Dion's leadership. Some members of the Liberal elite have never accepted that Dion won the leadership and not one of their favorites: Rae or Ignatieff. Instead of rallying behind the leader they are fighting him behind his back and in the media. If I were a Liberal I would be hopping mad. If the Liberals do very badly in the next election it could be in large part because the usual king-makers are upset and are willing to see a big defeat if necessary to get rid of Dion. I hope Dion wins out in all this. It would be a win to for the grassroots of the party against the elite. The problem is the kingmakers also no doubt control a lot of the funds. It is not Dion being poised to dump Carroll but his enemies trying to force him to do so. Maybe there can be some compromise.


Dion poised to dump top official amid Liberal squabbling
Juliet O'Neill , CanWest News Service
Published: Tuesday, October 02, 2007
OTTAWA - Jamie Carroll, a 28-year-old Nova Scotian who was hand-picked by Liberal Leader Stephane Dion as national director of the party, is expected to lose the top-ranking post this week as a result of infighting.

But Carroll is expected to retain his other senior role as the Liberal party's deputy national campaign director, as evidence that Dion continues to have confidence in him in the face of criticism from some other Liberals.

Spokespersons for both the Liberal party and Dion denied news reports Tuesday that Carroll had resigned or that Dion had asked him to resign, but they left the door open to a reassignment.


Liberal leader Stephane Dion
Simon Haytter/CanWest News Service




The expected demotion, along with other changes to Dion's entourage and shadow cabinet expected this week, would aim to quell the appearance of disarray and disunity in senior Liberal ranks when the party should be preparing its strategy for the new session of Parliament and a potential election campaign.

Fighting for his reputation, Carroll said in a letter to senior party executives that he had been defamed by senior Liberals and a lawyer had advised him he could win significant damages if he pursues the matter in court, a source said. He was seeking between a year and 18 months severance pay as a condition of stepping aside under duress.

Some or all of the changes could be announced by low-key press releases from Ottawa while Dion is on a trip to Canada's North later this week.

Pressure for Carroll's departure began last week after he allegedly remarked during a Liberal gathering that if he hired more Quebecers for the party, as some Quebec Liberals were urging, he would have to hire more Chinese too.

Liberal party president Marie Poulin objected to the remark, which Carroll said was twisted out of context. Since then, Robert Fragasso, president of the party's Quebec wing, and Montreal MPs Denis Coderre and Pablo Rodriguez have openly sought his resignation or dismissal.

It was the second call for Carroll's head. His admission earlier this year that he lies awake at night worrying about Dion's former leadership rivals plotting his ouster stirred anger among some Liberals. At the time, Dion refused to fire Carroll, saying he had made a mistake and would not repeat it.

Carroll has been involved in politics since his early teens, first working on Parliament Hill for Nova Scotia Liberal MP Geoff Regan. He was a special assistant responsible for regional affairs in former prime minister Paul Martin's office for a few months, and served as director of parliamentary affairs for Dion when he was minister of the environment.

Carroll signed on to Dion's leadership campaign from the start and loaned his boss $30,000 for the campaign. The money was quickly repaid after Dion's victory.

In a biography of Dion, author Linda Diebel quoted Carroll as worrying that the then newly selected Liberal leader may have been "a little too good to his former competitors." In fact, Dion quickly welcomed his top rivals, Toronto MP Michael Ignatieff, former Ontario premier Bob Rae, and former Ontario education minister Gerard Kennedy, onto his "dream team."

Carroll, the book reports, "lived in fear of an all-out drive against Dion." Carroll, who spoke to Diebel in March after he became national director of the party, was quoted as saying, "What they do in public doesn't bother me. It's the s-t they do behind the scenes - which I may not know they're doing - that keeps me up at night."

Coderre, a senior official in Ignatieff's leadership campaign, called Carroll's comments "totally misplaced and totally unacceptable."

Ottawa Citizen




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