Local Liberals say Dion coup is hogwash

BY RAFFY BOUDJIKANIAN

raffy.boudjikanian@transcontinental.ca

Prominent faces among West Island and off-island federal Liberal party members called hogwash on comments by former Joliette riding candidate Pierre-Luc Bellerose's suggestions he and several riding association presidents in Quebec are planning to kick party leader Stéphane Dion out.

"I just think that his comments are irrelevant," said Brigitte Legault, Liberal riding association president for Vaudreuil-Soulanges, adding she had not heard of any peers that have sided with Bellerose, despite the latter's claims to Journal de Montréal last week he had about a "dozen" backing him.

"As a political party in opposition, leadership will face many challenges," acknowledged Joan Koury, Liberal riding association president for Lac St. Louis. However, she did not want to comment further on Bellerose's comments other than saying he did not seem credible.

Lac St. Louis MP Francis Scarpaleggia supported Dion during the 2006 leadership contest, she reminded.

Though another story in La Presse suggested Dion's former rival Michael Ignatieff may have held a fundraiser cocktail last week because he is looking to build up support for another run at party leadership, these concerns, too, were shot down.

"The spinners are trying to spin it any way they can," said Dollard des Ormeaux resident Steven Pinkus, vice-president of the party's Quebec wing anglophone section. "Mr. Ignatieff, like most leadership candidates, still has debts left over from the leadership campaigns," he added, and this is why the fundraiser event was held.

"If I would have had a $300 000 debt, I would have done the same thing," Legault said. She was present at the cocktail, she said, and it was clear to her that Ignatieff was just trying to get rid of his debts from the leadership campaign.

Pinkus made headlines two weeks ago when he publicly commented about how the party's Quebec wing seems to be moving too slowly in terms of preparing for possible upcoming federal elections. "The party organization has not responded to (Stéphane Dion's) request to get ready for an election," he said.

An Ignatieff supporter in 2006, Pinkus said he has not been in close contact with the latter since then. "My loyalties are to M. Dion," he added.

Legault admit that Quebec seems to be behind other provinces in terms of having candidates ready in all federal ridings. "Elsewhere, most of the candidates are chosen," she said. She called Pinkus' comments "constructive criticism." In her own riding, she and others from the local executive have been busy meeting potential candidates lately, she added, but are not ready to disclose any names yet.

Pierrefonds-Dollard MP Bernard Patry's office did not return phone calls for comment for this story as of press time.