John Ivison's
latest effort in the
Post makes absolutely no sense. Then again, if not for their weekly dispatches from a certain American prison cell, not much in the
National Post would.
To wit, his silly suggestion that the timing of a federal by-election in Don Valley West is somehow being nefariously delayed due to the Liberals' fundraising woes. Here's the opener:
OTTAWA -- The Conservative Party is planning another four by-elections for the first week of September - two in Quebec and two in Ontario - but has hit a snag: John Godfrey, the Liberal MP for Don Valley West, is not going to resign until August 1, even though he has already taken up his new job as head of the Toronto French School.
The delay would push the Don Valley contest into the middle of September at the earliest. Conservatives allege the Liberals have stalled Mr. Godfrey's resignation because they are so hard-up for money they don't want to fight four by-elections at the same time. The Tories are obliged to call a vote in the Montreal riding of Westmount on July 23 for a by-election as early as seven weeks later. They are likely to call contests in the Quebec riding of Saint Lambert and the Ontario constituency of Guelph for the same day.
The Liberals say the date of retirement was of Mr. Godfrey's own choosing and has nothing to do with electoral strategy. But a quick look at the recently-filed party financial statements for 2007 suggest that if it's not, it should be.
Nowhere in Ivison's column does he ever establish a link between the party's finances and the running (or timing) of a byelection.
There's no dispute from this corner that the Liberal Party is probably still lagging in terms of its national fundraising efforts. That's not the point here. The question is what on earth that has to do with the timing of a byelection?
Consider the following - Ivison himself suggests that the party's main source of collateral for election credit comes from (a) the Elections Canada refunds which are returned to candidates and (b) a certain number of riding associations.
In other words, a byelection, particularly one in a riding like Don Valley West, is more likely a net source of revenue for the Liberal Party's national office than it is a net cause of expenditure
Besides, nowhere in the piece does Ivison address a very simple question - what does a national party office spend on a by-election anyway? The answer - in Liberal circles at least - is probably very little.
In addition, if there are national office expenditures to be incurred during a period of multiple simultaneous byelections, whether it be advertising, travel, etc. don't the economies of scale mean more to the parties that are struggling with their budgets? Seriously. There's no amount of Tory spin that can change the simple mathematics of that one. Even the simplest math, however, stands a good chance stump a columnist at the Post. Clearly, it did today.
Finally, how can Ivison write anything about the Tories' new found desire to hold any outstanding byelections all at once, all the while glossing over the simple fact that last time such an occasion arose, Harper chose to hold off on some of them as long as he could, while calling Michel Gauthier's hours before the man had even left?
Really.
