Events of the last week

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20071115/mulroney_thibault_071115/20071115?hub=QPeriod

The Mulroney vs. Thibault saga continues, with each side upping rhetoric as the war is now more of one than just words. While this development is certainly worth following and watching, the Liberals must be careful to keep the issue about Brian Mulroney and Karlheinz Schreiber, and not let this aspect become more dominant, as it is significantly less spin-worthy.

http://www.thestar.com/News/article/276677

Dan McTeague's comments that "The hunter is now the hunted" is interesting. Given that the Conservatives at this point are going to be trying to avoid an election, but are still going to be pushing ahead with a policy agenda to try and re-gain momentum, this could be an opportunity for the Liberals to flex some muscle without triggering an election. The Liberals should say about any proposed legislation that it won't pass without changes x,y,z, but if those changes are made, the Liberals would support it. This would allow them to use the "making minority parliament work" rhetoric, and actually mean it, and if the Conservatives reject any changes, the Liberals can counter that the Conservatives are being obstructionist and more concerned with triggering an election that Canadians don't want than governing the country.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2007/11/15/ot-budget-071115.html

And yet another standoff in Ottawa as Larry O' Brien and his Harris and John Tory-esque rhetoric about preventing service cuts with "efficiencies" and not raising taxes versus the city manager Kent Kirkpatrick's predictions that holding the zero line on taxes would result in service cuts. O'Brien proposal of a two-per-cent infrastructure tax levy is interesting to compare to the steps taken by Hazel in Mississauga.