Mr. Ignatieff's Western Canada campaign manager David Hurford explained, "MPs have open houses through their normal course of events...And our role is to drop in."

Nice explaination, since few MPs have open houses
in their offices this time of year. it's usually
barbeques or coffee events away from the office.

"I wouldn't characterize it as a quote leadership event. "

So why have Iggy drop by?

"I think (Mr. Dhaliwal) is going to be having a group down there that will probably be watching the World Cup final."

When Iggy arrives the game will just be starting,
and Iggy and his entourage will just be there for
a few minutes, since it will take an hour to
get to the bottom end of Mt. Lehman Road.

"And it's a chance to drop in on the way out to Abbotsford. We're driving past there anyway. "

At Scott Road and 85th Street?

The best way out to Abbotsford would be Highway
99 to Highway 10 which is quite a ways south
from Sukh's office.

They could use 88th Ave, but there's less stop
lights on Highway 10 compared to 88th.

An even better way would be to go down 176th to 2nd Ave East and run onto Zero Avenue and go across towards Peardonville / Mt. Lehman Road
that way (even less traffic).

"So we'll drop in and say hi to Sukh and his constituents. It's just us dropping in."

How many of his constituents that would be visiting are member federal Liberals?

Not many.

The MPs office is supposed to be non-partisan.

Political event in an MP's office that belongs
to the taxpayers. Not a good thing to do.

How is it that Iggy screws up when he comes to BC?

First time he comes, he hangs out with the rich and powerful in Shaunessy, the Union Club and the Yacht Club, and now when he tries to go and see some common blokes, he has to use a venue that is supposed to be non partisan.

Not a good sign for someone who wants to be Prime Minister.

seem a bit weird, but will this make him lose any support? No, not a big enough deal for anyone to care. Will it garner support from Dhaliwal's gang? Yes. This is a good political move and definately not a non-partisan one

He is in first place in almost every province east of manitoba. BC likely won't matter

(unless the move to dion in quebec continues, then he'll need to make that up somewhere)

How can a guy who has basically all his life somewhere else find his way around town? must have a good map or some flak, on salary who lives in the city

Unbelievable how petty people are. Ignatieff drops in for a visit, ON A SUNDAY no less, and the ones whose candidate(s) have little to no support around the country are up in arms.

Don't all you "Anonymous'" have anything better to do?

In the membership drive, by all accounts, Iggy lost in the following provinces:

- BC (to Kennedy, Volpe, Rae and Dion)
- Alberta (to Kennedy and Volpe)
- Sasktachewan (to Rae)
- Manitoba (to Dryden)
- Ontario (to Volpe - but maybe he had them better distributed. Again - this wasn't a high percentage because it is all over the map
- Quebec - to Volpe and Dion (Iggy was third after Dion. Dion's was spread out across the province. Volpe's was in a few ridings)

Iggy might have won a province in Atlantic Canada, or even all of them -- but both Newfoundland and New Brunswick can renew from a large pool of members across the province right up until the vote in September.

Iggy is not a juggernaut.

Not by any stretch of the imagination.

This thing is wide open.

Please provide any further information if you have it.

Rafe Mair has it all figured out in the Tyee. Age seems to be part of the deal.But his scary idea of having Steve around for more than a few months bothers me more than even Hedy Fry and her method of writing prescriptions for folks who have medical plans to give to partners that don't have a plan, or for that matter her bogus Crosses burning on the laws, routine. But the decision isn't up to most of us as we won't be at the convention.

It will be one exceptionally fine day, if Ignatieff or Kennedy win, and Marky Mark's Funky Bunch is dead and done for good.

As a life-long member of the party, I can say with much confidence that none of us will stick around and support Mark if Dion wins. Our party cannot win without numbers and we will fall flat if the Marissen crew are running the show.

Unless it's Kennedy, we don't have a hope. With almost all the other candidates, we have turned into NDP-lite, we've gone way too far to the left. Oh, well, Prime Minister Harper looks safe for some time yet.

To Great Caesar's Ghost,

Umm, didn't the Liberals actually pick up some seats in BC in the last election. Your criticism seems a little misplaced.

Maybe it is a good thing to keep around people who actually helped increase Liberal seats in the province unlike everywhere else in the country.

Duh!

To Great Caesar's Ghost:

Aren't a big part of "Marky Mark's funky bunch" that you complain about (ie. campaign HQ) actually with you on the Kennedy campaign?

Do you think Bruce Young, Justyna Jonca, Shannon Salter, Dale Flood, Don Stickney and Coco LaFoca would shut out Mark from a Kennedy-led Liberal Party?

What a mean funky bunch indeed!

To IggyintheLead:

"Unbelievable how petty people are. Ignatieff drops in for a visit, ON A SUNDAY no less, and the ones whose candidate(s) have little to no support around the country are up in arms."

It's not WHEN the event took place, but rather
WHERE the event took place.

MP's offices are not partisan, they are paid for by the taxpayer and political party business should not be done at any time in an MP's office.

It's hardly "drop in for a visit" since the event was preplanned. MP offices are closed on Sundays, except for the possibility of the MP meeting a constituent irregardless of who he or she voted for.

Gritman, Iggy is just making rookie mistakes. He isn't ready for prime time.

Both Sukh and Ignatieff should know better. Nothing more to say.

Don't kid yourself Great Caesar's Ghost,

I have a lot of respect for Mark and he has a lot of respect for Kennedy too. Actually, Kennedy is also left of the party even more so than Dion. However, as a Dion supporter, I would not be surprised should Kennedy win that Mark, Mike Witherly, Bill Cunningham, Johnny Moser and David Broadie all become your mate with Kennedy as leader.

Khushpal Gill known in political circles as Paul Gill is running Ignatieff's BC campaign with Sukh Dhaliwal

Paul Gill was the infamous Sheila Copps and Glen Clark backer (he was Glen's riding associtaion president)and he was the Tony Kou's main Indo guy

Sukh and Paul are barnstorming through BC for Iggy

what you say is very interesting, fiberal.

problem is, the Iggy people didn't really sign anyone up, and most of the Indo community is "anybody but Ignatieff" -- what with all the white-bread elitism and all.

Maybe the Ignatieff people want to replace Bill Cunningham with Tony Kuo, just for kicks. Kuo and Gill and both great Liberal-New Democrat shape shifters.