Liveblogging the Liberal Leadership Convention

7:23 - haha, Ignatieff is left hanging when he tries to start the cheer and Dion can't get them to stop.

7:15 - Ignatieff and Rae took each other out with their campaigning. Made each other distasteful to the rest of the voters


7:00 - Results time.

They're pretty sure of Dion.

Total: 4625
Spoiled: 20
Valid: 4605
To win: 2304
Dion: 2521
Ignatieff: can't hear

5:51 - jean chretien is giving a speech, he just backhandedly buried ignatieff by mentioning how proud he was to oppose invading iraq

5:29 - John Turner up to speak.. man this is going to be a barrel of excitement. Wow he's at death's door.

5:07 - quebecers hate the rest of canada enough to vote out of spite en masse

5:04 - Of course being french and therefore disliked by default by the Alberta neanderthal population and _also_ disliked in Quebec is going to be a huge problem.

4:57 - It's really hard to dislike Stephan Dion when you hear him talk. the media was always concentrating on the potshots between rae and ignatieff, now I think he'll really grow.

4:55 - about half an hour till the final count.

4:45 - If Bob Rae sticks around and becomes foreign affairs minister or something I could really still get behind the Liberals.

4:42 - Where's Jean Chretien? He's probably in a back room engineering someone's political death. I wish I could get into that scene.

4:33 - al says:
the party was rejecting the infusion of outside blood
Do You Ever Get The Feeling? says:
I don't want to know how Iggy got the blood he has
Do You Ever Get The Feeling? says:
I am scared he took it


4:26 - I'm starting to feel good about Dion.

4:25 - All the passion has been drained out of the room.

4:16 - Dion's gone up 20% since the first ballot, Ignatieff only 4%. Liberals are keeping to themselves.

4:15 - Ugh, this is going to be a long last hour.

4:06 - Ignatieff's people should appeal to the Rae supporters with the fact that Dion will have a very tough time in Quebec.

4:04 - The sick Liberal body is rejecting the new blood and new ideas..

I relally like John Manley, it's too bad he's got all the charisma of a damp bathroom mat.

4:00 - a lot of liberals are in denial about how hard it will actually be to get elected


3:58 - This Liberal party idiot talking about outsiders is the embodiment of the party-over-ideas idiots that I hate about the Liberal party.

3:54 - Lots of Rae people going to Ignatieff, this could be close.

3:49 - Rae is being a bitch and taking his ball and going home.

3:47 - Why is Rae letting Judy Sgro appear near him in public? Does that mean he's got a room full of Romanian Strippers out back?

3:44 - I can't see all of Rae's delegates going over to Ignatieff. I'm gonna say Dion will take it just by the split of the Rae vote.

3:41 - Ignatieff is going to offer bob Rae any cabinet position he wants.

3:39 - it's time it's time it's time!!!!
Total: 4823
6 spoiled ballots (each of the minor lame candidates.)
Total needed to win: 2410
Dion: 1782
Ignatieff: 1660
Rae: toasttoasttoast 1375


3:36 - Hearing Trudeau in a video over the PA system is making everyone in that room with they had someone with some real charisma and strong passionate ideas again.

3:35 - Jesus, get on with it.

3:31 - Ignatieff should work to make Boston part of Canada so he can live there.

3:30 - People should probably just accept that Bob Rae is a Liberal, his whole family are Liberals, it was actually an anomoly for him to go to the NDP. But partisan political types seem to hold grudges for a long time.

3:30 - I wish Mike Duffy would switch teams and come to the CBC. Don Newman is sooo damn boring.

3:29 - John Manley just made a really great point that if all three of the remaining candidates stay on as a core of the new Liberal opposition / potential cabinet that things will look really good for the Liberals.

3:27 - ohhhh almost time.

3:25 - I'm starting to warm to Dion, if he ends up winning I think he'll be smart and hold back a little and let people get a better image of him

3:21 - It's almost useless watching the reporters talk, no one is saying anything meaningful to them at all. Where's some anonymous guerilla convention blogger feeding all the good dirt to the Internets?

3:15 - It'll be pretty awkward for Rae or Ignatieff to directly endorse the other guy after all the shots they took at each other through the campaign.

3:10 - I bet Belinda Stronach has an LBT.

3:08 - All the Liberal technocrats will align with Ignatieff, worried that Dion is poison in Quebec.

3:06 - The Ignatieff people are getting arrogant.

3:05 - Rick Mercer is dying.

3:00 - They're playing "The Groove is in the Heart' in the background. I love the chick in that video. Gonna go dig it up on youtube now. way hotter than John Manley

2:59 - Right now I think the best hope Rae has is that a few of Kennedy's supporters go on their own towards him.

2:54 - Looking more like Stephan Dion will be on the final ballot.. He'll have a tough time winning a federal election.

2:53 - Rex Murphy should get omre air time.

2:48 - Quote from Taylor: "These conventions are more fun to watch when it's a Party you hate though because it's sweet to watch them make mistakes."

It just occurred to me that I have no idea waht any of the candidates actually care about. This must be a Liberal convention.

2:46 - CBC needs more fancy graphics. Last election I watched was CNN's coverage of the US mid-term elections and now I'm spoiled.

2:45 - Ever second Liberal being interviewed makes sure to inject a snide little asisde about 'real liberals'.

2:42 - i wonder if rae will stick around and run as a liberal if he doesn't win

2:40 - Dion will get ahead of Rae on this ballot. This will make things quite interesting.

Stephan Dion is looking very strong right now, after Kennedy endorsed him.

I think that Ignatieff might actually drop off the next ballot if Dion gets all of Kennedy's guys.

Hard to say if he'll definitely go to Rae or not. You'd think he would, even though they're sort of opposites of each other.

I'm actually pretty comfortable with whoever ends up winning. I won't vote for the Liberals with Ignatieff but I don't think he'd be a bad prime minister.

I'll keep updating this as I have more musings.

I still say Copps should be the Liberal leader. She can speak perfect French, the Quebecers just adore her, and she'd grab a lot of the labour / NDP support as well.

Plus she can apparently drink like a champion.

They made a comment earlier that all of the candidates were very very strong intellectually.

Peter Mansbridge is so grandfatherly when he's answering retarded viewer questons and trying not to have his contempt shine through.

There are lots and lots of meetings between Ignatieff and Rae's people. I can't see ignatieff's supporters going all to Rae, but you never know, it might be enough.