Courtesy call

Ontario Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty took a break from the federal Liberal leadership convention yesterday to pay a courtesy call on Quebec Liberal Premier Jean Charest.

But McGuinty had to visit Charest in his Montreal office because the former federal Progressive Conservative leader (along with most Quebec provincial Liberals) was nowhere near the Palais des congres.

Sources say the two men talked about the fiscal imbalance more than they did federal Liberal politics.

Divided Liberals

The failure of any one candidate to pull dramatically away on the first two votes appeared to delight the Conservatives here as observers. “You know what the results are,” Conservative Senate Leader Majorie LeBreton quipped to an acquaintance after the close second ballot results were announced. “None of the above.”

The thrill of the chase

Leadership conventions are all about rumours, excitement, and reading the entrails of the convention floor. Prognosticators and journalists tend to be a harried lot at these events, and television reporters even more so.

Which is why a TVA television reporter chased Michael Ignatieff out a back exit and up an escalator to check out rumours of a secret meeting with Bob Rae.

As the reporter insistently asked where he was going, Ignatieff didn't miss a beat, leaning into the microphone and whispering "to the bathroom."

Coalition government?

An unlikely trio were found huddled at the back of the convention hall – NDP MPs Nathan Cullen and Peter Julian along with Conservative MP John Baird, President of the Treasury Board.

The trio – who are usually vocal foes on the floor of the House of Commons – chuckled when asked if they negotiating the terms of a coalition deal for the minority Parliament.

Instead, they were simply doing what most political junkies across the nation were doing in the wake of the third ballot – dissecting the impact of Dion’s surprise vault into the lead.

Flashback of “panache”

In between votes, delegates to the Liberal convention have been treated to short video presentations featuring the highlights of party history. And none seemed more popular than the black-and-white images of a young Pierre Elliott Trudeau winning the party leadership.

Repeated cheers went up in the crowded convention hall as video clips highlighted Trudeau’s time in office, including a pirouette for the cameras and behind the wheel of his convertible.

“Class, flair and panache, the Trudeau years stunned the world and set Canada apart,” declared the announcer.

False alarm

A picture broadcast on a jumbo screen in a hall full of frenzied delegates can still say a thousand words, but don’t expect them to be the right ones.

In the middle of explaining how the convention atmosphere causes false rumours, a youth delegate supporting Michael Ignatieff whipped his head towards the monitor above the stage.

“What’s happening?” he cried as Ignatieff and Bob Rae gave each other a hug sometime after the second ballot.

Unable to hear what the candidates were saying, both delegate and reporter ran away hurriedly to investigate this sudden coalition between old friends and new rivals.

In the end, it was just a photo op.

Next time?

David McGuinty, Iggy supporter, said "oh yeah" he was having fun. "Let's do it again," he quipped. A reporter said the Liberals might be able to, given prospects of a federal election soon, a hard test for a new leader. "Yeah," said McGuinty. " I might be in the race."

Wrangling

Denis Coderre and Sen David Smith left a tete-a-tete with Rae minutes before polls on the 3rd ballot closing, terse and grim. Asked what their meeting meant, Coderre said "Nothing." What does that mean? "Nothing means nothing," he replied. Well, it probably means something. A Rae advisor shrugged: "this is a cliffhanger."

Crowd Control

When Bob Rae was ramping up the rhetoric onstage, the monitors showed a shot of a smiling Jean Chrétien. That's when a smattering of Ignatieff Thunderstix started banging together and the applause began, prompting delegate wranglers in the Ignatieff section of the Liberal convention to admonish their supporters for their enthusiasm of the former PM with cries of "whoa, whoa."

The swag factor

Rival Liberal leadership camps will stop at almost nothing in their efforts to woo supporters from one another – free food, free drinks, buttons, t-shirts and other campaign paraphernalia.

The Ken Dryden campaign, for example, distributed mock hockey cards of the ex-Canadiens great along with home-baked cookies.

But the Michael Ignatieff campaign set the bar with gold-wrapped chocolate bars embossed with the candidate's name.