Advice for Donolo: Know history, apply selectively, drink Scotch

The newspapers are full of advice for Ignatieff's new chief of staff  today -- from the Star's Chantal Hébert, for instance, and not one, but two, former chiefs of staff.

While Hébert is warning that history can't repeat itself -- the situation Donolo finds today is not the same that greeted him when he first came to Ottawa in 1991 -- Tom Flanagan is warning that there are history lessons to be applied today. Flanagan equates Ignatieff's current state to the situation that Stephen Harper was in around the spring of 2005.

Jamie Carroll, meanwhile, tells Donolo that there are serious structural/vision  problems with the Liberal party that need fixing and reminds us that there have been nine chiefs of staff in the Official Opposition Leader's office since 2006. Yikes. Oh, and Carroll helpfully tells Donolo where he's stashed the Scotch.

Someone out there in the Twitterverse (sorry, can't remember who it was) lamented that the Donolo story has been news for three days now, but all three of these articles are recommended reading before people move on to the next shiny object of political news.  And I'll throw in my own observation too:

* Liberals are never ever going to stop talking about their own politics -- amongst themselves, to the media, to their rivals.    It would seem that someone needs to take that weakness and turn it into a strength. Donolo, it should be remembered, was the first in federal Liberal circles to institute the practice of issuing talking points to MPs and Liberal "spokespersons" on various panels. He joked years later that his favourite stories in the  media were the "leaked" talking points -- it just ensured mass distribution of the Liberals' lines.  But its genius, at the time, is that it played to the Liberals' endearing/annoying habit of chattiness.

These days, everyone is a little weary of the talking points and it's my sense that the people most tired of them are those who watch those political panels on CBC and CTV.  The robotic repetition of not-very-clever lines is soul-deadening TV and patronizing/condescending to the folks who have to say them. Something a little more sophisticated is required. Does Donolo have a new trick up his sleeve?

And one more observation before this Donolo-advice barrage comes to an end: No one has mentioned that Donolo is coming to this new job from Toronto. Interesting. 

Comments

[Wascally Wabbit]

As a number of people have observed - everything can't be answered by a change of one person, whether it be Mr. Ignatieff, Mr. Davey and now Mr. Donolo.
The initial promise of greater involvement of the grassroots that was made prior to Vancouver has more than lost momentum - it seems to me that it has died.
Makes sceptics like me wonder whether there really was a genuine desire for participatory politics from the top.
Let Mr. Donolo focus on messaging!
Mr. Apps has a much bigger challenge - to convince folks like me that it is worth getting motivated again.

[Michelle]

I fail to understand how someone that was interim Chief of Staff for 45 seconds before being shuffled of to be the party's National Director (where the party then endured their worst fundraising years) qualifies Mr. Carroll to offer any advice to someone with Mr. Donolo's resume.

But that's just me.

[Patrick]

more free advice for Peter Donolo: beware advice in the form of a puffed up CV trying to market itself.

[Gabe]

"Liberals are never ever going to stop talking about their own politics -- amongst themselves, to the media, to their rivals."

Seems to me that would be a good thing, and a far cry from the 'natural governing party' accusations - a party that felt it had a natural right to govern would be unlikely to bother much with introspection.

[William J. Godfrey]

Really, the Liberals are not in as bad shape as everyone seems to think! With the, at least, $60,000,000 spent on Self Promoting Advertising plus the perhaps, $10,000,000 spent on the Ignatieff Attack Ads, Harper and his Cons were sure to go up in the Polls! Advertising Works! The addition of Peter Donolo is a very positive move which, more than anything, brings the different "factions" together for one purpose and that is to defeat Harper and his Cons! On a personal note...the more I see of Ignatieff, the more I am impressed and convinced that he will be a Great Prime Minister!

[MCBellecourt]

@Wiliam J. Godfrey: I totally agree with your post, especially the last line. When I go to the polls, I'm not looking for a Mr. Smoothie (although, as a woman, I find Harper's personality to be a major turn-off). I have read excerpts from Mr. Ignatieff's books, and I take them as observations and a chronicle of his own learning experiences.

As the director of the Carr Center For Human Rights, Mr. Ignatieff has already proven himself to be interested in keeping Canada the kinder, gentler society that we have been known to be worldwide. Harper and his Cons are the worst thing that has happened to Canada since I've been on this planet. I have never seen a federal deficit grow so fast until the last 3+ years. I have never seen so much propagandizing as I have with the Conservatives. Even the CBC National news program has been turned into a yankee-doodle-dandy excuse for a news broadcast since that Harper appointee took over the station. I notice, though, that the website carries a Don Newman column, but how much would you bet that would disappear if Harper gets a majority?

Then there's the Afghan war. Soldiers' families mourning the loss of their young family members are growing and the heartaches are mounting, at a cost of billions of dollars, and for what? Karzai passes a law that seriously undermines womens' rights and all we got from Harper was a weak excuse for a condemnation. Not surprising, since women in Canada can no longer sue for pay equity thanks to him. He has already called women (half the population) a fringe group that "needs to be taught a lesson".

And yet, with our soldiers caught up in a combat mission that is sure to turn into our own VietNam, more and more people look upon us as they did the Americans, while Obama is working overtime to change their image.

Harper may have been born in Canada, but judging from his speech to the NCC and through all his other actions, there has never been anyone as anti-Canada as him at the helm.

He will destroy Canada if we let him. Harper is a hater.

[Vic De Zen]

I agree with the drinking of scotch