"It's the children's crusade"

So it's not just in my riding that the Liberal Party of Canada appears to be unprepared . . . this report in the Toronto Star certainly indicates something less than urgency:

In late August, Senator David Smith gathered Liberal backroom boys (no women allowed) at his lakefront spread in Cobourg for his annual "gentlemen's soiree" of party faithful on the lake.

To the private dismay of some Liberals, there were, maybe, a handful out of 35 people, host included, who were actually doing something on the upcoming election campaign.

Not a good sign.

"It's the children's crusade," mocks a veteran Liberal of a campaign he says failed to do serious "outreach" to Liberals excluded after Dion won the 2006 leadership. That campaign is now paying the price as the Liberals trail in opinion polls and face the prospect of a Tory majority after the Oct. 14 election.

Behind the scenes, Liberals worry about a "loosey-goosey" operation that staggered out of the gate, minus an airplane, to sell a complicated Green Shift plan that bears the heavy stamp of Stéphane Dion, professor. Nobody seems to have even Googled the name to see if it was taken.

"I wish we had one," says the Ottawa-based Liberal veteran, when asked who's the party equivalent of Conservative powerhouse Doug Finley. "There's nobody — nobody in charge, except Dion, and he isn't listening."

I still can't see the Liberals collapsing like the post-Mulroney Tories did, but with the Conservatives polling near majority territory, and the NDP and even the Greens showing improved support in otherwise "safe" urban seats . . . it could be a very unpleasant election night for the Liberals.

H/T to Elizabeth for the link.