The new Rat Pack?

The last time we had a federal Conservative government, the Liberals presented a fierce opposition through the so-called Rat Pack, consisting of Don Boudria, John Nunziata, Brian Tobin, and Sheila Copps. With the Conservative party's election finance activities in constant question, do we have a new ratpack forming? I put it to you that we do, consisting of Ralph Goodale, Mark Holland, Michael Ignatieff, and Marlene Jennings.

I exclude Dion here deliberately because his questioning on this topic is not particularly effective. He should be concentrating on matters of substance and governance, while leaving the assault on the governing party to the new Rat Pack. That said, Harper's treatment of Dion on the issue is disrespectful and ignores generations of parliamentary tradition. The Prime Minister rarely answers Dion's questions in question period, leaving it to one of his (air)bag men, Peter Van Loan, although he does not hesitate to answer Jack Layton.

Posted at 11:14 on October 26, 2007

More assorted thoughts on the future of our democracy | leadership politics | On cross border shopping and tax cuts

miekal (none) writes at Fri Oct 26 11:38:34 EDT 2007...

more like the weasel pack i would think.

Zorpheous (thewingnuterer.blagspot.com) writes at Fri Oct 26 11:43:03 EDT 2007...

What about Garth, he's great at hold the CPC feet to fire.

cdlu (cdlu.net) writes at Fri Oct 26 11:47:30 EDT 2007...

Ya, Garth's speech yesterday in the Commons about how he made all kinds of promises to his constituents on behalf of the CPC before they broke them all was pretty good, too!

s.b. writes at Fri Oct 26 13:44:13 EDT 2007...

The term rat pack is generally applied to a group of young people who question authority or challenge the dominant group. Ignatieff and Goodale are far too old to even be considered in the term "rat pack"