Saturday, June 20, 2009

The Week In Review Through Bob Fife's Eyes

What most people saw:

  • NDP and Bloc vow to vote against budget spending motion
  • Ignatieff and Liberals vow to bring down government unless they get concessions
  • PM says no to concessions
  • Ignatieff begins to backtrack on firm stance to bring down Conservative government
  • PM reiterates he won't concede 360 hour EI qualifying standard
  • Pm and Liberal leader meet
  • Ignaiteff concedes Isotopes, stimulus spending, 360 EI qualification
  • PM agrees to a "blue ribbon" EI panel, all other Liberal demands abandoned
  • Ignatieff backs down on 4 supposed conditions for continued support
  • Duceppe says Ignatieff sees Dion when he looks in mirror
  • Layton ridicules Ignatieff for settling on blue ribbon panel, bragging he got billions
  • Election avoided, Conservative government gets summer to make spending announcments
  • Conservative government should see increased polling due to rebounding economy
  • Vast majority see this as win for PM, Ignatieff diminished

How Bob Fife saw it:

  • Ignatieff and Liberals were the winners for avoiding an election they supposedly would have won.
  • Ignatieff ignores hand-picked strategist Warren Kinsella, also David Herle's advice in forcing an election. Brilliant
  • Libloggers unhappy with Iggy capitulating on demands, sign Iggy made the right move.
  • Prime Minister the big loser for avoiding an election he would have supposedly lost
  • Conservatives give in to none of the Liberals demands, standing firm on EI qualifying rules, yet Ignatieff won the staredown.

I'll have some of whatever Fife is smoking please.

20 comments:

Jen said...

When it comes to the liberals Robert Fife the bureau chief for CTV and journalist is "I see nothing, I know nothing; I hear nothing"

The bloggers " see everything; know everything and hear everything."

Why does he realize CTV is in the tank.

RayK said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
RayK said...

I gotta say I found Fife's take on the situation totally nuts.

The issue here is not whether Ignatieff forced a summer election--no one wanted an election. The issue here is that Ignatieff's capitulation on Wednesday proved that he was making empty threats all along, i.e. five months of empty threats.

maryT said...

Story at NNW says Iggy's honeymoon in Quebec is over.

Anonymous said...

The minute I see Bob Fife, Oliver or Tabor on TV - I immediate turn the channel. I will not listen to their bias liberal reporting - it is sickening. I think if everyone did the same - the network would get the message.... Bob would turn any liberal story into a plus for Iggy regardless if he stunk in everyone's face. He is so liberal bias, it is pathetic... and to say - those reports of the Minister's was in his office and he didn't look at them, is as believable as saying the sun will not come up in the morning. He was saying - there was going to be plenty more coming out of those tapes, he must be extremely disappointed. Even to turn Question Period on - we are doing a disservice to the conservative Party. Oliver and Tabor give one full hour of free advertising to the liberal party.

wilson said...

Fife is trying to save face, his. When even Susn Delecourt (LibLuving, HarperHatin')
says :

''So is the new guy up to it?
The consensus seems to be that Ignatieff is lucky this week was only a rehearsal – that he proved himself not yet ready for prime time.
And it's not only his critics who think so.''

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/654000

Anonymous said...

Fife is the the Sgt Schultz of the MSM.

"I know nothing"

wilson said...

New poll out:

Majority (53%) Say Harper Conservatives Doing ‘Good Job’
and Should Continue Governing as
Only 39% Believe Ignatieff Liberals Would Do ‘Better Job’

June 20, 2009

http://netnewsledger.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=287:ipsos-reid-53-say-harper-doing-good-job&catid=39:northwestern-ontario-news&Itemid=90

Anonymous said...

Hard to believe Fife was once the bureau chief at the National Post isn't it.

Amazing yet that your good buddy Warren K. gave his a Grade of "F" for his work in "Kicking Ass...."

Maybe since he's now with CTV Fife's scared of getting another bad report card from Kinsella?

Warren gave Duffy a B+

Anonymous said...

I think it was Tuesday afternoon, Fife was being interviewed on CTVNewsNet and he said that Harper had to give Ignatieff something to allow him to save face.

He went to say that Ignatieff is in a hard place, he's got the hawks in his caucus pushing for an election and he's got the other MPs afraid of voter backlash. Harper should feel sorry for him and allow him to save face.

He was being interviewed by Sandy Renaldo I think. I don't know if there is a clip.

Calgary Junkie said...

Tonda McCharles, on Power Play (Wed ?) also gave Iggy a hard time, saying he didn't "stickhandle" his way very well through his press conferences, etc. She said Harper was on his game, that he usually does well in tactical situations.

Fife was on Adler in the middle of this week, and Fife was fairly critical of Iggy. So go figure.

I'd say a good indication of how Iggy did is the glum looks on the faces of his MPs (especially Marlene Jennings, who was forcing a smile), who were standing around him Wed morning in the scrum after the Lib caucus meeting.

Ardvark said...

CJ, I was looking at the crowd of MP's behind Iggy at that scrum too but I couldn't see Ruby Dhalla anywhere in the bunch, was she there?

paulsstuff said...

I never saw her either Ardvark. Maybe she was back in Brampton hiring a new nanny.

hunter said...

Fife is a very dissatisfied person, he can't believe that the Liberals are the opposition, so he shrills for them in the hope that they can regain power. A sad little boy.

wilson said...

Kevin Page got his wings clipped, he refused to report back to parliamentarians, ' he skipped important budget and managerial meetings and did not pass on full details of his activities'
(not a team player, eh):

''So Mr. Page is to be reined in. He must report to the chief Librarian. He can no longer release information without the approval of parliamentarians who request it.
He cannot release reports during a general election. The recommendations have the unanimous approval of all parties, both in the House and Senate.''

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2009/06/20/national-post-editorial-board-ottawa-protects-its-secrets.aspx

Anonymous said...

Re: Bob Fife - his commentary and Liberal cheerleading has become almost desperate.
There must be more going on behind the scenes. Let's explore what kinds of things would motivate a so called experienced journalist to abandon all principals and , in fact, lie and spin untruths to the public who does not examine the truth.
Motivators: Extorition? Do some Liberals have a little something on Bob?
Bribery? What is he getting for himself or a family member in exchange? Is he being threatened by CTV management or Liberal backroomers who can punsih or reward him or someone he cares about?
It can't be his ego as he is rapidly destroying his professional crediblity?
Any ideas? Who is he married to or his kids or his relatives...there has to be a Liberal link there n'est pas?

Anonymous said...

Regarding Bob Fife - Honestly, I think he fits in the league with Jane Tabor and Craig Oliver - the three of them is wildly liberal. Jane and Oliver, so I am told by a friend who watched them today - gave another hour of free advertising to their liberal party. They had Gloria Galloway on picking the highlights of the Parliament session, and she choose the liberal pressure of Iggy getting PM Harper to set up the Blue Ribbon committee as the highlight of this session. (Gloria Galloway whose husband is a chief strategist to the liberal party!) Imagine - everything that has been done over this session, but it had to be a liberal "thing" that accomplished something... The liberals never presented any alternative to what they would do - just bash..... Jane went on and on and showed the PM and Finance Minister saying no deficit - never mentioning that we had a global resession... all the PM and Finance Minister's fault. As if it was only Canada with this problem!. No mention of the car bail out - just Tory bashing and they are suppose to present both sides of the coin! Also, they stated, it was the liberals getting rid of Dion and easily and professionally making Iggy their King as another big highlight of the year.... They did it so slick and easy, it was a master piece.... They are just sickening to even discuss!. Let's get the bottom of this bias. You know even the liberal network in the US - David Letterman who tried to bash Sarah Palin - was forced to apologize - so many people wrote in to his sponsors, and he was told - apologize or else. It is time we put a stop to this complete liberal bias by these three stooges!

Jen said...

June 21, 2009 11:52:00 AM PDT
Anonymous, I agree with you.
the only way is to contact their advertisers.
My husband likes to watch the Q/P, a sort of entertainment 'HIGH NOON GONG SHOW.'
No, really, they are really disgusting a bunch of non-entities of journalists trying to compete each other to see who did better among themselves. HOW SAD.
Glenn Beck will chew these guys alive.

Anonymous said...

Jen you are so right - sure wish we had "Fox" in Canada! Most Canadians are starting to watch the US Fox anyway.... wouldn't miss O'Riley and Beck! Maybe if we got rid of Tabor/Oliver/and Fife we would have something to watch in our own Country beside Torie bashing! Oliver is known to be waiting and praying Iggy gets in so he will be appointed to the Senate.... With the liberal University just giving him a Dr. degree - he feels and has been told he is a shoe-in for the job - that is if he can push the Liberal agenda on TV and get his party elected... How many more years he can hang around waiting - fails to be seen!

Anonymous said...

I agree that Bob Fife has surrendered to the CTV-Liberal mandate. Last year he got his mouth duct taped by CTV and Liberal party brass imediately after his all too brief exposee of Danny Williams´ ruling with an iron fist over all political stripes on the Rock. Fife was neutered and no media ventured the topic or a follow-up. Since then he has been totally compliant and bland. Jane Tabor should take her vacuous commentary over to E Talk! or the like. Craig Oliver in his zest to be important, rightfully attacks most everything the ruling Conservative gov´t does but his so´called hard edged assessments rarely incriminate anything or anyone on the Liberal side of the House.
Susan