Ottawa

Joyce Murray won’t let her big idea fade away

Tease the day: The Liberal leadership candidate works to keep co-operation on the agenda

From left to right, federal Liberal leadership candidates Justin Trudeau, Martin Cauchon, Karen McCrimmon, Joyce Murray, Martha Hall Findlay, George Takach, Deborah Coyne, David Bertschi and Marc Garne after the party's first leadership debate in Vancouver, B.C., on January 20, 2013. (Darryl Dyck, THE CANADIAN PRESS)

Stubbornly, the idea that Liberals and New Democrats and Greens should co-operate to defeat the Conservatives in the next general election refuses to die. Even as Justin Trudeau runs away with the Liberal leadership, and NDP Leader Tom Mulcair rejects the idea, Joyce Murray’s co-operation idea earned some real estate on The Globe and Mail‘s front page this morning. She won’t win her party’s leadership, barring some major shift in the race’s complexion, but Murray’s getting a boost because of what’s happening in Labrador.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper hasn’t even called a date for the byelection that follows Peter Penashue’s resignation as the area’s MP., but the Greens have already decided they won’t compete in the upcoming race—at Murray’s request, no less. For its part, the NDP nominated Harry Borlase over the weekend and refused to stand down. Nonetheless, the co-operation idea’s getting more air-time.

You have to admire Murray’s tenacity. She may not win her party’s leadership, and she may prompt a lot of eye-rolls within her own party, but she’s pulling strings wherever she can to ensure her big idea survives wherever possible. What’s she planning next?


What’s above the fold this morning?

The Globe and Mail leads with Liberal leadership candidate Joyce Murray‘s insistence that her party should work with the NDP and Greens to defeat the Conservatives. The National Post fronts the ongoing investigation surrounding two Canadians who helped facilitate a hostage-taking at an Algerian gas plant. The Toronto Star goes above the fold with the federal government’s fight to refuse EI benefits to a mother who struggled with breast cancer. The Ottawa Citizen leads with the next-to-final stretch of David Kawapit’s 1,500-km walk to Ottawa from his aboriginal community of Whapmagoostui. iPolitics fronts questions about whether or not Justin Trudeau has charisma. CBC.ca leads with the last-minute bailout of Cyprus. National Newswatch showcases a Hill Times story where two former auditors general suggest both houses of Parliament should be subject to comprehensive audits.


Stories that will be (mostly) missed

1. Mentally ill prisoners. Defence lawyers will opt for prison sentences instead of not-criminally-insane pleas if new legislation passes into law, warn mental health experts. 2. Charbonneau. Gerald Tremblay, the former mayor of Montreal who resigned amid an eruption of corruption allegations, will testify at Quebec’s Charbonneau Commission this week.
3. Policing costs. MPs from the House public safety committee will travel on two trips—to the United States, as well as Europe—to study policing costs. The trips will cost $200,000. 4. Newfoundland budget. A sagging economy means Newfoundland and Labrador’s government may table an austerity budget, a move derided by critics as unnecessary and harmful.

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