The Morning After

The one advantage of showing up to a party stone cold sober at 1:50 am is that you will probably be the only one who remembers anything. The disadvantage is that by the time I arrived at ground zero the delegates were drunk and confident – a bad combination.

The Delta hotel lobby was a zoo just a few hours ago. Hundreds of young people were circling like parched animals in search of a watering hole. There were no shortage of options – on the way to the elevator I was told that there were free shots in a Dryden room and a huge Dion event happening with a free ice vodka fountain. I kind of felt nostalgic for the days when I would walk over broken glass looking for such a Shangri-la, but alas those days are gone. I ended up having a few Heineken in a room that apparently was rented by Paul Martin. Martin wasn’t there but there was a huge podium in the corner that apparently he practices on when preparing for a big speech.

There are two schools of thought on Ignatieff’s early round results: it’s possible that Ignattief’s people intentionally surpassed a pile of votes on the first ballot, knowing they will come to him on the second. This is an old trick that guarantees that there will be growth on the second ballot and give the illusion of momentum.

My gut is telling me this is not what happened. I talked to one Iggy delegate last night who was vicious because he saw three Iggy ballots destroyed and on the floor in the voting area. He seemed to think there was some sort of conspiracy afoot. I figure that those three ballots either belonged to people who are too stupid to get the slip of paper in the slot or people who just couldn’t bring themselves to do what it was they promised to do months ago.

I just watched Iggy get cornered by CBC’s Julie Van Dusen and she asked what his reaction was to the first round results.

Iggy said that his first round results were lower than expected because he spoke last and as a result some of his delegates didn’t get a chance to vote.

If that’s the best line the Iggy brain trust can come up with that camp is in serious trouble.