The implosion begins

Maybe the Libs' reported plan for self-destruction isn't so far-fetched after all, as Ken Dryden has publicly announced that he's laying off campaign staff and suggested that other campaigns are facing the same financial difficulties:

In a significant belt-tightening move, Toronto MP Ken Dryden's campaign for the federal Liberal leadership has had to lay off paid staffers.

"Well, the campaign is not out of money but we did have some layoffs last week," Dryden, considered one of the most progressive candidates in the field, told the Toronto Star last night.

"It's the kind of experience that all of us (leadership candidates) are going through."

The former Canadiens goaltender and Maple Leaf executive, who was the minister responsible for child-care in the Paul Martin government, is the first to admit having problems.

But there have been rumours all summer that raising money has been tough for the 11 candidates vying to replace Martin.

Over a two-day period last Thursday and Friday, senior Dryden official Mark Watton gave the bulk of the paid staff the bad news at the campaign's Ottawa headquarters. Dryden said last night he didn't have the exact number of layoffs but it was fewer than 12.

While the article is quick to attribute the problems to the novelty of donation limits, it can't speak well for Dryden or for any of the other candidates to have failed to anticipate the effect of the caps.

At this point, the other candidates would seem to have a choice whether to tacitly agree with Dryden, or to run him out of the race both for planning poorly himself, and calling the planning of the other candidates into question as well. And if the other candidates don't have either the guts or the plausibility to take out a sentimental favourite over his poor organization, then the door will be wide open for either a new candidate or a new party to step into the breach.