Liberal Leader Stephane Dion may have announced his intention to step down, but other members of the party want him to stay on, and now there's an online petition to keep him holding the reins.
"I am opposed to the movement underway by anonymous Liberal 'insiders' to remove Mr. Dion from the leadership," the . "Who are these people? Why do they have more say than ordinary Liberal members? There may be reasonable arguments to change leaders, but there are very few reasons to do so in a precipitous manner."
Dion has already said he will resign when a new leader is chosen, possibly at a convention in May.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the petition had only 245 total signatures. But David Orchard, who campaigned unsuccessfully for the party in the Saskatchewan riding of Desnethe-Missinippi-Churchill River, said Dion should stay on.
"We've got a leader. There's been a scapegoating frenzy against Mr. Dion and I think he should stay on," he told CTV's Mike Duffy Live on Tuesday.
He said Lester B. Pearson had "three kicks at the can." Pearson was elected as leader in 1958 and immediately challenged then-prime minister John Diefenbaker, but was soundly defeated. He lost roughly half his party's seats.
Pearson tried for a second time in 1962 and lost again, before finally winning a minority government in 1963.
"Mr. Pearson gave us medicare, gave us the flag, gave us the Canada Pension Plan," said Orchard. "All of those wouldn't have happened if we'd have applied the standard that we throw out the leader if he doesn't win an election."
But Stephen LeDrew, former national president of the Liberal Party of Canada, said there were several reasons why Dion should step down -- in addition to his humbling election loss.
"It's not just that he lost the election, it's how he lost the election," he said. "He didn't know it until the last day he had lost it, while everyone else in the country knew it. He has shown, time and time again, that his arrogance is astonishing. It's breathtaking. Even yesterday in his speech he said he had run a great campaign."
Liberal finance critic John McCallum, who senior party officials had been pushing as a possible interim leader, said the campaign to keep Dion as leader was puzzling because he had already announced his decision to resign.
"I would say this is a ridiculous conversation," he said. "He wasn't forced out, he decided to step down. The convention will happen in the normal way and a new leader will come."
Ignatieff, Rae to keep gloves on
Two names often cited as possible new leaders are Michael Ignatieff and Bob Rae, who were both strong contenders in the last leadership race.
On Tuesday, the Canadian Press reported that the two men -- who once shared an apartment while they studied at the University of Toronto -- intend to remain civil if they again seek the party throne.
Although neither has formally announced his intention to run for leadership, Rae said he had already reached an informal non-aggression pact with Ignatieff. He told the Canadian Press it would be in the best interests of the party.
The Liberals have suffered from various divisions within their party for the past two decades, most notably the power struggle between Jean Chretien and Maul Martin that marked Chretien's final years in office.
