A Clue, Perhaps, To Lib Reluctance?

So I'm checking out the CBC website (Andre B. wins on the first ballot? How 'bout that) and I read this story. It's the usual chock-full-of-election-speculation story, until the very end, where this appears:

The Conservatives also have nominated 274 candidates out of 308 ridings; the New Democrats have nominated 187; and the Liberals 93. {emphasis added}

It doesn't exactly look like the Grits are quite ready to hit the campaign trail, does it?

Now, to be fair, the Libs could perhaps whip up about 200 nomination meetings at the drop of a hat. For all I know, most of the "non-nominated" ridings could be filled with Lib incumbents who can't wait to run again ... it just hasn't been made official. That said, unless the Libs have changed their internal rules, even incumbents have to go through the nomination process, as the Sheila Copps circus in Hamilton demonstrated all too clearly.

So maybe ... just maybe ... all this huffing and puffing on the part of the Liberal family about how we can't have an election till next spring, etc., has something to do with the fact that of all the mainline federalist parties, they've nominated the fewest number of candidates. Maybe ... just maybe ... the Libs aren't as ready to rumble as they'd like us all to think. We'll see.

More later.