If I was a betting man, I’d bet on the likelihood of Ignatieff - and a further Liberal defeat. Unless of course the recession and Conservative reaction to it leads to a major backlash against them.
If I was in charge of the Liberals, I’d pull in a young dark horse. Trudeau obviously looks good, just for name recognition alone, but he has no experience at all. Maybe Kennedy?
McKenna for me. Manley? Not in my neck of the woods. I like Ken Dryden, but he is boring to listen to. Likewise with all the rest of them, except McKenna.
But a year is a long time, and who knows who might pop up. Looking at the US elections, who imagined a Sarah Palin a year ago?
I’d go for McKenna, he was very effective as premier of NB and could very likely scale up to the national stage, but he doesn’t seem to be interested.
Manley - maybe; Rae - Ontario desn’t like him (for obvious if mostly unjustified reasons); Ignatieff - still has the taint of a parachute candidate; Kennedy - dunno; Trudeau - I’m not sure he’s into politics for any better reason than a feeling of family obligation.
Not universally, in my opinion. I don’t trust him but I am (usually) a Liberal. He has gone against Bush a few times.
On the leadership - McKenna would suit me but I wonder how he’d play out west?
But does anyone actually like either of those guys? I would think that most any Chretien cabinet minister outside of Alfonse Gagliano would immediately be a serious contender.
About the same number who, a year from now, will remember Sarah Palin.
The Liberals certainly would hope for better.
I suspect they’ll stick to their idiotic “gotta alternate French and English” plan and go with Ignatieff.
A more important key is what gets done to rebuild the party at the grass roots level. Whoever ends up leader has to do a ton of work with the local riding associations. At present, there are a lot of people in tough ridings who feel that the larger party isn’t listening, and as these are the people knocking on doors and holding pancake breakfasts, they do as much (if not more) than the leader to move the party forward.
This would be an ideal time for anyone interested to join up. I haven’t been a member of any political party since 1991, but I’m starting to think it’s time to put my pen and my passion to use.
Brian Tobin is another name from the past - like Frank McKenna, he would have to be talked into running as he turned them down in 2006. I’m not aware of any particular animosity for either of these gentlemen in the West - any opinions?
At least Stéphane Dion saved the party an agonizing public display with a very dignified, timely resignation.
Say what? The only news I can find on the subject says that there’s no sign that he’ll be resigning.
:o
I am the victim of a practical joke - one of my colleagues read a moving speech from the Globe and Mail in which S.D. resigned from the leadership. I never thought for a second that he might have been making the whole thing up to have me on. Apparently, he was going to tell me at rehearsal tomorrow…
:o
Le Ministre, resolving to check all his facts from now on.
If the people had any choice in a party candidate for the highest office in the land like they do in the states, then I would have given Trudeau an even chance. As it stands my money is on Ignatieff who would have been the leader if it weren’t for Kennedy(poor judgement), and who in my opinion has what it takes to get back a Liberal minority government. A few years of Trudeau as a justice minister and voila, a Trudeau majority government.
Deja vu.
I said it here first.
Brian Tobin knows how to win a war. 
I’d agree that Ignatieff is likely, but IMO it would be a bad move for Liberal hopes.
I agree with Le Ministre de l’au-delà, not on the resignation thing ( ) but on the need for the Liberals to rebuild at the grass roots level.
Ignatieff has of course excellent credentials as an academic, but there is nothing to indicate he knows anything about the task of rebuilding a shattered party from the grassroots on up. Quite the contrary, he was “parachuted” into his riding (my riding as well) which created a lasting sense of bitterness and feeds into the impression he’s an out of touch elitist who cares nothing for what his party constituents want.
I don’t tend to follow these things enough to have an opinion on any of these men (but 6 years spent in Ontario makes me feel like I should hate Rae, but I don’t know why!), but I just read a newspaper article in the Globe and Mail stating that Dion is expected to resign on Monday, and there was speculation about whether he’d stay on as interim leader and who his successors might be.
I found in interesting that in the 170+ comments I read, nearly everyone was saying that they would have no problem with Frank McKenna as leader, many would vote for him (even some people who didn’t vote Liberal this week) and no one seemed to have anything bad to say about him at all, even the conservative posters. General agreement was that Harper would be shaking in his boots if McKenna ran! I’ve read comments on political threads on the G&M and CBC websites before, and I’ve never seen them this civil, with so many people in agreement!
But there’s also the fact that he seems to be entirely uninterested in returning to the political arena. What happens if people vote for someone who’s not on the ballot? If he still gets all the votes, can he be forced to be leader (just kidding… it would be funny, though!) I wonder if he really would be that popular if he ran?
I think McKenna would be a good candidate. I’m not aware of any particular animosity towards either McKenna or Tobin, but then again here on the prairies pretty much if you’re name isn’t Ralph from Regina, you’re not going to get elected anyway.
Well, regarding those who have chosen not to serve, it can be a pretty thankless job. It’s also one of those jobs where the ‘best of your abilities’ can still lead to humiliation on a grand scale. So however much I think that McKenna or Tobin have the ideas to ignite the party, as well as the intelligence to express them and the charisma to sell them, it don’t mean a thing if they’ve had it will all the crap that comes with the job. It says a lot about people and what it’s like to lead them (worldwide, not just in Canada) if we scare off some of our best talent…
What about Scott Brison? You are going to think I’m from the East at this rate - I’m not, but other than Axworthy, there haven’t been a lot of Manitoban Liberals that have struck me in the last 20 odd years.
We all had a good laugh at rehearsal today, esp. when I admitted that I’d been so thoroughly taken in that I’d made a complete ass of myself in front of all of you. Well, what the hell - if you can’t laugh at yourself when the joke’s on you, you’ve got no right to laugh at anyone else.
There are indications in some of the local papers that McKenna has shown interest. There’s nothing on their sites I can link to though. Some were upset with McKenna but I thought he did a good job and would probably vote for him. He’s fiscally conservative relative to other Liberals which bothered some groups. I actually thought another New Brunswicker, Bernard Lord, would make a good federal candidate (I wouldn’t have voted for him because of Harper though). They both speak very well in both official languages which was obviously a weak point for Dion.
Whatever happened to Belinda Stronach? After her much bally-hooed floor crossing, has she lost all taste for the Liberal leadership?
She was diagnosed with breast cancer a year or so ago; haven’t heard anything about her lately.
Considering she didn’t run for re-election, she’d look awfully foolish running for leadership.
From her wiki:
“On April 11, 2007, Stronach announced that she would not seek re-election, and will instead return to Magna International as Executive Vice Chairperson. This decision came at a time when Magna was in the midst of teaming up with Onex Corporation to consider a bid to buy Chrysler. Stronach further cited her wish to spend more time with her growing children, and the creation of a personal foundation to end poverty and disease in Africa. She has indicated she will remain in Parliament until the next election.”
She’s effectively out of politics.
Stronach was a disastrously inept politician; it was hidden by her money and name being able to buy her way in twice, but she developed a reputation during her tenure with the Conservatives for being - I am using the word I’ve heard - stupid. Apparently her efforts to learn French when she was contesting for the leadership were the stuff of big laughs, among other idiocies.
In Belinda Stronach you had Canada’s single greatest example of a rich kid trying to buy their way to power with no abilities aside from their money. Everything she has ever accomplished in her life was due to her father’s money.