Liberal Leadership

It's looking increasingly like it will be a small field for the Liberal leadership this time around, rather than the 12-person gong show it was last time. New rules put in place by the Liberal executive place stringent financial requirements on would-be entrants, that will screen out many lesser lights at the entry stage. Also, the party is forcing candidates to hand over 10% of all donations to their campaigns to the central party. That's how close to broke the formerly-dominant Liberal Party of Canada is.

Interestingly, a number of pro-Iggy MPs have been trying to hustle the party toward an undemocratic decision, with Judy Sgro going as far as to suggest that the Liberal Party should "flip a coin" to determine who takes it. And these people wonder why they are seen as out of touch.

I still believe that the best thing for the Liberal Party in terms of electoral success would be to elect someone from the right wing of their party, but they are rapidly running out of such people willing to run. Of the three high-profile figures than answered that description, both John Manley and Frank McKenna have indicated they don't want the job. Of the immediately apparent contestants, that leaves only Iggy and maybe Scott Brison. Electing Mr. Brison would probably help the Liberals regain ground in the Atlantic provinces, and he would likely appeal to the red Tory-blue liberal swing votes in southern Ontario as he is fiscally conservative but socially liberal.

Something that has been very annoying lately is the inane blather coming from certain corners about "uniting the left," by which the people writing seem to mean the Liberals, NDP and Greens, and sometimes the BQ. This very much annoys me, since the Liberals are not, by any stretch of the imagination, social democratic or left-wing, and neither are the Greens. I think I will probably write a longer piece on this topic at a later point. However, this meme will likely gain some traction in the Liberal Party, since they are always looking for a way to co-opt the voters of other parties.

If the "unite the left" blather picks up steam, the Liberals may elect someone from the left of their party in an attempt to de facto unite the left, and if this is so they will likely pick Bob Rae or Gerrard Kennedy. Rae is an untrustworthy turncoat, sharing some views with the far right wing (most evidently on Israel), but because he was at one point a wolf-in-sheep's-clothing New Democrat, he will be seen as left-leaning. Gerrard Kennedy is simply an empty suit and a good haircut. He did squat as education minister in Ontario and is only in the running because he is charismatic on TV. In person he is slime incarnate. I say that having met him on a couple of occasions.

What ever way the Liberals go at their convention in Vancouver next May, they have a long roe to hoe to get back into a government situation.

Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 72