Beyond The Commons

 Beyond The Commons

Aaron Wherry covers all the goings-on in and around Parliament Hill. Follow Aaron on Twitter: @aaronwherry

Categories: Beyond The Commons, Capital Read

'It's not going to be fixed by picking a cute leader'

by Aaron Wherry on Wednesday, May 4, 2011 5:00pm - 18 Comments

Justin Trudeau isn’t sure if he should run for leader of the Liberal party.

“Because the work that needs to be done is work on the ground. It’s not going to be fixed by picking a cute leader or the right leader or whatever. It’s going to happen by us putting our nose to the grindstone and really, really leaning into it, and right now I’ve committed and I am committed to making sure that the Liberal Party does those things,” said Trudeau, who was first elected in 2008. ”I honestly don’t know if me as leader is something that would help the party or the country,” he said.

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  • OriginalEmily1

    He's quite right, so I hope he stays out of it until he's older and seen as his own man, not his father.

    • jonatwitan

      I will temporarily break my own vow to not talk with you (hopefully, you understand) to say I whole-heartedly agree.

    • Patchouli

      I don't see him as his father, but I know others do. I admire his ability to realize he may need more seasoning and wisdom. I'm not persuaded he's got what's going to be needed for the party to rebuild somehow and go forward. Dominic LeBlanc sounds interested and his pedigree is pretty darn impressive too — he's about the right age to be able to spend years to rebuild. I also hope the party doesn't decide to go Rae. I admire a lot about him, but I don't see him as a guy to revitalize anything.

      • OriginalEmily1

        No, he's not his father….but as you say, others see him that way. And he's not suited to the job.

        Gawd no, not Rae….thankfully it's the French turn

        Don't know much about LeBlanc beyond wiki stuff.

  • ColdStanding

    He'd be better off carving out a career as an MP. It's a good job. You are still on the national stage. Nice pension…

    The only time son successfully followed father in the top seat was the Pitts, nearly 200 years ago.

  • http://idrinkinthemorning.com Rick Omen

    I actually think JT would be as good as anybody for the job. The LPC is going to need to do something drastic to reverse their sliding popularity. JT's also young enough, and respected enough within the party, that he would be able to stick around for the 10+ years such rebuilding might take.

    • Andrew (not PorC)

      I don't think he has gravitas yet. JT will be sticking around, and may take a shot at a leadership role in ten or 15 years.

  • Jenn_

    I don't want Justin as our leader right now. Maybe in fifteen years or so. In fact, I'm playing around with the idea of not having a leader at all, at least for the next two or three years, since we won't be having an election and I think it would be a neat experiment to have our MPs decide when they should vote as a block and when they should be free to vote any which way they please. An MP with total control over his/her vote–whether in caucus or in the HoC. I think it would be refreshing!

    • Crit_Reasoning

      Jenn, I agree that would be refreshing, but it's hard to imagine that actually happening. It would be a great experiment, though!

      • Jenn_

        Yeah, I don't usually come up with ideas that are actually implemented anywhere. Not that that makes my ideas all bad. But thanks, Crit, for trying to gently prepare me for another disappointment :)

      • Andrew (not PorC)

        if there's an interim leader for the next two years, I can see them having a huge amount of authority to whip votes. I know the Liberals just moved to a one member one vote IRV system, but I kinda like the idea of caucus choosing their leader as it ensures the leader is responsive to his MPs, which promotes the direct line of democratic legitimacy from ridings to the PM and his ministry. The leader/PM works for his MPs, and through them Canadians. MPs don't work for their leader.

  • Yanni

    Everyone is always talking about the "bright young men" around Ignatieff, with the implication being that they are intelligent and hardworking. Maybe, like Harper, the next leader of the Liberals will come out of that pool of policy wonks.

    • Andrew (not PorC)

      Following the Harper mould would mean they'd become MPs, quit politics for a while and then come back. Can't see a 25 year old polisci major running the LPC.

  • http://twitter.com/davidlrattigan @davidlrattigan

    I don't think I could cope with seeing such cuteness on our TV screens every day. And surely there are legions of bachelors in the Conservative government who would find Justin's hotness equally distracting in parliament, too.

  • BeyondTheEchoChamber

    Aaron, do you think that, for the election as a whole you might have contributed to the defeat of the federal Liberals, since several analysts (including Liberals) have suggested that one of the Liberals' problems was that they assumed the electorate had as much contempt for Harper as they did – in light of that, do you believe that the 24/7 Harper-hater echo chamber that you ran for the past several years contributed any of the bricks to the wall of that echo chamber?

  • jonatwitan

    *yawn*

  • http://idrinkinthemorning.com Rick Omen

    You're not suggesting that the political makeup of the Macleans blog isn't representative of Canada as a whole, are you? Because that would BLOW MY MIND!

  • Leo

    The Liberals have become a catch-all party that is now confronted with an identity problem.

    Justin would suffer the same fate as Iggy if he made this move right now.

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