Bob Rae is back

By Aaron Wherry - Saturday, January 14, 2012 at 6:28 PM - 0 Comments

And now a word from the National Citizens Coalition.

What David McGuinty is thinking

By Aaron Wherry - Saturday, January 14, 2012 at 12:41 PM - 0 Comments

The Liberal MP for Ottawa South wandered into the media room a moment ago and was shortly thereafter surrounded by reporters. He confirmed that he is considering a run for the party leadership.

I’m not ruling out the leadership. I’m giving this serious consideration. I have an obligation to do this. If I’m going to stay in public life, I’ve got to figure out what’s the best way to serve. And that’s what I’m considering.

He was also asked about Bob Rae’s interim status and whatever leadership ambitions Mr. Rae might have.

I have every faith in the good faith of Bob Rae. Bob’s a great guy. He’s very talented, he’s very experienced. He’s a huge net asset for the Liberal Party of Canada. And for that matter, he’s a huge net asset for Canada. A person of that quality and calibre to be in public life today? It’s hard to get good people into public life and keep them there. So Bob will govern himself accordingly. I’m sure he will always do what’s right by him and what’s right by the party and what’s right by Canadians.

Mr. McGuinty joins Mark Holland and Marc Garneau as those who have publicly confirmed that they are considering a leadership run.

Raefest 2012

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, January 13, 2012 at 12:06 PM - 0 Comments

Bob Rae addressed the Liberal caucus on Wednesday and scrummed with reporters afterwards. On Thursday, he spoke to the party’s council of presidents.

According to the itinerary released by his office, he’ll shortly deliver the official opening speech to the conference, then he’ll speak with reporters at 1pm, then he’ll be back on stage tonight around 8pm to deliver remarks in tribute to Michael Ignatieff.

On Saturday, he will apparently rest.

Sunday, he’ll be back on stage to deliver closing remarks to the convention and then there will be a news conference.

That’s five speeches and three meetings with reporters in five days.

Standing against ageism

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, January 13, 2012 at 10:10 AM - 0 Comments

Let’s begin our Liberal convention coverage with this bit from the Globe’s preview.

How does choosing a 63-year-old former NDP premier of Ontario signal renewal for the Liberal Party? The very question “suggests there’s a terrible ageism at play,” believes Aidan Johnson, the 32-year-old policy chair for Ms. Copps’s campaign. “To suggest someone isn’t capable of renewing the party because of their age is profoundly bigoted.”

Bob Rae will be a few months past his 67th birthday in October 2015. Were the Liberals to win an election around that time with him as leader, he would become the fourth oldest prime minister to take office, bested only by three 70-somethings: John Abbott, Mackenzie Bowell and Charles Tupper.

In addition to our rented Liberal friends, the whole Maclean’s team will be on the convention floor this weekend: myself, John Geddes, Paul Wells and Peter C. Newman (who offers this assessment of Mr. Rae’s situation). Frequent blogging and tweeting (#MacLib) will ensue.

Meet the new Liberal party

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 1:22 PM - 0 Comments

The anonymous agonizing over the party’s leadership starts here.

“I’m still uncomfortable with what he schemed,” one Liberal, speaking on condition of anonymity, said … If Rae stayed on it would be divisive for the party, one senior Liberal told HuffPost. “It creates division, it creates a lack of trust, a credibility problem with this renewal, it creates cynicism, ‘there we go ahead, the same old, same old, backroom, stuff’… It’s not helpful,” he said … 

The Liberal Party has gotten itself into jams by spending too much time trying to screw each other over during leadership bids, another caucus member said. “(Rae’s) already lost the leadership twice … We shouldn’t try to use technical rules to block him,” the Liberal said … “If Bob decides the conditions are there and he’s has a clear shot at winning, he’ll still have to explain to party members his change of heart.” “Rae might dissuade marginal candidates, but he might also coalesce people who want someone else,” another Liberal said, adding, “Bob is a pretty controversial figure.”

‘I say better a Rae Day than a Harper lifetime’

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, January 11, 2012 at 5:24 PM - 0 Comments

So Bob Rae delivered an interesting speech this afternoon.

Reaction and coverage from the Globe, CBC and iPolitics. Here is my stray thought as I listened to the first third of his remarks. And here, for a more considered opinion, is our John Geddes’ take on the situation.

A Rae day on Parliament Hill

By John Geddes - Wednesday, January 11, 2012 at 5:23 PM - 0 Comments

I’ve used words like “temp” and “stopgap,” I confess, to describe Bob Rae’s job as the Liberal party’s interim leader. But after listening to Rae’s rip-snorting speech to his party’s MPs on Parliament Hill today, I think I’ll be searching for new terminology.

Because he sure sounded like a guy auditioning for the permanent lead role in the third-place party in the House. Billed as half-hour address, the speech stretched for about 45 minutes—and featured a pointedly personal political message.

Rae’s obvious political liability is, of course, the lingering memory of his difficult 1990-95 stint as Ontario’s NDP premier. But given that he’s not supposed to be in the running for the federal Liberal leadership—a condition the party executive imposed when Rae accepted the interim job after last spring’s election—that historic baggage shouldn’t matter much these days. Continue…

As the Liberal party turns

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, January 9, 2012 at 4:39 PM - 0 Comments

On his way out, soon-to-be-former Liberal party president Alf Apps apparently posits that Bob Rae could run for the party leadership.

Eight months ago, Mr. Rae may have promised to not do so. Last week, Mr. Rae may have left open the possibility. Last November, as previously noted, he seemed to completely dismiss the idea.

As for Rae’s part in becoming the new leader now that Michael Ignatieff has stepped down? “It won’t be me,” he said, to which the atmosphere in the room became heavy. “I’m not going to run for leadership.” 

Anyway. Mr. Apps throws out three precedents for the current Liberal predicament—their electoral defeats in 1930, 1958 and 1984. Each time, the Liberal party rebounded (eventually) to win government. But those defeats also probably underline just how far the Liberal party has fallen and how much further it has to go this time.

A quick comparison:

1930. The Liberals won 36.7% of the seats, 45.5% of the popular vote and finished second.
1958. The Liberals won 18.1% of the seats, 33.4% of the popular vote and finished second.
1984. The Liberals won 14.8% of the seats, 28.0% of the popular vote and finished second.
2011. The Liberals won 11.0% of the seats, 18.9% of the popular vote and finished third.

Dalton McGuinty rumoured interested in federal Liberal leadership

By macleans.ca - Thursday, November 24, 2011 at 12:29 PM - 0 Comments

Rumours that Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty may be interested in seeking the leadership of the federal Liberals became more credible on Thursday, after the premier’s brother strongly supported his sibling’s candidacy in an interview with veteran journalist Lawrence Martin. David McGuinty, MP for Ottawa South, told Martin that Dalton would “rebuild the Liberal party, just like he did in Ontario.” David’s remarks could be meant to create buzz about Dalton’s possible candidacy at the 2013 federal leadership convention. A severe downward revision of Ontario’s growth prospects on Thursday, which could jeopardize Dalton’s electoral pledge to balance the provincial budget, however, cast a shadow on his possible leadership run.

iPolitics

Ottawa Citizen

A chance for the Liberals to take a chance

By Andrew Coyne - Monday, November 21, 2011 at 9:40 AM - 0 Comments

Peter Power/The Globe and Mail

The best way to understand the situation facing the Liberals is to think of the party as a hockey team. It has won several Stanley Cups in a row, but by the last of those cups, it was relying on a clutch of 43-year-old veterans. With their retirement, the team has no option but to spend a few seasons in the basement, rebuilding. If it learns patience, while the draft picks mature and the losses mount, the team may in time become a winner again. If it does not, it becomes the Leafs.

It is still not clear whether the party fully understands the predicament it is in. To be sure, it understands it lost the last election, and lost badly: the worst defeat in its history. But even if Liberals grasp the magnitude of their defeat, they do not seem to grasp its implications.

A case in point is the “road map to renewal” the party’s national executive released last week. The document is properly proud of Liberal achievements, and properly bracing about the task ahead. Yet it remains fixed in the belief that nothing fundamental has changed for the party, or needs to. It just has to do the same things, better: better fundraising, better organizing, better communications, better outreach.

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No Trudeau

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, October 13, 2011 at 11:24 AM - 6 Comments

Justin Trudeau confirms he won’t seek the Liberal leadership in 2013.

“My kids are two and four years old and I barely see them enough as it is,” the eldest son of the late prime minister Pierre Trudeau told a group of about 50 students at Wilfrid Laurier University Wednesday. “I’m not going to run for the leadership this time around.”

Don’t hate the player, hate the game

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, September 1, 2011 at 11:18 AM - 5 Comments

Seven candidates from the Liberal leadership race in 2006 still have campaign debts. Alice Funke thinks the system needs to change.

It is in the public interest that political parties be able to attract a wide range of potential candidates during a leadership race, and that viable candidates not be dissuaded from running for fear they will be unable to pay their debts later on, or be subjected to potentially corrosive pressures in order to do so.

Thus, I urge Parliament to consider amending s.405(1)(c) of the Elections Act, at the first opportunity, to change the leadership campaign contribution ceiling from a per-contest one into an annual one, and I also urge the various political parties who will be launching leadership contests over the coming months and years to set rules and spending limits that don’t force candidates into impossible situations after the fact.

Coderre's old habits die hard

By Philippe Gohier - Monday, September 28, 2009 at 12:31 PM - 31 Comments

The Star‘s Susan Delacourt combs the archives:

The executive of the Quebec youth wing of the Liberal Party will ask for the resignation of party leader John Turner at a news conference scheduled for Monday in Montreal.

Time has run out for Mr. Turner, Denis Coderre, the president of the Young Liberals of Quebec , said in a telephone interview yesterday.

Mr. Coderre, once a strong Turner loyalist, co-ordinated the pro-Turner youth movement at the convention that confirmed Mr. Turner’s leadership last November, and was also youth organizer during his 1984 leadership campaign.

So many questions, so few answers

By Andrew Coyne - Thursday, May 14, 2009 at 4:20 PM - 18 Comments

The question is not, what does Michael Ignatieff stand for? It is, what does he stand for now? It is not, what would he do in government? It is, what would he do differently?

Seldom has any political candidate entered public life with so much of his philosophy already on the record: with 15 books and countless newspaper and magazine articles to his name, Ignatieff’s life is one long paper trail. Yet four years after his return to Canada and five months after becoming the de facto Liberal leader, he remains an enigma, aided in no small part by his penchant for disowning previously held positions when they prove controversial.

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Ignatieff takes off

By Peter C. Newman - Thursday, May 14, 2009 at 2:20 PM - 0 Comments

Michael Ignatieff landed unexpectedly in the inner sanctums of Canada’s Liberal party almost four years ago, like a rock hurled through a stained glass window. Not for him the mundane details of proclaiming his leadership intentions, and waiting his turn. He propelled himself from backbencher to crown prince to leader in a series of daring self-actualized leaps. The prime ministership of the country is next on his dance card.

Last week, at a three-day convention in a spanking new convention centre on the southern shore of Burrard Inlet in downtown Vancouver, Ignatieff officially brought peace to the internal blood feuds that had torn the party apart under the preceding stewardships of John Turner, Jean Chrétien, Paul Martin and Stéphane Dion.

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Liveblogging Bob Rae at the National Press Theatre

By kadyomalley - Tuesday, December 9, 2008 at 8:13 AM - 43 Comments

… which is starting to become inextricably linked in my mind with the comings and goings of Liberal leadership candidates, y’all. According to the advisory, he’ll be offering up his latest musings on pretty much everything — the state of the race, the state of the economy, the state of what he is now quite cleverly referring to as the “parliamentary coalition” between the Liberals and the NDP, which could be interesting, if hard on the berrythumbs, because if there’s one thing Bob Rae can do, it’s talk. Anyway, check back around 11:00 a.m. 3 p.m. for full liveblogging coverage.

UPDATE: Okay, so now it’s at 1pm. Maybe Ignatieff sent a wolfhound sled to TO to rescue him from the airport lounge, and that’s what finally pushed him over the edge. Don’t worry, ITQ will still be there!

12:41:45 PM
And – we are! Here, that is – at the National Press Theatre, which is slowly but surely filling up with reporters suffering the journalistic equivalent of jet lag after yet another morning of news breaking all over the established (as of, oh, sometime yesterday afternoon) narrative.

Just to make sure everyone is caught up: What we originally thought was going to be Barnstormin’ Bob Rae rallying his troops to the barricades will now be his swan song, at least as far as this leadership race. Barring yet another twist in the plot – and don’t rule it out, y’all; if there’s one thing the last week and a half has taught us, it is that nothing is impossible in the wacky world of Canadian politics – Michael Ignatieff now appears destined to become the next leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. Unless, of course, he is suddenly named as heir to an obscure European principality. It would be just like the Princess Diaries, y’all! (Note to disgruntled grassroots Liberals: Start combing through those lists of succession!)

In any case, we need new theme music. What about “Last Caress”? Too gritty? I await your suggestions in the comment section.

12:51:19 PM
The big question – well, one of the big questions – when did he decide to extract his hat from the ring? Was it late last night, when he got word of the party’s decision on the whole “broad consultative exercise”? Or this morning, when he woke up to the realization that even if he had gotten what he wanted – one member one vote – it likely wouldn’t have been enough? Or was there a fateful discussion between the two ex-roommates that led to a truce? I wonder if we’ll ever know the real story.

12:55:26 PM
At least the earpiece still fails to in any way fit onto my ear. It’s sort of comforting to have something work out as expected amid the chaos.

12:57:47 PM

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And here ITQ was worried about running out of events to liveblog …

By kadyomalley - Tuesday, December 9, 2008 at 7:20 AM - 13 Comments

Truly, the Liberal leadership race is the gift that keeps on giving:

MEDIA ADVISORY

December 9, 2008

Please be advised that Bob Rae (Toronto Centre) will address the state of the Liberal leadership race, the future of the parliamentary coalition with the New Democratic Party and the need for action to address the national economy in the National Press Theatre at 11 am.

I’m betting that this press conference is not going to close with a ringing endorsement of Michael Ignatieff. You?

The Ignatieff 46

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, December 8, 2008 at 8:18 PM - 36 Comments

The Ignatieff campaign has just released a list of 46 Liberal MPs who endorse Ignatieff. They’ve each supplied a sentence or two attesting to Mr. Ignatieff’s relative awesomeness, but here, for the sake of brevity, is the list.

Scott Andrews, Larry Bagnell, Navdeep Bains, Mauril Belanger, Maurizio Bevilacqua, Gerry Byrne, John Cannis, Siobhan Coady, Denis Coderre, Bonnie Crombie, Jean-Claude D’Amours, Sukh Dhaliwal, Kirsty Duncan, Wayne Easter, Raymonde Folco, Judy Foote, Marc Garneau, Albina Guarnieri, Mark Holland, Andrew Kania, Jim Karygiannis, Dominic LeBlanc, Derek Lee, Gurbax Malhi, Keith Martin, John McCallum, David McGuinty, John McKay, Dan McTeague, Maria Minna, Rob Oliphant, Glen Pearson, Yasmin Ratansi, Geoff Regan, Pablo Rodriguez, Todd Russell, Francis Scarpaleggia, Mario Silva, Scott Simms, Michelle Simson, Judy Sgro, Paul Szabo, Alan Tonks, Frank Valeriote, Bryon Wilfert, Lise Zarac.

Continue…

LeBlanc steps down—backs Ignatieff

By kadyomalley - Monday, December 8, 2008 at 12:23 PM - 30 Comments

The least unexpected (but still, I’m sure, by some lamented) announcement of the day — that Dominic LeBlanc will be stepping down as a candidate in the Liberal leadership race — is scheduled for 2:30 p.m., with the obligatory barrage of questions about whether he plans to throw his support to Michael Ignatieff beginning about fifteen seconds later.

UPDATE: Okay, so apparently, the press conference has been pushed back to 3pm – not because of cold feet, but for logistical reasons – so I guess I’ll see you back here thenabouts.

2:48:01 PM
Well, that was unfortunate — I was standing by the door with what I thought was plenty of time before the soon-to-be-former candidate showed up when I suddenly heard the Acadian tones of Dominic LeBlanc himself: “I knew you’d be here on your BlackBerry.” It’s so embarrassing when your liveblogging target sneaks up on you. Let the record show, however, that he was early – I wasn’t late.

Anyway, he and his aides have disappeared into the back room — the staging area, as it were — to de-coat and hat and prepare for the media onslaught.

2:52:14 PM
A good turnout of media, although I suspect there are a few Hill reporters who would rather huddle around the newsroom television to watch Bob Rae, who is also holding a press conference this afternoon, although apparently it won’t start til 3:30.

2:56:18 PM
Fifty second warning!

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The Big Mess of '08

By selley - Monday, December 1, 2008 at 1:23 PM - 13 Comments

Must-reads: Chantal Hébert, Jeffrey Simpson and John Ivison on the insanity.

Bravo, Mr. Harper
What Canada’s politicians did this weekend instead of thinking about the financial crisis.

The Globe and Mail‘s Jeffrey Simpson believes the debacle over the government’s fiscal update finally reveals “the kind of Conservative Party that all but its core supporters suspected would eventually be outed: a group of ideologues, led by a Prime Minister who discarded his campaign sweater to reveal an economist with a tin heart and a politician who looks everywhere for political advantage.” The latter isn’t really ideological, is it? Mostly, this whole thing confirms to us that Stephen Harper sees Canadian governance primarily as a game more than it highlights any particular policy motivation. But either way, it is indeed “enormously revealing” that at a time of crisis, Harper “acted in this fashion. … And very sad.”

On the other hand, as the Toronto Star‘s Thomas Walkom notes, only one thing links cutting public funding for political parties, axing a pay equity program that doesn’t seem to be “either iniquitous or expensive” and suspending federal employees’ right to strike at a time when no strikes loom—i.e., the three most contentious measures in the fiscal update. The common factor is that the targets of the measures share a “place in the Conservative party pantheon of villains.” So perhaps it really is an ideology eruption. But whatever else it might mean, Walkom argues, it confirms that “the Conservatives are neither serious nor united about tackling the economy,” and it confirms Harper suffers from a very serious self-control deficit.

Continue…

Rise and fall of the young fogeys

By selley - Monday, November 24, 2008 at 1:32 PM - 10 Comments

Must-reads: Conrad Black on a certain grotesque miscarriage of justice; Jeffrey Simpson on Henry Waxman; Don Macpherson on Mario Dumont; Greg Weston on Bob Rae; George Jonas on “Singapore of the North.”

Brother, can you spare a dime?
From Washington to Lima to the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve, there’s bad news on the economy. But you already knew that.

The National Post‘s Terence Corcoran asks us if we really want the future of the North American auto industry to be in the hands of politicians intent on aping Jerry Maguire (“Until they show us the plan,” said Sen. Harry Reid, “we cannot show them the money”) or who actually believe “GM would be better off if CEO Rick Wagoner wandered about U.S. airports in search of his luggage.” By all accounts, he observes, a bailout would mean “further suppression of market forces from an industry already burdened by regulations that have driven it into the ground” and the “continued existence of union protections,” among other impediments to future success. Let them go bankrupt, Corcoran implores, in hopes they might someday be able to recover “in a genuine market.”

Playtime’s over, the Ottawa Citizen‘s Randall Denley advises Canadian union members in both the private and public sectors. It may well be unfair that government workers should suffer for the fiscal mismanagement of city councillors or school board trustees, he concedes, but “the same accusation could be made about the management of many corporations that are laying off employees. That doesn’t create any more money for raises.” He suggests the brothers and sisters be happy just to remain employed, and believes “sharing the pain” with their fellow Canadians isn’t too much to ask.

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Grey skies are gonna get even darker. Put on an angry scowl!

By selley - Thursday, November 20, 2008 at 2:17 PM - 4 Comments

Everybody hold hands
Fear not, Canada. As soon as we’re back in the black, our politicians will go back to hating each other.

“Glittering through [the] bleakness” of recession, deficit and abandoned election promises, the Toronto Star’s James Travers also espies Stephen Harper’s “commitment to suspend the politics of division in favour of partnership.” It’s nothing less than a “seismic shift,” he enthuses, as evidenced most compellingly by his recent meeting with the premiers. And with the opposition parties in no position to trigger another election, Travers expects a new, congenial tranquility to descend over Ottawa. We’ll all be living in abject penury, of course, but you can’t have everything.

The Globe and Mail’s Lawrence Martin believes yesterday’s Throne Speech arrived safely at the midway point between “timidity” and “rash action.” And, like Travers, he detects unusually low activity in the Prime Minister’s Van Loan lobe, the part of the brain that regulates hyper-partisan blather. “The economic crisis has focused his mind,” he suggests; “he is a more mature leader. … He understands the country better.” And as such, Martin believes he now “realizes the necessary response [to the crisis] is consensus-building at home and abroad.” However, as if sensing Canada’s collective skepticism, Martin hastens to add “it’s by no means certain” that this new conciliatory tone will take hold throughout Ottawa.

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Liveblogging the Rae leadership launch: Remind us again, which one is the hare and which is the tortoise?

By kadyomalley - Thursday, November 20, 2008 at 8:11 AM - 14 Comments

Barring another outbreak of incredibly ill-timed technical difficulties, ITQ will be at the National Press Theatre when Bob Rae makes the least surprising announcement in Liberal leadership politics since — well, Michael Ignatieff did the same thing last week.

8:52:44 AM
The press conference hasn’t yet begun, but the Raevolution is already underway, and I swear that’s the last time I will type those words, but I just can’t help myself – just inside the doors of the National Press Theatre, starry-eyed supporters have lined the path by which he will make his entrance. Admittedly, it’s a pretty short path – about fifty feet – which means it doesn’t take that many starry-eyed supporters to do so, but still. It’s on. Or, to quote the slogan emblazoned on the buttons they’re wearing: “Ready to Roll.”

I hope that’s not under embargo. If so, I’ll throw myself on the mercy of the court for unwittingly ruining the surprise.

8:58:56 AM
Ooh, from inside the theatre, we can hear the screams – screams of joy, we assume – which can only mean one thing: Uncle Bob has been spotted, striding purposefully towards destiny. That, or it was a practice scream.

9:00:19 AM
Nope, it was the real thing – the camera crews that has been so patiently – and chillily – awaiting his arrival have now descended upon us.

Sixty seconds. (We get a countdown in the NPT. It builds excitement!)

9:03:04 AM
And here he is! Wearing a grey suit and a tie the very same shade of deep burgandy red as my BlackBerry, he’s announcing his candidacy for the leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada. A shocker!

9:04:58 AM
Also Ready to Roll under a new Raegime: “a real Twenty-First Century economy” – and on that note, he’s fine with his “track record in governing” coming under scrutiny – he doesn’t mind it at all. “I couldn’t hide my record even if I wanted to. Damn that lack of some sort of mass amnesia-inducing technology.” (Note: Last bit may not have been spoken aloud.)

Oh, I kid. He looks fine – he’s actually working off a prepared text, which is unusual for him, and sticking to it pretty closely.

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Megapundit: Where's our Obama?

By selley - Monday, November 17, 2008 at 1:25 PM - 15 Comments

Must-reads: Rosie DiManno on race statistics; Lawrence Martin on finding a new Speaker; Doug Saunders on waiting for a European Obama; Greg Weston on Jim Prentice’s new job; Jeffrey Simpson on bailing out the Detroit Three; David Frum on the GOP’s bleak future; Don Martin on Elizabeth May.

Change we don’t believe in
Sure, the Liberal party will soon “change.” But neither it nor Canada, the pundits lament, will Change.

Ignatieff vs. Rae vs. LeBlanc is precisely the leadership race the Liberals needed, L. Ian MacDonald opines in the Montreal Gazette. For one thing, he says, “it will keep costs down at a time when the party is broke.” But more to the point, it means “amateur hour is over.” The only two legitimate candidates understand their goal is to “unite the party, fill its campaign coffers, and win the next election,” and nothing else. No young people; no new ideas; no funny business.

The Gazette‘s Don Macpherson also handicaps the race for the leadership, suggesting—weirdly, in our view—that “because of the unfortunate timing of the current leadership race, Ignatieff starts off his second run risking unfavourable comparison with the charismatic [Barack] Obama.” This is particularly true in Quebec, he argues, where election fatigue has set in and there’s nothing remotely novel about Charest vs. Marois vs. Dumont. Fair enough, but who’s Ignatieff up against? Rae and LeBlanc, and then Harper? Which of those three juggernauts is going to out-Obama Iggy?

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