Any Canucks watching the Liberal Party Leadership Convention?

Just finished the second ballot. Now the real fun begins.

Ignatieff has about 32% of the delegates, Rae, 24%, Dion 21%, Kennedy 19% and Ken Dryden is last and automatically out at 5%.

Dryden's gonna throw his support behind Rae. They're saying Kennedy will back Ignatieff but I don't think Ignatieff has the horses to pull it off.

Prime Minister Rae sounds pretty good. (I;m waiting for all the Rae haters from Ontario to come out of the woodwork).

Anyone of them would be an improvement on the present Prime Minister who, as someone pointed out, loves power but hates government.

 

To be honest, I'm not conservative - have never ever voted that way. For the record, I've flip-flopped between Liberals (once) NDP (once) and Green (once).
But Ignatieff isn't even Canadian in my eyes: He was based in the United Kingdom from 1978 to 2000. He was on the faculty at both Cambridge and Oxford Universities and worked as a film-maker and political commentator for the BBC. He lived in the United States from 2000 to 2005 where he was director of Harvard's Carr Center for Human Rights Policy.

As for Rae, I'm a hater, born and bred in Ontario. Although, if someone deserves a second political chance, it's Rae. Ontario was an economic wasteland when he took provincial power. And he the party were rookies at running a province. Still, there will be MANY skeptics when it comes whether he can a federal party much less a country (should the Liberals) in his second major go-round.

The Liberals are as bad off now as they ever have been. I'm at a loss as to who should lead that party, or the country for that matter.

 

Rae wouldn't have a chance in Ontario. Too many long memories. Personally I like him, but he would be Steven Harper's first choice. All you would see in the election is Harper bringing up the NDP, Rae Days, the unions having a falling out with Rae, etc. etc.

 

Well, down to three since Kennedy dropped off to support Dion

The "Ignatieff isn't a Canadian" is irrelevant now. Everyone knows his history but his credentials more than make up for it.

Rae also inherited a government at a time where the economy in general was in the dumpster.

Whatever you think of Bob and his "Rae Days', his government doesn't even come close to the clusterfuck that was Mike Harris's. WORST. PREMIER. EVER.

 

How exactly does that make him different from the last two Liberal prime ministers?

Sad how Harris' biggest critics have always been unable to grasp the fact Ontario's problems in the mid and late '90s weren't actually his fault. Bob Rae gets no blame, David Peterson gets no blame and Bill Davis, whose regime started the process that even today threatens to turn Ontario into an economic also-ran, certainly gets no blame. Why is that?

Harris' critics also fail to recognize the crucial role played by their hero, Paul Martin, who downloaded everything in sight onto the provinces and then cut off their federal transfer payments. He and his acolytes brag to this very day how he "eliminated" the federal deficit; "transferred" would be a far better description. That is, if we were being honest with ourselves and looking past party politics.

 

And Kennedy's support of Dion pays off in a huge, huge way. Dion moves into first place on the third ballot and Rae is out of the race.

If you had bet on Dion going into this weekend, you were a pretty smart person (as Belinda Stronach just pointed out on CBC, Stephen Harper's money was on Dion). It's Dion's race to lose now, a big surprise considering everyone thought it would be either Ignatieff or Rae.

And JR will soon have a new Member of Parliament since Ignatieff, who returned to Canada with the specific intention of taking over the federal Liberal party, will now bail out at the first opportunity.

 

Only partially true and it wasn't just Mike's scorched earth economic policies that makes him the candidate for the worst provincial leader ever but his absolute disregard for the democratic process. He was a bully who beat up the most vulnerable members of our society and then bragged about it. He should be hunted down and shot for his forced almagamation of Metropolitan Toronto, an absolute fiasco of a policy which, despite his much vaunted Common Sense REvolution has cost Toronto taxpayers even more money.

Ontario an economic also-ran? Alberta's oil notwithstanding, Ontario still drives the Canadian economic engine. And Double J, Ontario was never more prosperous than under Bill Davis aka Brampton Billie.

 

The next leader of the Liberal Party, Stephane Dion



He sure as hell turned things around. Before the convention he wasn't a dark horse--he was barely on the radar. Once Kennedy dropped out after the second ballot and threw his support behind Dion, Stephane had all the support he needed.

Much respected politician who entered politics for all the right reasons. He carries no baggage, has impeccable credentials and is a respected academic with a steel trap for a mind.

It's also refreshing to know that after the faux liberal policies of Martin who kept one foot in the centre and one foot in the right, the Liberals now have a leader who can return the party to its roots of social reform and economic responsibility.

Not bad. Of the three candidates left standing, one was a Rhodes scholar and two were university professors.

 

My fourth-year constitutional law professor is a personal friend of Stephane Dion's, and ten years ago she told me that he would one day be Prime Minister of Canada. I had never heard of him at that point, he had just been made cabinet minister (Minister of National Unity or something like that).

She's looking almost prescient now.

 

Oh, I know your part of Ontario was prosperous then and obviously it still is. Unfortunately, we missed out on Brampton Billy's generosity and as a result there's been fuck all going on in my part of Ontario since they built the St. Lawrence Seaway.

 

I'd just like to say I'm happy for Dion and miss the Belmonts.
And please tell me he's not related to She Who Must Not Be Listened To.
Carry on, eh?

 

Shit, I missed it. Did anyone DVR?