Reading this article, you'd swear that Liberal party members had basically made up their minds and the leadership race was hardly worth having. I mean really, flip a coin? I know Ms. Sgro was being facetious, but if there is even a kernel of truth there, she and others with similar feelings are not the ones that the party should be listening to.If the Liberal Party of Canada is serious about moving forward and understanding our value in this democracy, we need to begin at the very least by holding a democratic leadership race. That means allowing all those who feel they can offer the party a direction that will excite the grassroots, attract new members and remind Liberals who may have sat out the last election why we are the alternative they are looking for.
Personally, I'm not interested in a coronation. I want to hear from potential leaders why they believe they can guide this party from where it is now, to it's greatest potential. I'm not impressed frankly by candidates who have spent all of this time, (since the last race), putting their teams together and getting their 'game' ready. Now, I'm not naive either and I know that is how this blood sport is played, but I don't see how that kind of manoeuvring has done us much good, do you?
I want an open race and indeed I want to see new faces. In fact, I want to hear from as many people is as feasible in order to see genuinely new ideas. Dominic LeBlanc seems interested and I for one would like to see Gerard Kennedy get back in. I don't know where Dominic stands on many issues but I'd like to hear from him. Gerard did have a run last time around but because he hasn't been wheeling and dealing in the back corridors, I suspect he is even more in touch now with what the party needs than he was previously. That to me is someone we should be listening to.
If like me, you believe the leadership race should be open to whomever wishes to run and do not want to see that process curtailed, please contact someone at the National Executive ( info@liberal.ca) and make your feelings known.
Additionally, if there is someone who you would like to encourage to run, send them an e-mail. I can start you off with Gerard Kennedy's office e-mail, info@gerardkennedy.ca. Gerard has spent time thinking about this as evidenced in his e-mail to supporters. Personally, I want to hear more. He's not been plotting his support like the two front runners. He's been thinking about what the party needs. Isn't that what we want?
That may not be how the game is currently played but some rules were truly meant to be broken and our voices are entitled to be heard. In fact, I'm convinced that a great many Canadians would like to see a fresh way of doing politics in this country.
16 comments:
I absolutely agree. We've all just powerfully experienced a guy next door who has really set the bar for what leadership means. We need a leader with some of those same traits - an ability to inspire, a calm vision of a better country. Someone who can connect with ordinary Canadians, not just members of the LPC. I'm still waiting to see that person come forward.
Maybe the nomination in Ms. Sgro's riding, or for that matter the ridings of all the rest of our MPs, ought to be determined by a coin toss.
There are NO activists in the Liberal Party, that has become painfully obvious.
Mound, we'll all be waiting if they don't keep this process open.
Anon, interesting point.
It should be said though, that people like Hall-Findlay, Ujjal Dosanjh, Rae and others have agreed that the process should be open to all.
Those who expressed keeping it short, therefore closed, only amounted to about 6 MP's in the end. Who knows behind the scenes though.
Whatever the answer, it's time for a new way of doing business.
Steve, I guess we'll have to keep agitating.
Rae vs Iggy.
Short, sweet and cheap.
There are NO activists in the Liberal Party? Gee Steve, why do you say that, is it because you didn't find utter acquiescence to your Gerard Kennedy leadership position? Gimme a break.
Outside of the leadership drama, I'll give you two names the Liberal party should consider dumping from their repertoire of talking heads: Susan Smith and Scott Reid. These two individuals are way past their due dates and should be purged accordingly.
Ray Heard from Toronto, Canada writes: As a disaffected Liberal who once held an executive position in the party, I want to say that this ultmatum by Dion, the classic idiot savant, disgusts me. He has to go, in God's name, and now. How dare he retain the Leadership after what he has done to destroy the Liberal Party by endorsing May and going green even as millions of Canadians demand jobs, jobs and jobs???
What's your point anon.
Everyone in the Liberal party understands that Heard is an 'affected' ex-Liberal who wears the title he throws at Dion without the savant descriptor.
Personally, I'm getting fed up with this Liberal thing. Bloggers, etc are already trashing and bashing possible candidates they don't like.
Talk about a disfunctional family.
I'm near the point that I've absolutely had it with the party and the partisanship.
We've got pitiful MP's who can't keep their mouths shut, whine and pout and let everyone in Canada know the Party's dirty laundry.
The Liberals need adult supervision in the worst way.
I'm almost embarrassed by them - and I've been a Liberal all my life.
They're turning me off and I know many people that feel the same way.
omar
Give me a break with you superficial analysis of why I feel that way. This is just one more example, it most certainly isn't a sour grapes on Kennedy routine.
I agree with you on the two talking heads, especially Reid, who I frankly can't listen too. I'm not sure if they still do this, but Reid/Powers was probably the worst political programming I've ever seen.
Hardly an "analysis", more an observation. Perhaps it would be helpful for those of us offering such superficial commentary if you expounded upon why you feel the way you do. You know, so we can better understand what is so painfully obvious.
Can't we just wait until they /the candidates/ start talkingt ... expressing themseves ?
It is essentially a refractory time /a healthy thing/ we just have to wait a bit now .
I am impatient too feeling urgent need to act but it is not the right thing to select or deselect a leader before they are talking to us...
One thing is to consider ... things circumstances people are changing all the time. Don't assume what is their positin NOW.
The best Thing is if you want To help send some money for the party.
The Party can't go Too far on flat tires.
I see your point, KNB, about Kennedy as he does seem to be an outsider to some degree. But he has just been elected for the 1st time for the Fed party & I'm not sure a leadership run is such a good idea. I would think he needs to learn more of all the ins & outs of govt. 1st., committees etc.
I could easily be wrong though.
I'm totally uninspired by anyone else in the running. To be frank I would prefer Dion to stay on as leader as he has learned a lot in the last election & has a better handle on how he was manipulated by the Cons & the media. And I feel he can rise above all that now & become more popular with the electorate - given the chance. Too late for all that now, unfortunately.
Grassroots desperately needs to be front & centre in any Party re-organization, platforms, policies, etc. Need to be listened to carefully & thoughtfully. But I have no idea whether that will happen.
I'm still down in the dumps over the outcome of the election & Dion stepping down & can't seem to shake it.
It looks like three people will be running, Iggy, Rae and Leblanc.
No women, no new Canadians.
Where are the new ideas going to come from? It looks like Iggy will win it by default. I don't know why the Liberal Party is in such a hurry to get a new leader. This quickie convention looks like an Iggy backroom operation.
Pierre Trudeau will be turning in his grave if Iggy becomes the new leader.
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