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Ok, it’s official. Bob Rae says he’ll put the good of the Liberal party before any personal aspirations he may have had. A very nice cover letter he wrote to support his application for interim leader of the party, indeed. However, if anyone is to rebuild a party, the idea is to move forward. Selecting Bob Rae for either interim leader or permanent leader would be counterproductive in my opinion.
One of the biggest problems with the party was those internal feuds and factions. Bob Rae certainly has baggage. Undesirable baggage.
Marc Garneau would make for a much more suitable interim leader for the party, particularly if the party is going to bend the rules and postpone selecting a permanent leader. Marc Garneau may not have charisma, but he’s without that negative baggage and a solid and bright MP. And yanno, I’ve said this before, sometimes bland is best. Bland keeps ya out of trouble, especially with a media culture of gotcha.
Bland is probably what’s needed now for this party. These days, more than two weeks after the Liberals were relegated to the parliamentary penalty box, the Harpercon leaning media is still talking about them, catching every complaint, every bit of nitpicking, etc. Not good. At the beginning of rebuilding, perhaps the best thing would be to be out of the Harpercon cheerleading media radar for awhile.
Despite whatever perceived blandness Garneau may have, I think he is certainly well liked and respected. Sure he has far less experience only having become an MP in 2008, but Iggy didn’t have political experience when he became leader of the Liberal party neither. Many would like to see Justin Trudeau become the permanent leader of the party and he has the same number of years of experience as Garneau.
Furthermore, I’m still not certain if Bob Rae was part of those talks last year to merge the Liberals with the NDP. I have to wonder if he is for it to this day? I know it’s moot now, given the NDP has nixed it given their recent win. However, give that time, as Stevie spiteful will cut the per vote subsidy and whether or not the NDP craze will die down or not. Let’s remember that outside of the Quebec, the NDP only had a net gain of 8 seats and didn’t really gain in Ontario where memories of a Bob Rae led NDP and unpaid Rae Days are still apparently fresh on their minds.
Would Stevie Spiteful start attack ads on Garneau? What’s the worst he can do on an interim leader like him? Garneau didn’t come back to earth for you? What kind of damage could any attack ads to Garneau really do, given we know Garneau would not be running in the next election as leader? I’d be more worried about the attack ads on whomever is selected for the permanent leader.
Speaking of the Ontario NDP in the 90s and unpaid Rae Days, I have another question, given that was the main reason for the NDP not doing as well in Ontario, why on earth would the Liberal Party even entertain having that Ontario provincial NDP’s former leader as their new leader; interim or permanent? I mean, if there were Harpercon ads that would write themselves…Ok, Stevie would have attack ads for any potential leader of the Liberal party, why make it so easy for them?
Also, Curiosity Cat doesn’t seem to trust that Bob Rae wouldn’t later change his mind and seek the permanent leadership at a later time, especially if the leadership convention takes place later rather than sooner. Neither do I, for that matter. That’s another thing I have a problem with. Another thing I’ve observed. Shouldn’t the Liberal party follow their own rules and follow their constitution to the letter and have their leadership convention this Fall as they’re supposed to? Cross this hurdle now and then get on with the rebuilding. I dunno, but in my opinion, as an observer, wouldn’t the first step to rebuilding a party be having a permanent leader to, well, uh, lead? It seems to me that selecting a permanent leader later, rather than sooner, would set the party back too far too close to the next potential election.
I often deride the Harperites as being ideologically driven – witness the long form census or the persistent attempts to criminalize women for behaving as if their bodies were their own. But is it an ideology, a set of principles that governs their behaviour.
The NDP on the other hand has a more class based idea – but it is still an ideology. You can predict their behaviour referring to this paradigm.
The Liberals are and have been their own self-fulfilling prophecy – their ideology was to govern and that is obviously unsustainable.
Now, who cares about a bunch of people that just want to rule the country (and are incredibly arrogant when they do). The garbage can of history is a suitable place for them.
ck Reply:
May 19th, 2011 at 8:47 PM
You think the Liberals were arrogant? have you been paying attention to Stevie Spiteful? We’re at the beginning of Stevie unleashed. You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!
I agree that Marc Garneau would be preferable to Bob Rae. Rae is still quite toxic in Ontario as you point out. I have Liberal friends in Toronto who would not vote Lib if he were party leader. I sincerely hope Garneau does not withdraw his name and I will be emailing him shortly with my support.