Who's In, Who's Out: Counting Down To Liberal Leadership Race

It has been ten years since Prime Minister Jean Chretien announced he was stepping down and the Liberals are about to start the race for someone they hope will finally fill his shoes – after Paul Martin, Stephane Dion and Michael Ignatieff failed to do it.

Chretien led the Liberals to majority governments in 1993, 1997 and 2000. When he stepped aside following pressure from Martin and his supporters, the Liberals became a minority government in 2004 and then lost power to the Conservatives in 2006. Dion replaced Martin in 2006 and led the Liberals to their worst result in Canadian history in 2008 – before Ignatieff set a new record in 2011. The Liberals have developed, as the Star’s Susan Delacourt aptly put it, “disposable leader syndrome.”

Now they need to decide who gets the next chance at bat.

Interim Leader Bob Rae has officially declared he’s out of the race, and while Marc Garneau, Justin Trudeau and Martha Hall-Findlay think about it, Deborah Coyne remains the only official option for Liberal voters.

The same Coyne who told The Hill Times this week that the Liberal Party “doesn’t stand for anything.” She explained that the party needs to look back to its roots while reaching forward for new ideas.

Hall-Findlay has not been shy about stirring up controversy, publishing a paper on supply management that encouraged quite a bit of debate among politicians and pundits alike.

Garneau, meanwhile, has not been shy about voicing his opinion in the Quebec election, something Stephen Harper’s Conservatives have been avoiding and the New Democrats have said they would avoid (though it must be noted that leader Thomas Mulcair announced during this campaign that the NDP will form a Quebec party before the next one).

On August 23, another contender popped up online – or the potential of another contender – at liberalwho.ca.

The website has a countdown to launch, a photo of a man without a face and scrolling quotes, in both official language, about what the Liberal Party needs to be. There has been some guessing among the Parliamentary Press Gallery about the site, and who would choose to launch such a campaign on Labour Day.

The new Liberal leader is scheduled to be elected in April of 2013, and the party’s board has until November 27, 2012 to lay out the official rules for the leadership race, which means the deadline to declare yourself a candidate will come some weeks after that day.

Federal Liberals Getting Set For Leadership

Liberals Face Money Woes Ahead Of New Leadership Race

Read more: canada, liberal party of canada, politics

Photo Credit: Michael Ignatieff

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Dorothy N.

8:09AM PDT on Sep 10, 2012

Lol, and I typoed ignorant. ROFLMAO

See the effect Harper has on those of us who can't type? Or spell, come to that/

September 10
send a green star

8:08AM PDT on Sep 10, 2012

(continued)

THIS is what ignorent, cheating, psychopathic traitors do when they have no understanding
of diplomacy - THIS sort of idiocy could be expected of Romney who had SO better not
cheat his way into the American Presidency - he and Harper might BREED MORE!

8:07AM PDT on Sep 10, 2012

HAH! Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi has Harper pegged!
Surprisingly politely, but accurate, nonetheless.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/iran-decries-canadas-extremist-government/article4531983/

Iran on Monday said Canada had a “neo-conservative extremist government” as it kept
up a furious response to Ottawa’s decision last week to cut diplomatic ties.

Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi used that description in an interview with the
Iranian parliament’s website in which he also said the Canadian government of
Prime Minister Stephen Harper was “boundlessly defending international Zionism.”

...Mr. Salehi said that Iran viewed Canada’s decision as “irrational and unjustified.”

He said Iran’s nuclear program “is not a new issue” and added that, when it came to Syria,
Western countries “help extremist groups massacre Syrians.”

He also rounded on Canada for mentioning Iran’s human rights record, saying that, “by
cutting ties it is putting limitations on 400,000 Iranians residing in Canada – is
this in line with observing human rights?”

Iran has threatened to take “adequate” retaliation over Canada’s decision.

That began with Iran’s parliament confirming in a statement that its speaker, Ali
Larijani, had cancelled an October trip to Canada’s city of Quebec to attend an
inter-parliamentary conference. ...

THIS is

8:05AM PDT on Sep 10, 2012

The NDP hasn't had nearly as much time to be corrupted - we're much better off here in Manitoba with the NDP than with anyone else.

We still have full Medicare coverage here - what more can I say?

They were always for the people, though I've never liked or trusted the current Premier.

http://www.avaaz.org/en/election_fraud

PLEASE sign this petition (above) to have a thorough investigation of the cheating
engaged in by Harper and the criminal gang who stole our election in Canada - AGAIN!

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/second-reading/after-a-stressful-spring-how-can-conservatives-gain-ground-this-fall/article4530213/

Go to the comments on this appalling cheer-leading article, and the replies to the
comments, and (ignoring a couple of Harper's PR trolls apart from
a passing sneer,) see what Canadians think of the cheating, psychopathic traitor,
if you're curious and unsure.

We don't HAVE neoCon/Republicans here and don't need them - that 38% was gained
by CHEATING!