{"id":1178,"date":"2006-11-22T15:06:00","date_gmt":"2006-11-22T20:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/?p=1178"},"modified":"2006-11-22T15:06:00","modified_gmt":"2006-11-22T20:06:00","slug":"one-on-one-with-bob-rae","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/?p=1178","title":{"rendered":"One on One with Bob Rae"},"content":{"rendered":"

I had the opportunity to do a phone interview with Bob Rae last week. As a result, I\u2019ve now had the privilege to interview all the candidates in this race\u2026with one notable exception. I\u2019ve got to admit it\u2019s kind of frustrating \u2013 it\u2019s like having every Happy Days episode on tape except the one where the Fonz jumps the shark. Alas, much like Joe\u2019s vote, I suspect that interview will never materialize.<\/p>\n

Let me just say that the one thing I\u2019ve learned from doing these interviews is that I have a lot to learn about technology. My latest life lesson is that putting a tape recorder up to a cell phone to record will lead to a recording with nothing but back feed and static. As a result, I don\u2019t have a transcript of Rae\u2019s answers but I did take notes very closely so I feel I managed to capture everything he said.<\/p>\n

I won\u2019t editorialize or comment on any of his answers right now \u2013 I\u2019ll save that for my final run down of the contenders. What I will say is that Bob Rae was by far the most concise of all the candidates I\u2019ve interviewed; you can certainly tell he\u2019s been doing this for a long time. I did, however, find his answer to question three very interesting…<\/p>\n

1. First of all, was it your idea or Rick\u2019s to do the skinny dipping?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

(laughs) \u201cLet\u2019s call it a combined and spontaneous decision. Spontaneous combustion might be the best way to describe it.\u201d<\/p>\n

2. When <\/em><\/strong>Paul Wells asked you <\/em><\/strong><\/a>if Quebec was a nation for his book, your response was: \u201cYeah. Nation, people, distinct society. It’s all the same. It’s just words. It’s a set of words. It means that you recognize the distinctiveness of the collectivity of quebec. It is something we should have done in 1985 in Meech and in 1992 with Charlottetown. And something we should be doing.\u201d How is that different from what Michael Ignatieff is proposing?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Rae said the difference is in \u201cfocus\u201d \u2013 given his experience he just doesn\u2019t see the point in going back down the constitutional road. He\u2019d like to find a way to recognize Quebec\u2019s \u201cspecial character\u201d in the federation but constitutional change is not the best way to do it.<\/p>\n

I then asked if he\u2019d like to see an amended resolution pass at the convention and he felt that improvising on the spot isn\u2019t the best way to do it. He\u2019s working with the other candidates to find the best way to handle it.<\/p>\n

3. What is the one thing, above all else, that Prime Minister Bob Rae would do which likely wouldn\u2019t get done by your competitors in this race? In other words, what policy are you proposing which differs you from your opponents?
<\/em><\/strong>
Rae feels that there\u2019s \u201ccommon ground\u201d among the candidates on policy. When it comes to things like the economy, innovation and new learning, they\u2019re all speaking the same language. He does see some differences in foreign policy but feels the real thing which sets him apart from the other candidates is not so much his ideas but his experience.<\/p>\n

4. How do you think the Liberal Party can breakthrough in Western Canada and, in particular, Alberta?
<\/em><\/strong>
Rae first observed that the west is a very diverse place so one strategy might not be appropriate. He feels there\u2019s some potential for growth and that the NDP split has hurt us in some places like Saskatchewan. He feels some of his agricultural and economic policies should play well in farm communities and says the Liberals can have success if they propose practical solutions rather than Harper who only proposes ideological ones (such as the Wheat Board).<\/p>\n

The key, according to Rae, is for the party and the leader to physically spend more time here. The leader needs to work with ridings and candidates and help to build up the party\u2019s organizational strength.<\/p>\n

I asked him if he had any specific ideas which would play well in Alberta and he said that his agricultural policy would be popular here. He also feels that Albertans believe in sustainability, mentioning Preston Manning\u2019s \u201cgreen sensibility\u201d.<\/p>\n

5. What\u2019s your general pitch to Liberal delegates and take home message at this time?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

For Rae, the race is about choices. We\u2019re electing a party leader, an opposition leader, and a Prime Minister. Liberals need someone who can speak to the whole country and expand the party\u2019s base. To do this, we need someone who has credibility. He feels all the candidates have different abilities and it\u2019s up to delegates to make the choice.<\/p>\n

He ended by saying he\u2019s enjoyed the race and that he expects it to be a lively convention.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had the opportunity to do a phone interview with Bob Rae last week. As a result, I\u2019ve now had the privilege to interview all the candidates in this race\u2026with one notable exception. I\u2019ve got to admit it\u2019s kind of frustrating \u2013 it\u2019s like having every Happy Days episode on tape except the one where […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1178\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}