{"id":2021,"date":"2008-11-10T00:37:00","date_gmt":"2008-11-10T05:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/?p=2021"},"modified":"2008-11-10T00:37:00","modified_gmt":"2008-11-10T05:37:00","slug":"8-simple-rules-for-liberal-leadership-races","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/?p=2021","title":{"rendered":"8 Simple Rules for Liberal Leadership Races"},"content":{"rendered":"

And we’re off! The rules have been set<\/a> – Feb 6 membership cut-off, March 6-10 super weekend, and an April 30 to May 3 convention.<\/p>\n

As we all know, those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. So here are a few lessons I think we can all learn from the last Liberal leadership race:<\/p>\n

1. The polls are fairly meaningless, with the possible exception of the ones taken of actual delegates to gauge second choice interest; Liberal organizers and bloggers<\/span> probably have a better sense of the relative strength of the candidates’ than the pundits do. Things like number of donors, ex-officio<\/span> endorsements, and caucus support aren’t bad indicator either.<\/p>\n

2. The policy proposals put forward by the candidates probably aren’t super relevant – Ignatieff<\/span> favoured a carbon tax last time and Dion opposed it.<\/p>\n

3. Things said during leadership debates might come back to haunt you at a later date.<\/p>\n

4. Leaked Tory memos about the leadership race should be ignored completely.<\/p>\n

5. Directly comparing your candidate to Pierre Trudeau is a good way to make yourself look silly…subtly doing it might not be an awful idea though. I suspect the “Barack Obama corollary” to this rule will apply this time.<\/p>\n

6. Solemn pledges to not go negative have a similar shelf life to yogurt.<\/p>\n

7. Playing up expectations about how much support you expect to get is not a good idea. That said, if the media and Liberals don’t think you can actually win, you’re at a huge disadvantage.<\/p>\n

8. Saying you know how it will end, at the start of the race, is a good way to make yourself look dumb come May.<\/p>\n

I still don’t have a horse in this race yet. I’m looking towards the long term health of the Liberal Party and for a candidate who is truly committed to renewal. If no one fits that bill, well, maybe I won’t be as involved in this race as I was in the last.<\/p>\n

But regardless of how involved I get, expect a lot of coverage about The Race For Stornoway<\/span> here. I’ll probably revisit my leadership projections<\/a> come January, once we get some donor data. And given the number of delegates who read blogs, I’d expect a blog interview or two – at the very least, I’ll be sure to cover any events I’m at.<\/p>\n

And, regardless of whether I’m a delegate or not, I’ll be in Vancouver this May. It figures to be a fun weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And we’re off! The rules have been set – Feb 6 membership cut-off, March 6-10 super weekend, and an April 30 to May 3 convention. As we all know, those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. So here are a few lessons I think we can all learn from the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2021"}],"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=2021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2021\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}