{"id":267,"date":"2005-02-28T13:29:00","date_gmt":"2005-02-28T18:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/?p=267"},"modified":"2005-02-28T13:29:00","modified_gmt":"2005-02-28T18:29:00","slug":"267","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/?p=267","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Follow the Leader<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not surprising that Liberal leadership talk has heated up a bit heading into this week\u2019s convention. No one is organizing to take Paul out (not enough MacBeth readers among leadership candidates) as most are willing to look past his disappointing tenure as PM and remember his years of undivided and unquestionable loyalty. Ha ha<\/em>. No, seriously, I expect he\u2019ll get a fairly good total at the leadership review since:<\/p>\n

a) Most people who hate him are sitting on their hands and out of the party
b) Most serious leadership candidates were disgusted with the plotting to take out Chretien and won\u2019t challenge him
c) The party is in an unstable situation with the minority government
d) I doubt they\u2019ll even count the ballots. David Herle\u2019s already picked the number in his mind and that\u2019s what will be announced.<\/p>\n

But, despite this, there will no doubt be a few whispers in the hospitality sweets about the \u201cnext one\u201d. This week, we saw Peter C. Newman toot Michael Ignatieff\u2019s name <\/a>which is interesting because that’s about a serious a suggestion as Justin Trudeau. We\u2019ve also seen the leadership contenders snipping among themselves over John Manley\u2019s \u201cshocking\u201d claims <\/a>that *gasp* the best candidate, regardless of language, should be chosen.<\/p>\n

For those handicapping the field, these would be the favourites, as I see it, with their Vegas odds in brackets:<\/p>\n

John Manley<\/strong> (7-2): The Chretien team likes him and he\u2019s had a wide range of Cabinet portfolios, having done well in almost all of them. OK, OK, so he\u2019s not exactly Mr.Charisma and Paul\u2019s inner circle is still aghast that he would have the nerve to question the Liberal party\u2019s membership rules (Liberal Party of Canada in Alberta slogan: \u201cThere are too many Liberal Party members in Alberta!\u201d).<\/p>\n

Frank \u201cWe\u2019ve already joined missile defense\u201d McKenna<\/strong> (6-1): One blogger dubbed him \u201cour very own Paul Cellucci\u201d. But, hey, a lot of the Martinites like him and he could be the man to deliver those 2 seats in New Brunswick the Liberals are missing.<\/p>\n

Martin Cauchon<\/strong> (6-1): Will definitely run. Believes it\u2019s the turn of a francophone. Some delegates might feel it\u2019s time for a candidate who can at least match Gilles Ducceppe\u2019s English skills. His pro-gay marriage and pro-pot time in justice will make him a winner in Quebec.<\/p>\n

Scott Brison<\/strong> (8-1): The sleeper pick of the field. I think Canadians will accept an openly gay Prime Minister. But I\u2019m not sure they\u2019d accept and openly Tory one.<\/p>\n

Brian Tobin<\/strong> (10-1): Holds the record for most references to cod fish ever in a political memoir.<\/p>\n

Joe Volpe<\/strong> (15-1): He\u2019s a conniving little SOB who won\u2019t be afraid to take over ridings, strong-arm the competition and have the mafia \u201cdisappear\u201d his rivals. Will do well in the GTA which could make him a king-maker.<\/p>\n

Maurizio Bevilacqua<\/strong> (15-1): Maurizio Who? Don\u2019t underestimate this guy.<\/p>\n

Ken Dryden<\/strong> (15-1): Paul Wells\u2019 description of this guy as an Ent is all too fitting. If he\u2019d run 5 years sooner and surrounded himself with political advisors, he\u2019d be unstoppable. He\u2019s been deflecting shots from right-wingers from years and who else can bring Habs and Leafs fans together? Besides, it\u2019s almost unbelievable that Canada hasn\u2019t had a hockey player as Prime Minister yet.<\/p>\n

Others:<\/strong> Pierre Pettigrew (nice hair, but too incompetent), Dennis Corderre (see Pierre Pettigrew comment, minus the nice hair), Sheila Copps (remember her?), Anne McLellan (could be the token female and token Western candidate), David Emerson…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Follow the Leader It\u2019s not surprising that Liberal leadership talk has heated up a bit heading into this week\u2019s convention. No one is organizing to take Paul out (not enough MacBeth readers among leadership candidates) as most are willing to look past his disappointing tenure as PM and remember his years of undivided and unquestionable […]<\/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\/267"}],"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=267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}