{"id":4295,"date":"2012-11-14T10:09:20","date_gmt":"2012-11-14T15:09:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/?p=4295"},"modified":"2012-11-20T16:24:40","modified_gmt":"2012-11-20T21:24:40","slug":"kennedy-for-ontario","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/?p=4295","title":{"rendered":"Kennedy for Ontario"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Get your GK tambourines out of the closet! It’s time to get the band back together.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After some bleating about how no one wanted the “poisoned chalice”, an impressive field of six candidates has declared for the OLP leadership race: Glen Murray<\/a>, Sandra Pupatello<\/a>, Eric Hoskins<\/a>, Kathleen Wynne<\/a>, Charles Sousa<\/a>, and Gerard Kennedy<\/a>. All have Cabinet experience, and all are ready to step into the Premier’s chair. I have nothing negative to say about any of the six and will gladly campaign for whichever one of them scrambles across the finish line first in this race. While that’s obviously my Liberal bias speaking, this is one of the few leadership races I’ve been involved in where I can genuinely say there isn’t a candidate I dislike<\/em>. I’m crossing my fingers that Rocco Rossi declares soon, so that I at least have someone <\/em>to poke fun at.<\/p>\n

Despite the strength of the field, one name rises to the top for me, and I’m proud to throw my support behind Gerard Kennedy.<\/p>\n

Long-time readers of this blog will recall that I backed Kennedy<\/a> when he ran for federal Liberal leader in 2006. That was very much a decision made with my heart. His background with the food bank showed me he was in politics to make a difference. He spoke of renewal and offered a fresh face for a tired party. He was energetic and charismatic – almost Kennedy-esque<\/em> some might say. It was hard not to get swept up in the excitement of it all.<\/p>\n

While the above still stands, my decision this time is grounded in reason rather than passion. Simply puy, the Ontario Liberal Party is most likely to win the next election with Gerard Kennedy at the helm.<\/p>\n

Like all governments who have spent a decade in power, this one has collected its fair share of scrapes and bruises. Voters want change, and if they don’t see change from the OLP itself, they won’t hesitate to look elsewhere for it. Kennedy was not at the Cabinet table when eHealth, ORNGE, or the Power Plant controversies erupted, leaving him the best positioned candidate to give this government the reboot it needs.<\/p>\n

Not only is Kennedy untainted by these scandals, but he represents the “Camelot” period of the McGuinty era, when the economy was good, the wrongs of the Harris era were being corrected, and it never rained until after sundown. Kennedy was the Education Minister who cut class sizes, improved test scores, and brought about labour peace. This, combined with his food bank and anti-poverty background, is the kind of message that will strongly appeal to disgruntled Liberals who have drifted towards Andrea Horwath in recent years. Politics is all about weaving a narrative voters can latch onto, and I think there’s a compelling story to be told around Gerard Kennedy.<\/p>\n

Moreover, there is some quantitative data<\/a> to support the “electability” argument. While it’s true these hypothetical polls are based heavily on name recognition, it doesn’t hurt to have a candidate with positive name recognition when there will be little time to define the next leader before a likely spring election.<\/p>\n

I will add a pinch of idealism to this largely pragmatic endorsement, since Kennedy himself would be the first to argue there’s no point to power without purpose. Gerard Kennedy is one of the most principled politicians I have ever met (perhaps even to a fault at times), not afraid to speak out against the more unseemly aspects of the political process. In Ottawa, he relied on substantive research<\/a> rather than empty rhetoric to show stimulus money was being funneled disproportionately towards Conservative ridings<\/a>. His critique of McGuinty’s prorogation, and his promise to recall the legislature as soon as possible once he’s elected might leave some potential delegates feeling uneasy but it’s the right thing to do<\/em>. It’s consistent with his criticism of Stephen Harper, and consistency is a trait sorely lacking in most politicians. At a time when the electorate has grown increasingly cynical towards the political process, Kennedy is a breath of fresh air.<\/p>\n

While policies will be announced in due course, Kennedy’s values <\/em>have long been on display for all to see: he has worked to help the less fortunate<\/a>, he has fought to improve the quality of education<\/a>, he has talked about the need to help immigrants succeed<\/a>. He’s from a small town<\/a>, and spoke at his launch<\/a> about his desire to expand the Liberal base into rural Ontario. <\/p>\n

Most importantly, he has been about grassroots involvement in the political process his entire career – long before “renewal” became a cheap buzzword. Now that the Ontario Liberal Party truly needs to renew itself, Gerard Kennedy is the ideal candidate for the job.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After some bleating about how no one wanted the “poisoned chalice”, an impressive field of six candidates has declared for the OLP leadership race: Glen Murray, Sandra Pupatello, Eric Hoskins, Kathleen Wynne, Charles Sousa, and Gerard Kennedy. All have Cabinet experience, and all are ready to step into the Premier’s chair. I have nothing negative […]<\/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":[1270,4,55],"tags":[1004],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4295"}],"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=4295"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4295\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4332,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4295\/revisions\/4332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}