{"id":854,"date":"2006-03-21T01:57:00","date_gmt":"2006-03-21T06:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/?p=854"},"modified":"2006-03-21T01:57:00","modified_gmt":"2006-03-21T06:57:00","slug":"the-race-for-stornoway-ralph-goodale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/?p=854","title":{"rendered":"The Race for Stornoway: Ralph Goodale"},"content":{"rendered":"


<\/em>
\u201cIn 1979, he became the embodiment of an endangered political species: a federal Liberal capable of winning a riding in Western Canada.\u201d<\/em>
–The Canadian Encyclopedia<\/a>, on Lloyd Axworthy<\/p>\n

Age<\/strong>: 56<\/p>\n

Background<\/strong>: Ralph has been a Saskatchewan boy his whole life: he was born in Wilcox, did his undergrad in Regina, and went to law school in Saskatoon. Goodale was first elected as an MP in 1974 (fun quiz \u2013 add up the total years the rest of the field has as elected Liberals<\/em> and compare it to Goodale\u2019s total), and after losing his seat to the Joe Clark juggernaut in 1979, became leader of the Saskatchewan Liberal Party (presumably because no one else wanted the job).<\/p>\n

Recent Political History<\/strong>: Goodale was elected in 1993 and served in several Cabinet positions under Jean Chretien, including Minister of Natural Resources and Minister of Public Works. A long time Martin loyalist, Goodale became Martin\u2019s first Minister of Finance, until 2005 when he was replaced by Jack Layton. 2005 was certainly a rough year for Goodale, as the IT scandal hit midway through the election campaign. He is currently the opposition House Leader.<\/p>\n

Rejected Campaign Slogan:<\/strong> \u201cThree budgets in a year as Finance Minister \u2013 just imagine how much he\u2019ll get done as PM!\u201d<\/p>\n

Rejected Endorsement:<\/strong> Ralph\u2019s former Executive Assistant, Jason Kenney.<\/p>\n

Strategic Voting<\/strong>: Ralph\u2019s candidacy will certainly lead to a split among the \u201cwe need a leader embroiled in the Income Trust Scandal\u201d vote.<\/p>\n

Pros<\/strong>: Oodles and oodles of experience. Very well respected. (The) Western Canadian candidate.<\/p>\n

Cons<\/strong>: Connected to Income Trust scandal and previous government. Can\u2019t speak French. Not exactly thrilling by any means.<\/p>\n

In Person<\/strong>: I\u2019ve heard Ralph speak a few times and I\u2019ve always found that\u2026sorry, I dozed off for a second there. What was the question?<\/p>\n

My Take<\/strong>: Goodale should run, if only to give the race a strong Western Canadian candidate. Ralph is experienced and respected, so he\u2019d also help dispel the ridiculous media spin that the \u201cbig names\u201d are skipping the race.<\/p>\n

But he shouldn\u2019t be the LPC\u2019s next leader. Goodale has been in Ottawa for over 30 years. He\u2019s been a Senior Cabinet Minister for a decade. And he hasn\u2019t even made the slightest effort to learn French. Say what you will about Belinda (and God knows I\u2019ve said a lot), but at least she\u2019s making an effort.<\/p>\n

Beyond that, Goodale couldn\u2019t win an election. He\u2019s far from charismatic and his name has been (fairly or unfairly) rolled up in the Income Trust Scandal Thingy. So I hope Goodale runs, but I\u2019d have a tough time supporting his bid.<\/p>\n

Chances<\/strong>: Goodale will bring a block of Saskatchewan delegates to the convention if he runs and will get a lot of media attention since he\u2019s a big name, but I would be very surprised if he lasts past the first ballot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIn 1979, he became the embodiment of an endangered political species: a federal Liberal capable of winning a riding in Western Canada.\u201d–The Canadian Encyclopedia, on Lloyd Axworthy Age: 56 Background: Ralph has been a Saskatchewan boy his whole life: he was born in Wilcox, did his undergrad in Regina, and went to law school in […]<\/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-854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854","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=854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}