After experiencing one of the worst defeats in Liberal history, Liberal leader Stephane Dion announced his resignation. Although a new leader may be helpful, the Liberals still find themselves near an abyss of irrelevance.
Dion turned out to be such a weak and ineffective leader, he had no other option than to resign. As a result, the Liberal party faces its third leadership convention in five years.
Unlike the last leadership election, there seems to be much less interest this time around. Only three official candidates, Michael Ignatieff, Bob Rae and Dominique LeBlanc have thrown their hats in the ring.
Picking up major supporters of past leadership candidates, Ignatieff seems to be an unstoppable front-runner. Considering the many Liberal party policies and ideals, Ignatieff is a peculiar choice to say the least.
Ignatieff has written numerous papers supporting torture and was an advocate for the war in Iraq. Both seem to be in contradiction to the Liberal electoral base. He is also quoted as saying “I’m not losing sleep” over civilian deaths in Lebanon, a highly insensitive and disturbing comment that upset many Canadians.
Further, some have blamed the Liberal party’s failure in the last election on the Green Shift, yet that’s exactly what Ignatieff has and does support– carbon taxes. If the Liberals did lose ground on the carbon tax proposal, surely another leader proposing the same thing will fair no better.
Being a former Harvard university professor, Ignatieff’s arrogance is well displayed. Worst yet, he has spent the last 25 years on top of the ivory tower in the United States. It is difficult to fathom how an American elite could have any understanding of the Canadian middle class, let alone more broadly, Canadian values.
Rae, similar to Ignatieff, is also running an uphill battle. Being the former and sole NDP Premier of Ontario, his governance record is a disaster and that’s a euphemism. His accidental win in Ontario led the province to debilitating deficits and one of the worst recessions it has ever faced. The province was in such dire straights, public service employees were forced to take “Rae Days”– unpaid days off– cutting services to Ontarians, in order to stave off the province from bankruptcy.
It’s mesmerizing that, during the current difficult economic times, Rae even considers mentioning the word economy, let alone has the audacity to suggest that he can solve it. Hearing Rae claim he has learnt from his mistakes in the early ’90s and now has the answers is like giving George W. Bush a third term because he says he will govern differently. Once an economic hit man, always an economic hit man.
Polls provide evidence of this belief. In a recent survey by Innovative Research Group, Rae was viewed as the worst of four possible Liberal leadership contenders to lead Canada through the current global economic crisis (the sample also included Martin Cauchon, who has since decided not to enter the race). In the Liberal bastion of Ontario, asked who would be worst suited to lead through the crisis, 26 per cent picked Rae, compared to nine per cent each for Ignatieff and LeBlanc.
Where Rae does have considerable strength is his knowledge and deep understanding of international affairs. Unfortunately for him, economics is the soup du jour and by the time this global slowdown ends, he may just be too old for the job.
The last serious contender is LeBlanc. He is the son of former Governor General Romeo LeBlanc and a Harvard-educated lawyer from New Brunswick. LeBlanc’s main asset may equally be a liability. He has little to no political baggage and is fluently bilingual.
Regrettably, the reason he has stayed away from trouble in the past is because he is relatively unknown. LeBlanc has a lot of work to get to be known within the Liberal party, let alone among Canadians in general. The other obstacle for LeBlanc is the fact that he comes from the east coast. Liberals have lost a lot of support in both Quebec and Ontario, trends they must turn around in order to regain government status. The Governor General’s son from New Brunswick is no le petit gars de Shawinigan.
The Liberal board of directors have really botched up this leadership race. With the rules being so stringent, unless challengers have a pre-existing support base, they are hopeless in trying to win the next leadership election. This leaves a threesome leadership talent pool so shallow, few are willing to dive in.