I had to work for most of the day, but I managed to catch a few glimpses of the Liberal Leadership Race; enough to generally know what was going on. I've come up with a few thoughts about the contenders.
Bob Rae: When he lost the third ballot, boy he looked mad! Then he didn't endorse any of the remaining candidates. I guess I can see why Rae was mad: this was his last chance to prove to the world that Bob Rae was not a loser, as he his probably too old to go for another run. Well, now history shall prove Rae to be a two time loser: first as premier of Ontario and second as a Liberal Leadership candidate. I don't think he is going to stick with the Liberals and run in the next election: this man has tasted leadership, and I don't think he is going to settle for being a cabinet minister. Being the opportunist he is, Rae will probably go back to private sector work and participate on government commissions.
Gerald Kennedy: I hope that Dion is thanking him profusely right now, as he gave the momentum needed for Dion to win. I see him in a powerful cabinet post in the future, possibly Finance or Industry. He also looks like the heir apparent right now, which could be interesting, creating something like a Trudeau/Turner, Turner/Chretien, Chretien/Martin relationship. As we know, most of those ended in a internal Liberal Civil War...
Scott Brison: I thought he burnt some bridges with Dion today, by going over to the Iggnatieff camp and ranting on and on how Dion could not win in Quebec. I think that this act will result in Brison having a lesser cabinet position then he would have otherwise.
Micheal Iggnatieff: His future could be interesting, depending on his actions. He is too old for another leadership run, but he could stay on and maybe have a cabinet position. However, that cabinet position is going to be one that minimizes the possible damage a Iggnatieff gaffe (TM) could cause. Or he could step out of politics and write a book about being a leadership contender.
Stéphane Dion: Well, he won. I've always thought that he had a good chance of coming up the middle, but there were times where I thought he doomed himself, like the Orchard endorsement.
1 comment:
Personally, I think that Rae never really considered the scenario of being knocked off in the ballot in the first place. I think he didn't have a stategy after that and just didn't give a darn.
As for Rae's vote: It was secret, but I think it was for Ignatieff. I think he would do that so when he saw Ignatieff, his old school buddy, hw can say something like "hey buddy, sorry for the attacks and stuff during the campaign, by the way I voted for you." But I guess we'll never know.
As for Ignatieff running in the next election, I believed he said that he'd run after a contraversy reagrading his statement that he'd run depending on the leader. But I think it is more likely that Ignatieff will run than Rae - I think that Ignatieff will probably run again. As for getting foreign affairs: Harper put McKay there to keep him out of the way and it seems to be working
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