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Liberal Party of Canada Leadership

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Brad Sallows said:
"I read Playboy for the articles."

"I follow Trudeau for the ideas."

While this may be true for the Young Dauphin as a person, consider his effectiveness as a sock puppet for whoever is in control of the Liberals. Using wide media acceptance (and the distinct reluctance for legacy media to actually ask questions or do any in depth investigating or reporting), you feed your ideas into the TelePrompTer and the Young Dauphin reads it to thundering applause and uncritical acceptance.

The best way for both Prime Minister Harper and Thomas Mulcair to effectively neutralize the Young Dauphin is to get him into unscripted terrain where his inability to think on his feet or answer detailed questions will get him into trouble. Pressing him for answers once he is manoeuvred into these positions will cause outbreaks of foot-in-mouth disease and an almost 100% certainty that he will explode in a childish temper tantrum (remember the POS remark in the House?) which can be rapidly exploited via social media.
 
It will be interesting to see how he fares in a real debate, rather than the mutual admiration society that he was recently subject to in Montreal. I agree with other observers... get him off script and stand back.
 
The Conservatives can win elections without much support in Quebec; the NDP and Liberals can not.  The Conservatives still enjoy the advantage of "let's you and him fight" (Mulcair and Trudeau).
 
A forlorn hope is forming up to storm the bastion of Liberal power brokers, and Joyce Murray *could* be the surprise winner of the contest after all. While this might be screamingly funny from some perspectives, the "three amigos" concept is probably dead in the water (although I would not put it past Thomas Mulcair to say something like "Hey; what a great idea! The NDP is sure to win Toronto, Vancouver and all these Quebec ridings if only the vote wasn't split....):

http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/03/28/murray-emerges-as-primary-challenger-to-trudeau-as-grassroots-groups-rally-behind-the-vancouver-mp/

Murray emerges as primary challenger to Trudeau as grassroots groups rally behind the Vancouver MP

Canadian Press | 13/03/28 8:23 PM ET
More from Canadian Press
The latest fundraising numbers for federal Liberal leadership contenders suggest Joyce Murray has emerged as the primary challenger to front-runner Justin Trudeau.

The latest fundraising numbers for federal Liberal leadership contenders suggest Joyce Murray has emerged as the primary challenger to front-runner Justin Trudeau.

The second of four weekly financial reports filed with Elections Canada show Trudeau raised another $35,000 over the past week, on top of the $1 million reported previously.

But Vancouver MP Murray continued to show momentum, pulling in $29,000, for a total of $198,000 over the entire campaign.

That moves her ahead of former Toronto MP Martha Hall Findlay, who has raised a total of $186,500.

Hall Findlay started out strongly, raising $115,000 by the end of last year.

But her fundraising effort seems to have stalled as the race heads down the home stretch; she raised just $7,500 over the past week.

Related

    Trudeau touts Liberals as ‘pragmatic’ alternative to parties occupying ‘the fringes’ of Canadians politics
    Justin Trudeau winning Liberal leadership fundraising by a landslide
    Kelly McParland: Liberal leadership race comes down to Toronto Boomers for Justin

Murray’s campaign has been given a big boost from grassroots and online advocacy groups who’ve endorsed her strong environmental platform and her plan for one-time electoral co-operation among progressive parties aimed at ensuring defeat of Stephen Harper’s Conservatives in 2015.

She’s also received high-profile endorsements from the likes of environmental activist David Suzuki, former House of Commons Speaker Peter Milliken and constitutional expert Peter Russell.

Among the other contenders, former cabinet minister Martin Cauchon raised $21,000 this week, for a total of $124,000.

Retired military officer Karen McCrimmon raised $6,000, for a total of $32,000.

And Toronto constitutional lawyer Deborah Coyne raised $2,000, for a total of $29,000.

In last year’s NDP leadership race, the fundraising prowess of each of the contenders turned out to be a good indicator of the order in which they crossed the finish line.

The co-relation may not be quite as pronounced in the Liberal contest, the results of which are to be announced on April 14.

Unlike the NDP, which used a true one-member-one-vote system to elect Tom Mulcair, the Liberals intend to weight their votes to give each riding equal clout. Hence, the geographic distribution of each candidate’s support could skew the outcome.

Party president Mike Crawley announced Thursday that 130,774 supporters and members have registered to vote — less than half the 294,000 who initially signed up to take part in the leadership contest.

Three quarters of those registered voters — some 98,250 — are supporters, according to Crawley. Just 32,750 are actual card-carrying, dues-paying members of the party.

The third-place Liberals created the new supporter class in a bid to open up the leadership process and engage more Canadians in the effort to rebuild the once-mighty party.

Depending on how many registered voters actually cast ballots, Crawley said the contest could be “the biggest, most open federal political party leadership vote in Canadian history.”
 
The Toronto Sun started off the new fiscal year with an editorial endorsement of Justin Trudeau for the next prime minister. This 1 April editorial is reproduced under the Fair Dealing provisions of the Copyright Act.

Editorial

Foolish not to go with Justin Trudeau

QMI Agency

First posted: Monday, April 01, 2013 01:23 AM EDT | Updated: Monday, April 01, 2013 02:02 AM EDT
 
After a long and raucous editorial board meeting, one that led to the unprecedented dismissal of several senior editors, Sun Media has decided to endorse Justin Trudeau as the next prime minister of Canada.

Put aside everything we have said before.

Reality speaks volumes, and Sun Media, more than any other news organization in this great country, is not afraid to face reality when it starts to stare us down.

In reviewing Justin Trudeau's run for the Liberal leadership, we have come to realize that he cannot be simply dismissed as a Shiny Pony and, although somewhat vacuous in both policy and substance, scientists tell us that all a vacuum needs to break out of its nothingness is a bit of air.

Let's give Trudeau that air, for the time has come to forgive the sins of the infamous father, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, and realize that some genetic apples do fall far enough away from the tree to not be equally rotten.

For too long now, Sun Media has fought tooth-and-nail for the kind of fiscal conservatism that Prime Minister Stephen Harper first embraced when he had a minority government but has set sadly aside now that he has his long-sought majority in the House of Commons.

Or, to put it more succinctly, the taxpayers' money his finance minister, Jim Flaherty, has spent in building up both the debt and deficit, even though there is a promise of balancing the budget by 2015, finally had us searching for someone with more imagination and a less targeted focus.

Only Justin Trudeau fills that bill.

Look around. If we wanted to replace Stephen Harper today, would any right-thinking person look to NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair to step into the breach with fanciful visions of what Canada could be, if only faux conservatism were cast into the wind?

Stardust is the elixir this country needs, and only Justin Trudeau has such wizard-like magic in his wand.

Don't cut him short like we at Sun Media initially did before we gave our collective heads a shake.

A big no, therefore, to Stephen Harper.

Yes, however, to the great and powerful Oz, er . . . Justin Trudeau.
 
The numbers (130,000 members + supporters, not the 295,000 they talked about) bode ill for the Liberals. They have about the same level of supports (counting those 'supporters' who don't pay dues, etc) as the NDP had a year ago in dues paying members ... are they really going to go far with this? See Gloria Galloway and Nick Nanos in this video clip.
 
Has anyone else here read the book Big Shift described in this article below?

National Post link

John Ivison: I wouldn’t place a wager on the Liberals being in power in two years time


“Polls, polls, polls. Forget them,” advised the architect of Justin Trudeau’s apparently successful campaign to become the Liberal Party’s next leader.

Gerald Butts, Mr. Trudeau’s latter-day Svengali, tweeted the advice after a new Forum Research poll in the National Post suggested a Trudeau-led Liberal Party would win a majority government, were an election held today.

Another poll by Ipsos Reid for Postmedia, released Thursday, had the Liberals tied with the Conservatives, up six points since November. This is more in line with the weighted average of all recent national polls and would still leave Stephen Harper running a minority government, in part because of Conservative strength in the 30 new seats that will be created before the next election.

This would be the ideal result for Mr. Trudeau. It would doubtless mean the departure of Stephen Harper and another election within 18 months, by which time he would be much better equipped to govern.

The Trudeau team should hope the Ipsos poll is closer to the mark than the Forum one. A majority Liberal government in 2015 would be problematic, given their relative lack of bench strength; a minority win would be potentially disastrous, particularly if it were as part of a coalition with the NDP. It takes years of skill and study to master the art of political navigation and the likely destination of a Trudeau minority would be high and dry.

But I wouldn’t place a wager on the Liberals being in power in two years time.


Taking any of the current polls at face value ignores the blizzard of attack ads that the new leader will have to face down in the coming months — and his apparent aversion to taking positions on the weighty issues of the day.

At the moment, he is a giant blank screen and people are able to project their own image of what a Trudeau government would mean. Many, many of them will be disillusioned when he is forced to break cover on complex, emotive issues like Israel, pricing carbon and tax cuts.

Having dismissed the sense of destiny surrounding the Young Pretender, his ascension to the highest office in the land would hardly provoke the same incredulity with which the audience at the premiere of Conan the Barbarian might have taken the news that they were watching the future governor of California.

I certainly give him better odds of becoming prime minister than the authors of new book The Big Shift, pollster Darrell Bricker and journalist John Ibbitson, who argue the Liberal Party is “in peril regardless of whom they select as their next leader.” Messrs. Bricker and Ibbitson argue that power has shifted from Canada’s “elites” to a coalition of the West and Ontario’s suburbs, aided by a wave of conservative immigrants. They point to ridings like Brampton-Springdale, where visible minorities make up 47% of voters, as constituencies where the Liberals lost out to the Tories in the 2011 general election, which they consider a “fracture in time.” The Conservatives won another 20 seats in the 905 area-code region around Toronto.

However, as Mr. Butts knows from his time as Dalton McGuinty’s advisor, the rich ring of ridings around Toronto is fickle. In 1995, Mike Harris’s Common Sense Revolution swept the 905, including all the immigrant-rich ridings in Brampton, Mississauga and Etobicoke; five years later, Dalton McGuinty won them all back for the Liberals.

The crucial event in the intervening period was that the Ontario Progressive Conservatives ran out of steam and the budget slid back into deficit.

There’s no doubt that the “strivers” in the suburbs respond to messages about balanced budgets, low taxes and law and order. But the Tories don’t have a monopoly on those messages. It may be harder for Mr. Trudeau to simultaneously appeal to what British novelist Michael Frayn once memorably referred to as “herbivores” and “carnivores” (the former, signers of petitions, backers of public broadcasting; the latter, meritocrats trying to amass as many worldly goods as possible).

But if the Conservatives fail to balance the budget by the 2015 election or the economy slides back into recession, the suburbs could be up for grabs.


The Ipsos poll suggests that Mr. Harper still holds an edge in managing the economy during tough economic times but his reputation looks badly dented, and Mr. Trudeau outscores him on virtually all other criteria, including trust and having the right stuff to lead.

It all lends weight to Mark Twain’s observation that if you don’t read about current events you are uninformed, and if you do, you are misinformed. This column being an exception, of course.

National Post
 
S.M.A. said:
Has anyone else here read the book Big Shift described in this article below?

National Post link

I just finished the book yesterday. In light of the recent polls, the authors make an interesting point from their research: the economy is the most important issue facing the country, and the CPC is the party that is best able to manage the economy.
 
It seems the delta between the reported numbers of supporters and the actual people willing to put their money down is far greater than most people imagine. This CBC report lays out some rather incredible numbers for the upcoming convention:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2013/04/04/pol-advancer-liberal-showcase.html?cmp=rss&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Liberals get ready for 'mini-convention'
Ticket sales have been slow for showcase at Metro Toronto Convention Centre

By Leslie MacKinnon, CBC News Posted: Apr 5, 2013 5:33 AM ET Last Updated: Apr 5, 2013 9:44 AM ET Read 284 comments284

The politics of carbon emissions and the environment13:20
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Federal Liberal leadership race

The Liberal leadership contest enters its home stretch Saturday with a Toronto event the Liberal Party is calling its National Showcase, where the six remaining candidates will make their final pitch to voters. But so far, not many tickets have been sold.

Ian McKay, the Liberal Party's national director, told the media at a briefing Wednesday that the showcase is a mini-convention, a "happy time for Liberals," which will last for one afternoon. But the tension and drama of past leadership conventions will be absent, since a leader won't be announced until a week later.

Live CBC coverage Saturday
CBCNews.ca will carry the Liberal showcase live starting at 12 noon ET, with a live blog and livestreaming video.

You can also watch the even live on CBC News Network.

The venue for the showcase, Toronto's Metro Convention Centre, has a 1,500-seat capacity, but a Liberal Party spokesman said as of Wednesday night, only 219 of the $150 tickets had been sold. One leadership candidate said the top ticket price is out of reach for some families.

McKay said he expects all 1,500 seats will be filled. Cheaper tickets are available to party members who belong to the Liberals' Victory Club and Laurier Club, or for Liberal youth members.

Observers, who are often people from other political parties, will have to pay $499 to attend.

Candidates will get 100 tickets each
Each of the six candidates will be allocated 100 seats for their own supporters and cheering section, but it's not entirely clear if the candidates have to pay for those tickets. One candidate thought the tickets might be free, but a long-time Liberal Party member said it would be ridiculous for the party to allow 600 tickets to be given away for nothing.

A party spokesperson said candidates may be able to request more than 100 tickets for their supporters, organizers and volunteers.

Some candidates, such as Deborah Coyne and Karen McCrimmon, who have raised very little money, may not be able to afford many tickets.

The doors open at noon ET Saturday and events will kick off shortly after 1 p.m. with a tribute to interim Liberal Leader Bob Rae, followed by a speech from Rae. The Rae tribute will be introduced by former prime minister Paul Martin.

Between 2 and 5 p.m., the six candidates will speak, and some may give video presentations or have supporters speak to the crowd.

McCrimmon said she intends to speak for only 15 minutes, although every candidate is allowed 25 minutes. "I'm one of those people who believe if you can't say it in 15 minutes, you're going to lose them anyway," she said an in interview Thursday.

McCrimmon is working on a "low key, technology-wise" homemade PowerPoint presentation to use during her speech.

The order of speakers will be Coyne, McCrimmon, Joyce Murray, Justin Trudeau, Martha Hall Findlay and Martin Cauchon.

Once the event ends, registered voters attending the showcase will be able to vote. Others will be allowed to vote starting Sunday, online or by phone using a PIN number, until Sunday, April 14.

On April 14, the new Liberal leader will be announced in Ottawa during the early evening at an event at the Westin hotel.
 
I'm disappointed by the lack of discussion on policy through this "leadership race"- it certainly hasn't felt like a race. The party has essentially thrown their lot behind the guy-Trudeau-who they feel will get them back to power the quickest. And most of Trudeau's appeal has come through his surname and personality. To discuss policy will actually hurt him. What a race, what a party, b'y...
 
Stephen Harper and Thomas Mulcair might run into each other getting their quota of tags for hunting season, but this article shows the LPC is probably already dead in the water. They may be able to make a fight of Quebec (especially if the BQ or similar party is also contesting the province, making each seat a three way race), but they have entirely failed to do "renewal", rethink policy options or otherwise position themselves for the electorate. Party leadership wasn't even able to stage manage any sort of excitement to the race/coronation, so the idea that there is "momentum" coming from the convention is laughable.

The CPC is entrenching their economic manager credentials, while the NDP is reworking their constitution and overall policy approach (maybe this is just semantics, smoke and mirrors, but it is still policy work) to cement their place as the "Center-Left" party. So the question is: "Where do the Liberals fit in the political landscape"? The Center is almost entirely occupied now, and unless they can come up with some really out of the box thinking post haste, their options seem limited to attempting to team up with or merge with other "Progressive" parties. The NDP isn't interested and I doubt the Greens can really offer enough to tempt the LPC to merge with them. Some NP pundits have called for a makeover of the LPC to become a libertarian party; but there is already a Libertarian Party (which lacks the finances and organizational skill to became a challenger), so what is left?

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2013/04/06/jesse-kline-liberals-will-have-tough-challenge-building-momentum-following-todays-showcase/

Jesse Kline: Liberals will have tough challenge building momentum following today’s showcase

Jesse Kline | 13/04/06 | Last Updated: 13/04/06 6:10 PM ET
More from Jesse Kline | @accessd

TORONTO — Hordes of people marched down Front Street in Toronto early Saturday afternoon. The energy was palpable. And why not? This is the first time since the mid-1990s that the Toronto Blue Jays have a real chance of winning the World Series. As it turns out, the Liberal Party of Canada was also holding its leadership convention in the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

Although the streets outside were — somewhat ironically — filled with blue, rather than Liberal red, the energy inside the convention centre was still lively. Supporters wearing Justin Trudeau paraphernalia and carrying signs loudly voiced support for their chosen candidate as party members and supporters rode the escalators into the convention hall.

When the leadership contenders arrived, they were followed by an entourage of supporters. Trudeau’s entrance could not be missed. He was followed by a mob of people chanting his names and noisily banging sticks sticks and ringing cowbells. He was followed by a much smaller contingent of Joyce Murray supporters changing “Joyce is the choice.” They looked so lonely. But such is the 2013 Liberal leadership race: A coronation disguised as a competition.

Related
Liberal leadership hopefuls get final ‘national showcase’ before voting starts
An illustrated guide to the Liberal leadership vote: From the ranked ballots to the ceremonial heart eating
Like father, like son?: A look at how closely Justin Trudeau may tread in his father’s footsteps
Trudeau would be prime minister if election was held today, poll finds
John Ivison: I wouldn’t wager on the Liberals being in power in two years time

Dubbed as a “mini-convention,” this afternoon’s festivities features speeches from all the remaining candidates, a tribute to interim leader Bob Rae and a warm-up from former prime minister Paul Martin. At 5:00 p.m. EST, Liberal supports and party members will begin voting for their next leader. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, Trudea will be proclaimed as the winner on April 14. Not only is his victory expected by pollsters and pundits alike, judging from the number of supporters who showed up on the convention floor, the young Trudeau has little to worry about.

The Liberal’s 2009 convention in Vancouver was all about building grassroots support. Michael Ignatieff spoke about rebuilding the party “from the grassroots-up.”But he ran for the leadership uncontested, giving the grassroots little choice in the direction the party would be taking. “I respect the grassroots of this party,” said Ignatieff at the time. “And I know I can’t rebuild this party unless it’s from the bottom-up.” We all know how well that worked out.

Not given a choice over the leader, the 2009 convention was all about policy. Party members held a series of workshops, developing non-binding policy proposals on everything from human rights commissions to the environment. This time around, policy is noticeably absent. As the National Post‘s Kelly McParland noted on Thursday, Trudeau is widely expected to win, but we still don’t know his position on key issues ranging from his support for Israel to trade and the economy.

Not only have concrete policy positions played little role in this year’s leadership race, the format of the voting — whereby supporters cast ballots online — makes the entire convention largely superfluous. The only question for Liberals is whether they can use this convention to build momentum that can be sustained through the next election. That may prove to be a challenge even tougher than winning the World Series.

National Post
 
I didn't pay much attention to the Liberal Party of Canada's showcase of its leadership candidates in Toronto, but, according to this article which is reproduced under the Fair Dealing provisions of the Copyright Act from the Toronto Star, national affairs columnist Tim Harper did:

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2013/04/06/liberal_leadership_candidate_justin_trudeaus_challenges_just_beginning_tim_harper.html
Liberal leadership candidate Justin Trudeau’s challenges just beginning: Tim Harper
Justin Trudeau’s hard work begins after the votes are counted in the federal Liberal leadership contest.

By: Tim Harper National Affairs

Published on Sat Apr 06 2013

Were there any doubters remaining, Justin Trudeau showed Liberals, and any Canadians willing to surrender part of their Saturday afternoon, that he plays in a different league than his leadership challengers.
The real question that is still unanswered is what league will a Trudeau-led third party be playing in by 2015?

The only time the Metro Toronto Convention Centre crackled with any excitement Saturday was during Trudeau’s appearance at a showcase event that had the unexpected result of showcasing how much trouble this party would have been in had the Papineau MP decided to wait for another election cycle before reaching for the top.

The obvious front-runner merely cemented his position, but he was lapping the others in a very shallow pool.

trudeau.jpg.size.xxlarge.letterbox.jpg

DAVID COOPER / TORONTO STAR
Justin Trudeau did nothing Saturday to ease concerns that he has avoided talking about specific policies
in the Liberal leadership contest, writes Tim Harper.


The two women who had hoped to use this final event to build some momentum on the eve of party voting both underperformed.

Joyce Murray, it becomes clear in a mini-convention hall, may have an electoral co-operation policy that sets her apart, experience in government and some high profile endorsements from former foreign affairs minister Lloyd Axworthy and environmentalist David Suzuki, but has difficulty lifting words and ideas off the page.

Her one-time, voter co-operation message fell flat in the hall and her hope now has to be that those who signed up to vote for her for that single reason will look beyond her performance here and vote for the concept.

Martha Hall Findlay meandered through her speech, unable to decide where she was going to be folksy or substantive and accomplished neither.

Neither Deborah Coyne, Karen McCrimmon nor Martin Cauchon left anyone with any memories from the day.

All suffered from too much time and too little to say.

That left Trudeau to be the lone jewel in this showcase.

He did nothing to assuage concerns from those who believe he has brought a paucity of policy to this exercise, but on Saturday he could not be faulted for that, because this was not the type of forum made for a laundry list of policy.

He looked beyond the horizon and took his case to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and NDP leader Tom Mulcair.

He vowed that his vision would treat immigrants and newcomers as “community and nation-builders . . . not a demographic to be mined for votes.”

He vowed to undo the combative Harper foreign policy and bring constructive voices, not discordant ones to the world stage.

“I have met, talked with, and learned from more Canadians in the past six months than Mr. Harper has in the past six years,” he said.

He accused Mulcair of using western resources for eastern votes and playing the same divisive political game as Harper.

Electoral co-operation? It would create a “Frankenstein’s monster, at war with itself over fundamental values,” that would extend Harper’s career, Trudeau said.

If there was substance missing from Trudeau’s speech, he did not shrink from a mention of the famous name and the famous father.

It was the 45th anniversary of Pierre Trudeau’s ascension to the Liberal leadership and the son now known simply as “Justin” acknowledged that his campaign was all about his father — and everyone else’s father and mother, and the country they built for us.

Trudeau’s departure from the stage took the remaining air out of the room, but there was something else missing from Saturday’s proceedings.

The hard work ahead for the Liberals was paid lip service by every prospective leader, but nothing more than that.

A party which has too often in recent history reached for the shiny bauble rather than roll up its sleeves, a gang that looks back at past triumphs instead of peering bravely into the future, can no longer do either if it is to find relevance.

It has been questioned many times, but still one is left to wonder if the magnitude of the work was really evident to those who gathered here.

“Hope, my friends, yes,” said Trudeau. “Always hope. But more than that. Hope and hard work.’’

Just words, but words that needed to be heard, nonetheless.

The reality check came from outgoing interim leader, Bob Rae, a welcome parting gift to those who were there to pay him tribute.

He reminded a party torn apart in the past by internecine battles that unity was vital.

He reminded the party that it is only as strong as its weakest riding association and that there will be 338 ridings that need work in the 30 months before the next election.

The easiest part of this for Trudeau is winning the race.

Assuming that is confirmed a week from now, the real hard work for him is just beginning.

Tim Harper is a national affairs writer. His column usually appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. tharper@thestar.ca Twitter:@nutgraf1


I agree that winning this "race," if that's the right word, is the easy part. It is not clear to me that the Liberal Party of Canada, riven with internecine strife ever since the 1960s, has done anything except to have, yet again, "reached for the shiny bauble."
 
Many of us have noted that Justin Trudeau's route to power is through Quebec; he must have a "firm base" from which to launch a national offensive. This is the front page of today's Journal de Montréal:

CAN_JM.jpg


The pages of the English language media are full of Trudeau ... what's the problem in French speaking Quebec?
 
E.R. Campbell said:
Many of us have noted that Justin Trudeau's route to power is through Quebec; he must have a "firm base" from which to launch a national offensive. This is the front page of today's Journal de Montréal:

The pages of the English language media are full of Trudeau ... what's the problem in French speaking Quebec?

......that they don't consider him the Quebec son and savior he purports to be? Or, as the last election showed, they just don't find the liberals capable of delivering the lopsided, extortion payment, largesse of Ottawa that they have come to expect as Quebec's right?
 
E.R. Campbell said:
Many of us have noted that Justin Trudeau's route to power is through Quebec; he must have a "firm base" from which to launch a national offensive. This is the front page of today's Journal de Montréal:

CAN_JM.jpg


The pages of the English language media are full of Trudeau ... what's the problem in French speaking Quebec?

The Habs didn't totally crush the Bruins  ;D

On a serious note, except for political jnkies who view poitics the way Habs fans view hockey, this was a total non event; much like the NDP rewrite of their constituton or the faux scandals manufactured by the Legacy media are also a non events on the street. The real question for every political party (all 19 of them) is how to become as interesting to the general public as the Habs or whatever Hollywood (or Bollywood, for that matter) celebrity is on todays reality TV show. The LPC is obviously beting that celebrity fairy dust is the path to power, with some frightening implications for our society if they are correct.
 
John Ibbitson makes the (hopeful?) case that Justin Trudeau has, somehow or other (magically?) settled nearly 40 years of Liberal divisions in this article which is reproduced under the Fair Dealing provisions of the Copyright Act from the Globe and Mail:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/trudeaus-rise-brings-broken-liberal-party-back-together/article10840027/
Trudeau’s rise brings broken Liberal Party back together

JOHN IBBITSON
The Globe and Mail

Published Monday, Apr. 08 2013

Four decades of civil war that took it to the brink of ruin are over. Justin Trudeau will inherit a united Liberal Party.

A week of voting lies ahead before the next Liberal leader is revealed Sunday, after a weekend showcase dominated by Trudeau supporters who whooped it up in celebration of his certain victory.

A party famous for factional infighting appeared united, jubilant and renewed. It also appears to have become Mr. Trudeau’s personal political machine. That machine runs without the bile that fuelled so many earlier campaigns. Mr. Trudeau’s most senior advisers played little part in the fratricide that plagued Liberals as the party descended from power to official opposition to also-ran.

Team Trudeau has recruited tens of thousands of supporters who are loyal only to him, who signed on as supporters simply to vote for him. And the campaign is expected to donate nearly $1-million to party coffers beyond campaign expenses, finally bringing the Liberals into the modern age of political fundraising.

A party that appeared bereft of money, of organization, of leadership, is finally renewing itself under the presumptive leadership of a 41-year-old outsider who has banished the old guard and who is bringing the Liberals both generational change and internal peace.

“The biggest enemy the Liberal Party has faced over the past many years is its own internal divisions,” said Alfred Apps, former president of the party. “That is now behind us.”

About 217,000 people are eligible to cast ballots online or by phone for the next Liberal leader before the Sunday afternoon deadline. About three-quarters of them belong to the new “supporters” category, which allows people to vote for a leader without becoming card-carrying members. By every indication, most of these supporters signed up to vote for Mr. Trudeau.

In effect, they overwhelmed the aging and shrinking factions who, at one time or another, had supported Michael Ignatieff against Stéphane Dion, or Paul Martin against Jean Chrétien, or Jean Chrétien against John Turner, all the way back to 1975, when Mr. Turner, nursing his own ambitions, resigned as Pierre Trudeau’s finance minister.

And because none of Justin Trudeau’s challengers turned out to pose the slightest threat, there will be no prominent second-place finisher nursing his grievances, as local Iagos whisper poison in his ear.

Mr. Trudeau has run the first effective Liberal leadership fundraising campaign since the Chrétien government abolished corporate donations to parties and the Harper government restricted individual ones.

Team Trudeau has raised so much money that the party will have funds available to respond to whatever attack ads the Conservatives launch in an effort to tarnish the new leader’s lustre.

All of this is to the credit not only of the telegenic, charismatic scion of the emerging Trudeau dynasty, but of a team led by Gerald Butts, who was personal secretary to Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty, and Katie Telford, who also has a Queen’s Park background (though she worked at one point for Mr. Dion).

Not only do they come from outside the federal party, carrying little or none of the baggage from the previous wars, party insiders say they made a point of not recruiting – or not even returning the calls from – old-guard types who volunteered their services.

“The leadership of the tribes has played virtually no role in any of this,” Mr. Apps observed.

What remains of the old party’s infrastructure will pay a price. Trudeau people will soon be in all the key roles, and the Trudeau machine will supplant the Liberal fundraising arm, such as it was.

The new guard will have little patience with a constitution and infrastructure that still places considerable power in the hands of the provincial wings of the national party, overseen by local warlords.

Expect all of that to be swept away, replaced by a centralized organization devoted to recruiting a national base of mass support using the most sophisticated tools of communication and fundraising.

It still might not be enough to overcome Stephen Harper, his powerful political machine and his rock-solid political base. But root-and-branch renewal was always the necessary, if not sufficient, condition if the Liberal Party was to survive beyond the next election.

It would seem that condition has been met.


I think John Ibbitson is historically inaccurate and, therefore, hopelessly optimistic.

The deep divisions do not date from Trudeau vs. Turner circa 1975; they are rooted in the 1960 Kingston Conference and the divisions are between the visions of Pierre Trudeau and Walter Gordon, on the left hand, and Louis St Laurent and Walter Harris et al on the other, right, fiscally conservative hand. The new, left-wing Liberals (Trudeau, Gordon, etc) highjacked the CCF/NDP agenda (King had, famously, described the CCF as "Liberals in a hurry") but they simply assumed that the economic boom which St Laurent, Harris, Howe etc had overseen would last forever - many Liberals, including John Turner, knew that was a deeply flawed assumption, and that - pretty basic "ways and means" - is the source of the Liberal Party's divisions and they are nearly 60 years old. The dispute is not about power, it is about economic principles: St Laurent had 'em, Trudeau didn't; the Liberal Party of Canada has yet to decide if it wants some. John Turner, Paul Martin Jr. and Martha Hall Findlay did/do want a sound, principled economic policy, Pierre Trudeau, Jean Chrétien* and Stéphane Dion did not; it is not clear what Justin Trudeau thinks, if he does.


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* In fairness, M. Chrétien ran a somewhat fiscally conservative government but, in the main, he did not trim spending, instead he offloaded the entitlement burden to Alberta, BC and Ontario.
 
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