Canadian Liberal Leadership Election 2013

[DL]

I don't find Leblanc to be at all "personable". He comes across as a bit of a wet blanket and not charismatic at all. I don't think he is much a retail politician. He may be the best of a mediocre lot - but if he's "personable" - Stephen Harper is the "life of the party"!

[DL]

DL: Out of curiosity, are you from NB and/or have you met LeBlanc?

I'm from Ontario. never met Leblanc - just seen him on TV and find him very blah.

[DL]

For Coderre, the rumors have him running for Montreal's mayorship in 2013. He didn't denyed than he was interested.

That would be one more Liberal seat in Quebec that the NDP could easily scoop up in a byelection. There are also rumours that Stephane Dion will quit.

[DL]

Not so easily. Bourassa has a big Italian population. The Italians seems to be still in the Liberal Party, see Saint-Michel--Saint-Léonard.

I have family there, and he doesn't see the Liberals losing it. Well, to be fair, I didn't thought BQ could lose Abitibi--Témiscamingue and they lost it by around 10000 votes.

The Liberals probably only managed to hang on in Bourassa because Coderre is still somewhat of a "big name" and because the NDP ran a total unknown - and while that was enough for them to win some totally francophone ridings - the non-francophone vote didn't swing quite as strongly NDP as the francophone did. When and if Coderre quits - it will be a whole different situation. The NDP would probably have a strongly contested nomination and would have all kinds of prominent people wanting to run. Bourassa has a very large Haitian community (which Coderre worked hard at catering to) and the NDP seems to be making major inroads in the recent immigrant/visible minority communities.  It would be a VERY interesting byelection - when and if it happens.

[DL]

I think in the end Justin Trudeau will run - despite his low intelligence and all the rumours about him - and in a one member one vote process, he will win because Liberals will project on to him and see what they want to see. Then he will lead them to lose official party status in 2015

[DL]

New Abacus poll says CPC 40%, NDP 31%, Liberals 18%...I guess dreaming of second place was fun for the Liberals while it lasted...

[DL]

Ottawa CW seems to be that Rae4P is a done deal, just awaiting the formal announcement after Copps is elected and repeals that rule.

There is no "rule" to repeal. There is nothing in the Liberal Party constitution that says that an interim leader cannot run for the permanent leadership of the party. Bob Rae solemnly swore on a stack of Bibles that he would never run for the permanent leadership of the party if he could be interim leader. People grudgingly let him have the interim job because they took him at his word that he had absolutely no interest in running for the permanent job.

If he decides to run for the leadership he will not be breaking any "rule". He will just be breaking his word and exposing himself as a LIAR.

[DL]

The Liberals have actually lost far more votes to the Tories in Ontario over the past decade than they have to the NDP. Those are the votes they need to win back. In 2004 the Tories took 31% in Ontario and this soared to 45% in 2011 ALL from the Liberals. During the same period the NDP vote went from 18% in 2004 to 26% in 2011.

[DL]

Maybe Kennedy's French is better now, but it stank like sh**t when he ran for Liberal leader in 2006. He was billed as being fluently bilingual and then when he opened his mouth in the leaders debates - it turned out that his French was dreadful.

One can be forgiven for not speaking perfect French, but its a big problem when someone boasts about being perfectly bilingual and it turns out that they speak French like my ass chews gum!

[DL]

If Lamoureux weren't in his first full term in Parliament, he would be an interesting choice for leader.

He is an anti-abortion fanatic....not much chance of Liberals wanting to go that way!

[DL]

In other words the Liberals will be the "boutique" party for people who are too smart o toe conservative and too rich o toe NDP!

[DL]

Why would the NDP have any interest in merging with the Liberals when all the polls show the NDP already dead even with the Tories even with the Liberals still staggering through their death rattle with 19% of the vote. It was a totally different situation when the PCs and the Canadian Alliance merged in 2003. The Liberals under Paul Martin were consistently polling over 50% and the PCs and Tories were both in the teens. They realized that merging was the only way to escape annhilation. At the time they weren't even thinking about winning - it was about survival. The NDP has good reason to believe they can win the next election on their own. Why waste time playing games with the dying Liberals?

[DL]

The Tories only have to lose about 12 seats and their majority is gone and then the NDP can form a minority government. The federal Tories right now would lose their majority just on a 1% swing to the opposition...if I'm the NDP I have plenty of reason for optimism.

Again as I said before, in 2003 the federal Liberals looked absolutely, totally, utterly invincible!! Martin was expected to win 250 seats in the 2004 election! Books like "Gritlock" were being written that speculated that the Liberals might NEVER lose power...ever!

Who needs shady deals with the Liberal remnants, by 2015 the Tories will have pissed off a few more people, the NDP will be even more established as the only real alternative and just the slightest little breeze will send Tory seats cascading to the NDP and in some cases to the Liberals in Ontario and BC and a few in Man/Sask.

No one in the NDP or the Liberal parties would give any thought to merger unless they feel they are in a situation of "mutual assured self-destruction". The Liberals might be feeling desperate these days, but I think the NDP sees the next election as being totally winnable and regards the Liberals as irrelevant - which they are!

[DL]

The federal Liberals are essentially now the "red Tory" party.

[DL]

James Moore has the most beautiful dogs! He often uploads their photos on Facebook.

Aww. But I'm still voting for Jason Kenney when the time comes.

Does Kenney still claim to be a virgin like he did not long after he was first elected?

[DL]

Sounds like the Liberals had a meeting to decide to have a meeting at which time they will meet on rules for a later meeting of the party to eventually decide on a leader....

did i miss anything?

[DL]

The NDP must be thrilled at what a weak field of leadership candidates the Liberals seem to have.

[DL]

Joyce Murray would be a joke of a candidate she was an Eco-terrorist as Environment Minister in the EXTREME rightwing Campbell government...I don't think she speaks any French either.

[DL]

I have to say that one of the most useless things I ever see in polling are these "how would you vote if (insert name) was leader of such and such a party?". It's beyond hypothetical and more often than not means nothing if that person wins. According to hypothetical polls like this, if the BC Liberals picked Christy Clark as their new leader they were supposed to sweep the province! Today they are 30 points behi d and in danger of falling into third place.

In Quebec in particular people sometimes get briefly attracted to the latest bright, shiny bauble...a year ago it was Francois Legault...now he has crashed and burned. In fact when the PQ was floundering under Boisclair, polls showed they would do better with Marois, then she became leader and promptly tanked.

IF Justin Trudeau became Liberal leader he would have almost no where to go but down, he is not smart, makes major gaffes every time he opens his mouth and has no idea what he stands for. He inherited his brains from his mother. I'm not sure he would even withstand the scrutiny of a 9 month Liberal leadership contest let alone years as a third party leader. Any poll about JT right is essentially nothing more than a measure of name recognition.

[DL]

I think Christy Clark of BC would be the perfect federal Liberal leader. She has all the necessary ingredients - she's perky, zany and bouncy and doesn't have any policy ideas and has good ties to the tories so she can attract disaffected Tory voters out west. What's not to like? The Liberals need a bouncy cheerleader to lead them out of the wilderness.

[DL]

The article is weird. The headline refers to "Trudeau's 'team' taking shape" but then when you read it - there is mention one individual who may or not not get involved if Justin does or does not run...one possible person is not what i call a "team".

[DL]

The other parties are licking their lips with glee that the Liberals might go for a gaffe prone airhead like Justin Trudeau as their leader.

Imagine the once great Liberal Party that was once associated with competent fiscal management etc...led by someone whose only qualifiaction is having been a substitute drama teacher in a high school.

[DL]

Justin is an object of ridicule yet again. He exhibited remarkably poor political judgement this week and recorded robo-calls for the Ontario Liberals in the provincial byelection in Kitchener_waterloo where he said if Kitchener-Waterloo elected an NDP MPP in the byelection it would lead to the break up of Canada (PS: The NDP won easily and the Liberals were humiliated)...even Liberals are groaning. This from a guy who said just months ago that he thinks that Quebec shoudl separate if Harper is re-elected in 2015.

Justin is a boy not a man, he has zero gravitas and zero qualifiactions. Caveat emptor Liberals.

[DL]

Justin Trudeau will do for the federal Liberals what Christy Clark did for the BC Liberals. They are very much cut from the same cloth!

[DL]

Apparently (Joyce) Murray will be the token left-Liberal in the race. Go figure.

That's pretty laughable. Joyce Murray's previous claim to fame was to have been a cabinet minister in the ultra-rightwing first term Gordon Campbell government. She went berzerk as a Campbell BC Liberal - first as environment minister where she was pilloried as the "minister AGAINST the environment" where she gleefully tore up environmental regulations and did as she was told by the forestry and mining industry...then she was health minister where she went out of her way to privatize services, and crush the union representing the most low paid health care workers.