Wasn’t that a party!
Remember when the Globe and Mail used to have that little box on the bottom of the front page called ‘The Morning Smile’?
It’s back.
Well, at least I smiled when I read about New Brunswick MP Dominic Leblanc, what’s-his-name from the federal leadership prance (this hardly qualifies as a race), throw his support behind caucus fave Michael Ignatieff.
The third candidate in the Liberal leadership race, New Brunswick MP Dominic LeBlanc, pulled out yesterday to support Mr. Ignatieff, arguing that circumstances require Liberals to rally behind the “consensus” choice as leader – tacitly pressuring Mr. Rae to follow suit.
“The ideal scenario for me is that the Liberal caucus is united behind Michael Ignatieff as the leader,” Mr. LeBlanc said.
How funny to talk of consensus at a press conference organized by Liberal courtiers furiously try to organize a pre-Christmas coronation.
Leblanc threw down his sword – as expected – and declared his fealty to Ignatieff.
Damn if that repentant socialist Bob Rae won’t do the same.
“I don’t think coronations are generally very successful in political parties. … Most people believe it’s better to have a contest, it’s better to have a choice,” Rae, 60, told reporters in Toronto.
“What I’m proposing has a simple name – it’s democracy.” – Toronto Star, Dec. 9, 2008
I have to admire the stubborn obtuseness of a political party that can get so caught up in its own rules, procedures and processes that it fails at the one thing that matters: earning the respect of Canadians.
In his new book, Court Government and the Collapse of Accountability in Canada the United Kingdom, Donald Savoie refers to political parties as empty vessels.
Brian Flemming, a former Trudeau-era policy advisor, wrote a thought-provoking critical essay about Savoie’s argument in the October 2008 issue of the Literary Review of Canada.
In the article, entited ‘Control-Freak Kingdom’, Flemming summarizes Savoie’s thesis:
“The Canadian prime minister has become a Ruritanian king, surrounded by a coterie of courtiers and praise singers.”
Cue the choir; the Liberals and Michael Ignatieff are in the House.
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