The Federal Liberal leadership race is on. Some people I know are excited.
Me? I’ve been having a really hard time getting excited about it.
Some of my blog friends have already thrown their support behind the candidates of their choice. Nicole and Bart are going for Gerard Kennedy, c-lo and Jason are going for Michael Ignatieff, and Mr. Cherniak going for Stephane Dion (You can check out other blogger endorsements here).
Having not fully decided who I will be supporting, here are some of my thoughts on some of the “top-tier” candidates…
Stephane Dion, St. Laurent-Cartierville – An intellectual heavyweight. He’s smart, a great debater, and would probably be a decent leader. He could easily take on Prime Minister Harper toe-to-toe in the House of Commons.
Michael Ignatieff, Etobicoke-Lakeshore – Unfairly treated in the Federal Election, no academic should be forced to defend their academic writings in 10 second news clips.
Though many people don’t seem to have an issue with this (c-lo), I do have trouble thinking that the next Prime Minister-in-waiting has only lived the last 6 months of the past 25 years in Canada. He’s untested, has very little political experience, and as far as I can tell hasn’t yet to even speak in the House of Commons (care to correct me?).
I would not dare to challenge his intellectual capacity, but I’m still undecided if he could sucessfully lead the Federal Liberals through the next couple years.
Bob Rae – The worst thing that ever happened to Bob Rae happened in 1990 when he became Premier of Ontario. Erase Ontario’s Rae-led NDP government from 1990 to 1995 and Rae doesn’t look so bad. Extremely intelligent, articulate, and educated, if he weren’t unelectable, he probably wouldn’t do such a bad job.
Gerard Kennedy – Though I hear he can get a little flakey at times, I think I like what I see in Gerard Kennedy. Born in Manitoba, studied at the U of A, founded the Edmonton Food Bank, ran a major Food Bank in Toronto. It seems like he actually has real-world experience compared to the privileged lives of his competitors. He’s young, supposedly bilingual, has experience in government (and is still popular), and isn’t connected to the Martin-Chretien divide.
Though I have yet to throw my support behind any candidate, I think I like most what I see in Mr. Kennedy.
I didn’t have many thoughts about the other candidates at the moment, but if you’d like to check out their websites, here they are…
Joe Volpe, Ken Dryden, Hedy Fry, Martha Hall Findlay, Maurizio Bevilacqua, Scott Brison, & Carolyn Bennett.
