Liberals slumber through choosing ten losers

How about that contest to lead the Liberal Party of Canada? A process lasting longer than a hockey season has officially stultified the pundits paid to keep track of the debate between candidates, reflecting the disillusion of party members who are supposed to be generating enthusiasm for Paul Martin’s replacement, before the July 1 deadline to sign up party members. Warren Kinsella isn’t so quick to write off “the most successful political machine in Western democracy”, even if this eleven-candidate battle has failed to generate sufficient friction. The movement to keep Michael Ignatieff from coasting into contention has merited its own website, Stop Iggy, and reinforced support of military action in Afghanistan becomes one less reason to believe Ignatieff would be a convincing replacement for Stephen Harper. Liblogger Jason Cherniak points out Bob Rae’s effort to develop a different message than his old university roommate “risks turning our Afghanistan policy into meaningless mush”, even though Rae has also vowed to not directly attack his leadership opponents. Greg Morrow is left asking on his democraticSPACE blog whether the Liberals want to present themselves as a top-down or bottom-up party – and if they choose a leader based on elitist appeal alone “both Stephen Harper and Jack Layton will surely see better days ahead”. But the grassroots image cultivated by Gerard Kennedy – who is making the most concerted effort to interact with bloggers – will invariably be accompanied by criticism that he lacks the statesman experience to make it on the world stage, and whether the endorsement of just two dozen of his Queen’s Park colleagues is indicative of a charismatic defect, even if he can make the case that becoming Prime Minister would be a natural progression from his established reputation in Toronto. The longer-shot sitting MPs Maurizio Bevilacqua and Scott Brison are doing their part to argue that, whomever the next Liberal leader turns out to be, they oughta be in the demographic range of the current PM. Meanwhile, Martha Hall Findlay has nothing to lose by articulating the bitterness felt by party faithful, who’d be rallying to amplify her voice – if they weren’t unaccustomed to outsider status.