Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Renewal: Commitment or catch phrase?

I agree with Robert Silver, who is fast becoming a must-read over at the Globe as a Liberal that gets it:

So here's my marker: Bob Rae, Michael Ignatieff and Dominic Leblanc have all indicated they will be candidates. If they intend to run as "renewal" candidates, they should all publicly, before Friday:

1.) Call on the executive to keep the convention in Vancouver

2.) Call on the executive to set the membership cut-off as late as possible (mid-February)

If they do, they will have passed the first minor "renewal" test. (And yes, there is way, way more to party renewal than just this.) If they don't, then I hope Liberals take note of which candidates have simply adopted an empty slogan rather than being serious about fixing the party.

For the record, Bob Rae's campaign has already said publicly the convention should stay in Vancouver:

Earlier, we reported federal Liberal leadership candidate Bob Rae supports keeping the party's convention in Vancouver. And, in an interview with Public Eye, Rae campaign spokesperson Sheila Gervais confirmed that position, saying, "Our view is that what's in the best interests of the party and Canadians, frankly, trumps candidates. And, in our view, the party should be encouraging as open and as accessible and as robust a race as they can. The party has to appeal to broad sections of the public that have not been favourable towards them through the last period. And Vancouver should be an area that the Liberal Party should be interested in."

Excellent. Michael, Dominic, want to chime in?

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