A minor
kerfuffle erupted in the political twittersphere yesterday evening following aCBC Power and Politics report claiming sources had told it the Liberal Party of
Canada’s national executive had decided
it would “allow” interim leader Bob Rae to run for the permanent leadership,
and that Rae had decided to go for the permanent job and had a team organized
and in place.
The twittersphere
quickly went bananas, as the twittersphere is want to do. And as media reports
are want to be, the report was just a little torqued and was later back-tracked
somewhat. The national executive hasn’t actually met yet; it’s expected to meet
Wednesday and it will make a decision then. Of course, they’re expected to
decide exactly what the CBC said they already had; the report was just slightly
premature.
And the
decision is really pro forma anyway; I’ve said all along that, as long as he steps
down form the interim job first, nothing prevents him from running for the
permanent job. There is no rule to change. All that stands in his way is his
promise, and we’ll get to that shortly.
So the decision from the executive, when it
comes, isn’t really major news. What is news though was the report, denied by
Rae, that he has made the decision to run for the permanent leadership and has
already organized a team to do so. From the CBC:
Sources say Rae has made his decision. He has started prepping staff and a team to help him with leadership. This signals he is in, Thibedeau said.
And it’s
not just the CBC. This is from CP:
Indeed, there have been signs that his campaign is already in gear, with at least one organizer, Toronto MP Jim Karygiannis, signing up supporters among ethnic communities across the country.
It should
be noted that Karygiannis tweeted that article, and that passage, which
certainly isn’t a denial of the report. Rather the opposite, in fact.
While he
could change his mind up until the moment he formally declares, Rae running
seems like a foregone conclusion. Frankly, it has since he took the interim
position last year. But since nothing has yet been carved in stone, I hope he
considers this caredully because I think him deciding to run would be a serious
and unfortunate mistake.
A promise
not to the executive, but to Liberal members
A lot of
revisionist history has begun to crop up about the events last summer under
which Rae assumed the interim leadership. First of all, he wasn’t the only
person willing to do the job. Marc Garneau, for example, indicated he wasprepared to serve but would yield to Rae if he wanted the job. And others in
caucus would have come forward; they didn’t because Rae expressed interest and
they respected him as a logical, able choice.
Also, an
evil and conniving national executive didn’t bind Rae into a strait-jacket and
force him to renounce his career ambitions as some sort of Get Bob conspiracy. The
executive laid-out clearly the criteria it was looking for in an interim
leader: they should be bilingual, they should have the support of caucus, and
they should pledge not to run for the permanent job. Why the last one? Because
the party needed an interim leader focused on rebuilding, not campaigning.
Because interim leader comes with a profile and budget paid by the taxpayers
and party fundraising dollars that other candidates don’t have. It would tilt
the playing field unfairly, and we need a fair race.
These
conditions were clear, transparent and were asked of all candidates. And, in
accepting them, Rae made a promise. Not just to the old executive, but to every
Liberal member. The “rule” such as it was went away once the interim leader was
selected. But his word remains. And while the executive can state the obvious
(as long as he steps down as interim leader first of course he’s free to run)
they can’t absolve him of his promise. Because it wasn’t just a promise to
them; it was a promise to us.
Now, if he
wants to go back on his word he’s going to need to explain why. Some people
will accept it, and some won’t. But it has to start with the honest admission
that yes, I did make a promise, and then go into here’s why.
Instead, we’ve
seen a coyness for months that has distracted the party from its work, and has
led the media to write distracting leadership stories instead of focusing on
the able work that has been happening in Parliament, opposing Harper. Clearstatements reaffirming his promise not to run have evolved into transparentstatements that “I’ll decide when the executive says if they’ll let me or not.”
A long time
coming
Frankly,
this is the scenario I’ve expected and feared since Rae was appointed interim
leader last summer. While his public statements were clear that he had promised
not to run, his written statement was much more cleverly worded.
I shall abide by any rules about the interim leadership, agreed to by the caucus and the Board. I have made it a watchword of my time in public life to practice the politics of unity and principled compromise. I shall continue to do so.
That seemed
to me like he was trying to leave some wiggle-room so I asked him, point-blank,
“Should this board, or a future board, say that the interim leader running for
permanent leader is fine, would you (should you be the interim leader) then run
for permanent leader? Basically, I'd like to know this: if you become interim
leader, are you definitively ruling-out running for permanent leader under any
circumstances? I think this is something that should be made clear for all.”
He
responded as follows:
Jeff I think the letter is very clear - there's a job to be done and the party executive has established rules. I accept the rules.
I felt the
letter was anything but clear, but I dropped it and moving on. My feeling was
this: Rae at least wanted to keep open the option of running. He wanted to take
on the interim job, successfully lobby members to extend the period of hisinterim leadership by more than one year, and then use that period as an
extended try-out. His hope was that, if he performed well and grew the party
and our polling support, he’d be drafted to run and any fine points about
promises would be overlooked. And if he decided not to run in the end, no harm
no foul.
As the
public statements began to move more into line with the carefully worded
letter, it became more clear this was the scenario unfolding. Except I don’t
think it has gone as they’d have hoped for. While Rae has performed solidly in
Parliament and certainly outshone Nycole Turmel, we remain lower in the polls
than ever and, since Tom Mulcair took the NDP leadership, our profile in
Parliament and in the public debate has dropped dramatically. One Rae organizereven called it a “year of misery” on Twitter. Hardly the springboard one would
hope for.
Don’t do
it, Bob
For me, it
boils down to this:
* Bob absolutely is and should be allowed to run, and if the executive was to somehow say he couldn’t, I’d be the first to the barricades to fight that undemocratic decision
* Bob made a promise to Liberals that he wouldn’t run, it was a promise made for very good reasons, and I think he should keep his word.
Rae has a chance
to continue the work of rebuilding that he was nobly undertaken and be the
steady hand at the tiller, keeping us relevant in Parliament as interim leader
while the party begins to focus on the leadership race. Then he can pass the
torch to the duly elected permanent leader for the next generation, cementing
his status as an elder statesman.
Or, he can
break his promise to Liberals, recast his past year of work as pre-campaigning
for the job with the donation dollars of those same Liberal members, open us up
to the obvious attacks of dishonesty and trust, and discourage potential
leadership candidates who don’t want to enter such a tilted playing field.
I hope he
makes the right choice.
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