It was a planned move. It was simple. We are now a member of the Liberal Party of Canada for the next two years. Last time we did that nothing worked properly. It created a series of telephone calls to the Ottawa headquarters of the party. It was a programming error at their end. It was fixed but the party never did collect the monthly support payments that they were offered.
This time, we kept it simple. Here is a credit card number, take $20 for a two-year renewal. The confirmation was in our e-mail within seconds. We can now look people in the eye and confirm that we continue to be a card-carrying Liberal Party member. After all, everyone deserves a second chance.
There is a leadership decision to be made in the coming year. That is a major event for the party. It will decide its direction for quite a few years into the future. We intend to comment on it, mix in the dialogue, question the candidates, influence policy and vote for the leader of our choice.
And it will not be an easy choice. There is no indication at this time of who will be candidates and that leaves us little opportunity to speculate on winners. Neither of the candidates most discussed by the news media are likely winners. By this, we mean Bob Rae, M.P. and Justin Trudeau, M.P. When you consider the age spread between these two, you can see the room there is between them. Neither is really in the running.
Bob Rae has earned the party’s debt and appreciation for the excellent job he has done as interim leader. He has worked hard and did what was asked of him. He has kept the Liberal Party caucus in line and kept them in a viable position. Nobody in Ottawa has thought of the Liberal Members as a third party.
Justin Trudeau is glib and hard working. He has said that he is not in the running at this time and he should stick to that decision. He will have plenty of opportunity in the years to come. First, he needs to be tested in government and to gain the maturity he needs. We can expect much from him in the future.
This leadership has to be the watershed for the party over whether it is of the right or the left. It is the time to decide. Leadership candidates will have to state whether they will offer to merge with the New Democrats or fight Stephen Harper for the position on the right. There will be no middle ground. It never really existed.
We paid our membership for a party of the left. That is where our vote will go.
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Copyright 2012 © Peter Lowry
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