Babel-on-the-Bay kicked David Bertschi and George Takach off the island and out of the Liberal leadership race after the Vancouver fiasco. After another of the badly planned events in Winnipeg Saturday, we have no choice but to ask another candidate, former Lieutenant Colonel Karen McCrimmon, to leave the island.
It is only fair. Even in a horse race, you expect the horses to be fairly matched by age or by being non-winners of their last three races but this is not even a race. It is an embarrassment. Let the losers stop wasting their money. If they had a clear policy to sell to the Liberal Party or the Canadian people, they might have a reason to take part. They do not. They are doing nothing but wasting our time.
Take Deborah Coyne, for example. She is obviously a very intelligent person. She was also more on her game in Winnipeg. She handled bad questions cheerfully. She made a reasonable contribution to the ill-planned show. Maybe, in the course of these events, she will tell us why she is taking up our time. Ms. Coyne is far too smart to think she has a snowball’s chance in hell of getting anywhere this way.
This is not to say that the Liberal Party of Canada does not need more brains. Did the inept organizers of these efforts actually try to circle the wagons to ward off the Indians? They could have had one-on-one conversations with the candidates without charging people $20 to attend. Does an interview style program not require a competent interviewer? And better thought out questions? Did we really want to know that Marc Garneau likes to vacuum? Did they really want to know that Justin Trudeau misses his kids?
After all, Justin told the organizers very clearly what he thought of the process when he took off the jacket and tie. It was good to see that some of his father’s panache rubbed off on young Trudeau. It would never do for us to call a halt to the entire foolish process and it would never do to crown the Dauphin so early in the game. We just have to hope that he grows into the job. His comments on crime and punishment were thoughtful and showed an insight that we did not expect. His answer on foreign ownership could easily be enshrined as Liberal policy.
It should also be noted that young Trudeau left a zinger on the stage for former MP Martha Hall Findlay on her arguments against supply management. If she keeps providing such an easy foil to the contest, she might outlast former MP Martin Cauchon on the island.
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Copyright 2013 © Peter Lowry
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