Liberal leadership contender MP Marc Garneau came to Babel yesterday. He was doing the route from Sudbury to Toronto, down Highway 400—stopping for an hour here and an hour there along the way. There were about 20 Babel Liberals and one belligerent drunk at a local bar to greet him.
At least 20 of the locals liked what they saw. Garneau is a very sophisticated, charming gentleman. He needs to stop wringing his hands while talking but that is a habit the best of speakers can pick up if they do not have it pointed out to them. His stump speech showed him to be a kind and concerned person but it lacked the spark of leadership that the party needs. When he was finished the set piece, your impression was that this is someone you are glad to know and you desperately wish there were more like him in Canada’s parliament.
Garneau is a highly intelligent man and, within his fields of expertise, he probably has few who exceed his knowledge. At the same time, even his empathy for people failed him when one chronic complainer got him caught in the complexities of federal-provincial responsibilities. He listened very politely and then honestly told the person that he could not provide an answer but that he shared her concerns. That was when the drunk chimed in and started to harangue the MP for not answering the question. Luckily the electoral district president is a large person and he went down to invite the gentleman up to join the group to ask his questions. The gentleman decided nursing his beverage was the better idea.
That left our guest from Ottawa standing there looking as though he had stepped in something soft and squishy in our barnyard. We quickly got into some softly lobbed questions to cover the balance of the hour he had promised us.
One question that was asked during the question period was how he described a liberal. It drew a lengthy response. It was the wrong answer. It was the kind of answer with which a truly progressive conservative would be comfortable. Garneau never once mentioned the liberal concern for the rights of the individual in society. Nor did he really describe the party as reformers.
Marc Garneau is a Quebec Liberal and you have to make allowances for that. Quebec Liberals think of themselves as good managers and they attract many of that type. They are just not philosophically liberal.
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Copyright 2013 © Peter Lowry
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