Friday, July 29, 2011

Exciting Race Brewing for LPC Presidency

Given the challenges facing the Liberal Party, January's national executive elections could very well be the most important in the party's history. And the way it’s going, it looks like there will be more star power in the race for LPC president than in the race for LPC leader.


Party veterans vie for Liberal presidency
By Jeff Davis, Postmedia News

OTTAWA β€” Former deputy prime minister Sheila Copps and recently defeated Liberal politicians Mark Holland and Siobhan Coady are all gearing up to challenge for the presidency of the Liberal Party of Canada.

While many would be loath to lead such a gravely wounded party, loyalists are rallying around a Liberal banner they believe can rise again.

Copps says the crushing electoral defeat Liberals suffered got her β€” and many other Liberals β€” thinking of a return to active politics.

"When we came out of last election and we were reduced to third party status, I think it was a wake up call for a lot of who have been on the sidelines," she told Postmedia News Wednesday.

The duties of a federal party president are onerous, including party organization, fundraising, expanding membership and liasing with local riding associations.

The article mentions a lot of names who I'm very happy to see mentioned. Sheila Copps' exit in 2004 remains one of the saddest chapters in recent Liberal history, so seeing her back in the fold is outstanding news. Liberals need to let old grievances die and work together, or else the party won't be around in 10 years.

I'm a big fan of Siobhan Coady, and her name would likely be floating around in leadership discussions if she hadn't lost her seat on May 2nd. I'm also a fan of Mark Holland, who gave a barn burner speech on party renewal at this spring's Alberta Liberal convention.

The article also mentions Kingston and the Islands riding president Ron Hartling as a possible candidate. While I don't know Ron personally, there's something to be said for looking past the star power and picking a hard worker who will spend his or her time rebuilding the party, rather than doing panel shows. I've also heard of several other candidates kicking the tires.

So for me it will all come down to who has the best ideas and the clearest roadmap for rebuilding the party. I'm sure we'll hear a lot of talk about "renewal", "engaging members", and "the post-subsidy fundraising world" from all the candidates - but we need more than buzzwords at this point. It's going to take concrete ideas and a dogged determination to implement them.

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15 Comments:

  • All of these candidates now have 6 months to walk the talk. There is nothing preventing any of them from :

    (a) demonstrating their ability to raise money for the party
    (b) establishing organizations external to LPC that help develop and promote policy ideas
    (c) actually putting to paper the reforms (--yawn--) that they would like to implement to the organization itself by way of constitutional amendments, etc.

    I'm not voting for a name. And I'm not voting for 'ideas', either. I'm voting for actual tangible accomplishments between now and mid-January. There is nothing preventing any of these candidates from demonstrating their worth and suitability as of right now.

    By Blogger Mark, at 9:26 a.m.  

  • Is Senator Grant Mitchel still running?

    By Anonymous TC, at 9:35 a.m.  

  • Exciting??

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:09 a.m.  

  • Siobhan Coady!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 1:55 p.m.  

  • Holland all the way - He's young, knows how to run a campaign, his fierce and his anti status quo. But I agree they have to show more than rhetoric we need results.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 5:25 p.m.  

  • Siobhan Coady is much more credible then Mark Holland. Coady knows how to run an organization and she's willing to turn the Liberal Party organization upside down to get it running properly.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 6:28 p.m.  

  • How does Mark Holland plan to undo the damage he has done to the Liberal brand in rural Canada?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 6:32 p.m.  

  • Sheila Copps for President

    By Anonymous @I_LuvTO, at 12:39 a.m.  

  • Mark, CG - I'm supporting Ron and if you go to his website (http://ronhartling.ca) I believe you'll see why. Firstly, Ron's definitely running - papers submitted and everything. Secondly, as the article said he rebuilt his riding association from <400 to >2000 members and helped get one of only two new Lib MPs elected. I'm not sure how much they fundraised but you can ask him on his site or on Twitter. Finally, he certainly has put his plans to paper at http://ronhartling.ca/plan and http://ronhartling.ca/platform. Both are based on the renewal effort he led in his riding over the past few years.

    TC - Grant Mitchell has stepped down in favour of Alexandra Mendes: http://t.co/EiAyOSM

    By Anonymous Adrian, at 1:12 a.m.  

  • Nothing against Siobhan Coady, but she doesn't remotely qualify as a "star" given that only die hard Liberals know who she is. Mark Holland is slightly more recognizable, but still only to people with a strong interest in politics.

    Sheila Copps, of course, is still a household name.

    By Blogger Michael Fox, at 8:38 p.m.  

  • Siobhan Coady was arguably the most prominent woman within the Liberal caucus during her time as MP, she could have easily been the Sheila Copps of today had it not been for the Liberal surge.

    No her name isn't that recognizable to those who don't follow politics, but she did receive a fair bit of media attention during her two years and a half years on the hill. Her background outside of politics I believe is enough to qualify her as a star candidate, just because you're not overly well known doesn't mean your aren't a star candidate. Stephane Dion wasn't known but was considered a star candidate when he was brought into Chretien's cabinet.

    While I think it'd be great for people like Copps to once again get involved with the party it's also time for new blood to have their say on where the party goes. That being said Liberals need to look at the presidential platforms.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 10:04 a.m.  

  • How many people commenting here have any idea what the President of a Party does?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 10:31 a.m.  

  • By Blogger Unknown, at 5:17 a.m.  

  • By Blogger raybanoutlet001, at 2:06 a.m.  

  • By Blogger raybanoutlet001, at 1:48 a.m.  

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