05.25.2011 10:53 AM

Bob Rae new leader! Sun man gets scoop!

38 Comments

  1. Bill M. says:

    Boo!

  2. It’ll be interesting to see what Mr. Rae does now.

  3. Cath says:

    Yep, this news pales in comparison to the Finstones coming back to nighttime TV.
    Do you really trust that Rae doesn’t want the leadership any more? With THAT ego?

  4. Patrick Hamilton says:

    If Mr. Rae does a great job, and I am sure he will, I hope the party will revisit those leadership rules…….

  5. Bob Rae is the new leader of the LPC….okay…that’s the punchline…what was the joke again?

  6. dave says:

    He is articulate and fast on his feet in the HOC.He will do a good job keeping the little Lib group in the HOC in the game.
    This will free up the party to do the real work of pulling together a vision and party for the coming decades.

  7. AmandaM says:

    Bloody hell. We’ve got our work cut out for us in the Fall.

    • Warren says:

      The Fall? Huh?

      • AmandaM says:

        My thing is that Bob Rae as leader of the feds just presents yet another hurdle that Liberal premiers – particularly Premier McGuinty – don’t need in this Fall’s elections. Garneau was the right choice had the big picture been top of mind. He would’ve helped the Premiers as much as any federal leader does – but at least wouldn’t have given them another problem to deal with. He’s a hero for god’s sake. Regular People don’t understand the difference between provincial and federal politicians, and you’re damn skippy Timmy et al will use it to their advantage. Why would the federal party go so completely against their own interests and appoint a leader for 2 years who comes with so much damn baggage and NO HELP for the Premiers.

        While the feds are out soul-searching, the party as a brand needs to remain relevant. How can this be accomplished? By keeping as many Liberal Premiers as possible. During Rae’s interim, ALL of the provinces wiith Liberal Premiers are going to have elections, with ON and PEI first up.

        Now, why did so many McGuinty liberals vote CPC on May 2? Abject fear of NDP PM Jack when it appeared the NDP were surging. Why are Ontarians so terrified of an NDP PM? Because they’ve been there and done that with…Bob Rae. Bob Rae is also the personification of the Worst! Premier! Ever! in all the other provinces (I did a straw poll of my colleagues across the country today, and they all agree.) Parliament will be in session in the writ period for the fall elections, and the media can’t stop writing about Liberals – they’re too used to it to stop by the time the provincial elections roll around, so Bob Rae’s face and voice is going to be all over the media during the writ periods.

        Really, how many Ontarians know the difference between provincial and federal Liberals? Very few, and they will associate Bob Rae with the Premier and now the Ontario Libs will have to overcome the ghost of Bob Rae personified by…Bob Rae. Ontario outside of the 416 is NOT the same as Toronto Centre. They HATE Bob Rae out there. Haaaatttteeeee. This choice makes me realize the party hasn’t learned its lesson and has chosen an interim who is the personification of the arrogance that the party just got handed their asses on a platter for.

        “I GUESS I’ll do the interim…if you REALLY want me to”. I can’t STAND this man. He is NOT an agent of change, and that’s not what we need an interim for anyway – we just needed someone to be a settled presence, hold down the fort while the party re-builds, participate intelligently in QP, and give the Premiers a hand if it made sense, but CERTAINLY not to hurt or hinder them.

        I REALLY hope I’m wrong. REALLY. But lifelong liberals who can’t tell the difference between the House of Commons and Queen’s Park characters voting against their own consciences because of fear of the NDP and handing Harper a majority is not a good base from which to jump into a campaign.

        Although, Bernie Farber is a catch.

        • Warren says:

          Kiddo, if anyone is writing about LPC in two months, I’ll eat my hat.

          • Cath says:

            she has a good point I think in that I wouldn’t want Rae “helping” Dalton out in Ontario in the campaign. I totally get that….and as a conservative I like the idea of Bob and Dalton schmoozing together for the cameras.

            Horwath in London today – I’ve got to say it again that she’s smooth, refreshing and not one of the other angry two parties. Just saying.

          • AmandaM says:

            Is it a hat made of…beef jerky? Heh.

            No one stopped writing about the Tories when they were down to two seats, and Jack Layton got a pile of press when he was leader of the third party with ~35 seats. Also, it’s the story within the story that worries me. Bob Rae has always been a story-generator wherever he’s been through the years, and he’s good in the House – he’ll have quips and quotables for sure. Not to mention that the papers are all opinion these days, and everyone has an opinion on re-building the LPC. I was reading some comments in the papers about this news and there was quite a volume of “Ontario Remembers!” type of comments. This puts the terror in my heart.

            Not that they need my advice, but if I were on Hudak’s comms team, I would have McGuinty = Rae side-by-side advertisements going all summer. Our man has enough to deal with, and this was one thing I was really hoping could be avoided in the first place with some thoughtfulness, a touch of common sense, stepping outside the bubble and being a bit creative. It would’ve been so much EASIER if it had been Garneau.

            At the end of the day, I worry also for Premiers Ghiz (I like saying his name, it’s fun) and Clark and Charest. You’re consulting with them too, right? RIGHT?!

          • Attack! says:

            Hey, if Ontarians are really as clueless as you say, then the ON Libs are already dead in the water no matter who the interim LPC leader is, cuz by your logic, they thought they were voting McGuinty out last month.

            And as for the solidarity, well, the McGuinty gov’t wasn’t of much help to the LPC when the latter were trying to argue that corp. taxes should be increased and held back to last year’s levels, while the ON gov’t was saying they should be cut more: the CPC exploited that division quite effectively.

            And even if you’re right, and this was a really bad move tactically for BOTH levels of Libs, why are you proclaiming this publicly and even giving tactical advice to the ON PC opp. on how to exploit it, rather than just writing WK a private comment about it, if you must?

          • AmandaM says:

            Attack, honestly. Tactical advice. Do you read this website? I see you commenting here all the time, so I have to assume you read it. Which means you will see that in the lead-up to, and during the federal election, everyone was saying what each team should do. It’s COMMENT and OPINION, and being a known Liberal, I can’t imagine the PCs would take any advice from me – they’re clearly going to play right out of Harper’s playbook. If not stating the obvious for fear of looking like a moron and/or ignoring a problem and hope it goes away is your usual MO, then…well, that’s your thing. It isn’t mine. Better to speak up, I think, than to ignore issues.

            Why shouldn’t I say what I think? Why do I have to do it privately? No one else does. Just because it’s not a kool-aid opinion doesn’t mean it can’t or shouldn’t be said. Friends are honest with each other. Warren disagrees, which is cool, that’s what friends do when presented with a problem – they hash it out, thinking about the problem from all sides, and try to come up with good solutions that neutralize or at least mitigate potential hurdles.

            To your first paragraph, it’s not the same thing. Ignatieff didn’t get the same visceral reaction of hate from Ontarians specifically that Rae does. Second paragraph – the Premier very obviously sat out the federal campaign because, I think, a) he didn’t agree with the feds on issues that are important at Queen’s Park, and for solidarity, it’s not nice to disagree with your federal/provincial cousins during a campaign, which only highlights the issues and b) he didn’t want to be painted with the federal brush. If you had paid attention to what I said, I think it’s pretty clear that the entire point is that Bob Rae ties the federal party to the provincial party, in a way that no other leader ever has or would’ve in the interim leader contest.

        • JenS says:

          Except for the fact that I like Bob Rae, I agree with Amanda. In the 905, Rae is roundly abhorred (well, except my me, my super-left wing father-in-law, and a few of the most ardent of NDPers — but many of them blame him for ruining their brand in Ontario. And that he has was evident in the federal election. There was no Orange Crush to be found outside Toronto City limits in the GTA.) The guy has baggage for his baggage. People — particularly those who actually vote — have not forgotten the Ontario of the early 90s. Whether Bob Rae was personally responsible for most of it (or whether issues far beyond the Province’s purview were at play) is neither here nor there when you ask the typical 905er.

      • Ian Young says:

        Yeah, there is no way Mark E. Smith would even consider this plausible. Not with all the cash in F.A.C.T.O.R.’s coffers.

  8. Cynical says:

    Rae is a better man than the party deserves.

  9. MississaugaPeter says:

    1. Now that there is a leader, can I be assured of no more emails from Alf?

    2. Good luck to Bob. Hopefully his experience with the NDP will help with fundraising. Fundraising is going to be an important part of Liberal rebuilding with the loss of benefits of being the Official Opposition.

    • Attack! says:

      actually, as Liza Frulla, I think it was, pointed out the other day, his brother John has been a big-time fundraiser & ally to Chretien over the years, so it may be a two-for-one deal.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_A._Rae

    • MississaugaPeter says:

      Alf answered my first point.

      The F***** A** sent me another email at 3:13 p.m.

      I guess if I want to stop getting emails from him I will just have to unsubscribe from getting emails from the Liberal Party. I guess if more of us do that he will have the Party all to himself.

      What a D**S***!

  10. Garry says:

    Romeo’s boy should have recieved this job. Only consolation is he will have a shot at the perm job in 18 months or so. Dominic Leblanc will lead the Liberal Party some day and the sooner the better for so many reasons. Whadda ya think Mr. Kinsella? Does DL have the jam to do the job fulltime after BRae?

  11. Craig Chamberlain says:

    Good. Now let’s get going!

  12. VH says:

    This is not going to end well.

  13. AB observer says:

    OK, so a leader of what?

    So far, all we have is that the LPC is a NOT party, NOT Conservative and NOT NDP.

    You can take all past glories, put them in a bag, and that and $1.25 will get you a coffee at Timmies. It means nothing on a going forward basis.

    The only thing that would matter is if the LPC can carve out what it stands for, and not something that is subject to what ever way the wind blows, as in the past, as that lil’ puppy ain’t so cute anymore, and it will definitely not hunt going down the road.

    I’ve said it before, Canadians know what the CPC and the NDP stand for. No one, including any Liberal I know, knows what the LPC stands for other then NOT.

    Voters don’t vote for NOT, I don’t think the LPC can come back, because what is there to get passionate about?

    And as a conservative, that’s OK by me. But reality is, when the current government screws up, and it will as all governments get complacent and arrogant, people will turn to the NDP. THAT scares the hell out of me.

    • Craig Chamberlain says:

      ZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

      The Liberal Party has had some setbacks. We’ll get it sorted out. Just worry about your Party of One, Mr. Harper.

  14. Africon says:

    Exactly my sentiments.

    I suppose that one can also hope that the NDP will become more moderate –
    a/ To move where the votes are.
    b/ Since the inevitable really hard times coming out of Greece and Spain ( 20% unemployment ) will open a few dreamer’s eyes.
    c/ The world will be a very very different place, 8-12 yrs from now.

  15. student501 says:

    Doesn’t really matter.
    Next election is years away and Rae will be in his late 60’s.
    No one interesting has come forward (who would at this point).

    • AB observer says:

      That is exactly the LPC problem; it thinks there is a messianic leader out there that will make everything again.

      It doesn’t matter that the vision is not there, just as long as “we get the right guy”.

      It won’t work; PM Harper is not exactly a warm and fuzzy guy, but at least one knows what he, and the CPC stand for. The LPC needs to get to that point also to make a comeback.

    • AB observer says:

      That is exactly the LPC problem; it thinks there is a messianic leader out there that will make everything OK again.

      It doesn’t matter that the vision is not there, just as long as “we get the right guy”.

      It won’t work; PM Harper is not exactly a warm and fuzzy guy, but at least one knows what he, and the CPC stand for. The LPC needs to get to that point also to make a comeback.

  16. Phil in London says:

    All those doors I hear thumping shut are the older centrist liberals leaving town! Great news for the CPC! The remaining Liberals will have their merger with the NDP in a hostile takeover your input is shit sort of way. Stephen Harper will be bringing a case of beer and a couple of thick steaks to welcome Jack Layton to Stornaway – it’s now his as long as his health holds up.
    The Stupidest thing is the LPC wanting to delay the leadership, It’ll take two months to wash away the stink of every month of Rae service for Ontario voters with long memories. (outside the downtown Toronto ridings)

  17. Anonymous says:

    People underestimate Bob Rae. Ontario voters never had a visceral dislike for Rae as they did for Harris. The centrist voters have already left the liberal party. Harper’s more immediate threat is from his own party, not from outside. Majority PMs are usually killed by their own — ask Chretien, Blair, Thatcher …

    • Phil in London says:

      Were you stationed on Pluto during the Rae reign of error?
      This man singlehandedly broke the union support for the NDP. He was hated and is unelectable outside Toronto. People remember and loathe him well. No way of proving it but the “hate” for Mike Harris is not so strong he never lost either. I think he electable today. PC strength failed when his predessor courted Liberals.

  18. Cath says:

    “….Ontario voters never had a visceral dislike for Rae….”

    nonsense – hey, but keep believing that Anon. because the dislike of Rae even within the NDP, never mind Ontario is still strong. Horwath can’t erase those sentiments, just like Hudak can’t erase the sentiments of those PCs who still harbour resentment of Ernie Eves for distancing himself from Harris. If the NDP do well this next election it’s going to be BECAUSE of Horwath and her likeability. If the PCs do well it’s because Harris-lite Hudak (as he’s being defined) actually reflects the mood of the people.

    Amanda “I would have McGuinty = Rae side-by-side advertisements going all summer.” Yep.

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