03.13.2013 09:01 AM

Garneau goodbye?

Very sorry to hear he’s packing it in.

49 Comments

  1. Cynical says:

    It really, really pisses me off. This is a really bright guy with engineering training. With no disrespect to the arts, political science, economics and law grads that seem to populate the ranks of our political class, couldn’t we at least have a few people with engineering and science training in the upper ranks? (And by this I do NOT mean dentists and chiropractors.)

    • Derek Pearce says:

      You might like this Maggie Thatcher quotation: asked in an interview how important was it that she was the UK’s first female PM, she answered “not very– it’s far more important that I’m the first one with a science degree.”

      • patrick says:

        Ironic then that she was such a horrid rigid ideologue.

        • Derek Pearce says:

          She never said she listened to *evidence* lol. Although results do speak. Feel free to quibble now but she changed the channel– everything swings, now ’tis swignin’ back– Look, I’m as much a Smiths fan as anyone, but she changed the dialogue– boo hoo hoo, she did– like Reagan did. If you’d rather they’d never existed then you could now kiss OHIP goodbye because she showed how a capitalist society can sustain common programmes. Gawd, only on WKs blog do I sound so right wing. Meanwhile, at Macleans or the National Post I’m Chavez redux apparently…

  2. Ronald O'Dowd says:

    Warren,

    Me too. I guess it’s probably Justin now. Joyce would be good too but one-time co-operation isn’t about to fly. Unfortunately.

    • Elizabeth says:

      I wouldn’t vote Liberal if Murray were the leader, she’s put me off from the getgo, and I seriously doubt she could take on either Mulcair or Harper. Her ideas are flaky, they don’t stand up.
      Would if it was Garneau, but he doesn’t inspire me, I don’t think he’s a good enough politician. I like Bertschi, and actually I like Deborah Coyne.

  3. frmr disgruntled Con now Happy Lib says:

    Justin fait accompli……..Im somewhat disappointed, because I wanted to see a real leadership race, and not another coronation……now it remains to be seen if this will mean the triumphant return of the Liberals, or its utter demise……
    Despite his charisma and personal popularity, if M. Trudeau keeps the party status quo…top down, and rampant (to quote Bob Rae) “titleitis”…I predict the latter……

  4. Paul says:

    This is terrible, terrible news. As a fiscal conservative and social liberal I might even have voted Liberal if he were the leader and their platform was tolerable enough (i.e. not NDP-lite with carbon taxes, Ontario-style “green” boondoggles and new gun control measures.) I’ve always felt that Mr. Garneau came across as a pragmatic, reasonable man.

    Now there is no way in hell I will vote for a Turdeau-led [sic] LPC.

    • Reality.Bites says:

      He was never going to be leader. Sounds like you and he are the only ones who never understood that.

      Pulling out now strikes me as a final swipe at Trudeau and the party. Sore loser.

      • Pat says:

        That’s the weird thing – with the trouble they’re having with registrations, I actually thought his potential for success was higher than ever. Trudeau may have had more people sign up to be supporters, but if they were young, there was a considerably lower chance that they would actually register/vote.

        I thought Garneau might have had a chance.

      • Elizabeth says:

        Pulling out is okay – but adding “The party has decided (on Justin)” sounded bitter, and like a poor sport. I thought when he took after Joyce Murray that it signified a change in direction, that he was considering quitting and supporting Justin, but maybe I was reading too much into it and he was just wanting to argue with someone. It was about time someone seriously challenged her Holy Alliance theory.

  5. Philippe says:

    As a Canadian, I have nothing but respected for that man. I went to “Garneau” high school and grew up knowing about him. He’s a Canadian hero in my book and would make a fantastically qualified leader.

  6. Oscar says:

    Ummmm…. Houston, we have a problem, I see white smoke and I hear a Fat Lady singing !!

    Now that Garneau has crash-landed his leadership hopes it only becomes a matter of time before the rest of the pack packs it in and genuflects to the new Liberal Pope.

    The Fat Lady is singing “habemus papam”…. and Justin is being measured for his white vestments for the office of the LPC leader!

    Meanwhile, philistines Harper and Mulcair are plotting for no good!

  7. Marc L says:

    I am very, very dissapointed. With Garneau, I thought there was at least a chance that the Liberals would elect a leader with some sensible policy ideas, who understands that Canada has significant challenges that have to be addressed, and ideas on how to address them. You know…government, Public Policy, Economics. Had Garneau been elected, I would almost certainly have voted Liberal in the next election. Now, it looks like the Liberals are once again targetting victory for the sake of power, and little more. Trudeau has never said anything substantive on any policy issue, and what he has said has often been outright stupid, like stating that Quebec separation could be justified if you don’t like the Harper government (and if you think statements like that won’t be used by Harper….). Trudeau would be a nobody if not for his family name. There is no other reason to elect this guy as head of the Liberal party. All good looks, no content. Very sad, in my view.

    • Elizabeth says:

      Stupid is one adjective that will never be applied to any Trudeau. He’s a long-range planner, knows exactly what he’s doing.

  8. Torgo says:

    Make way for the prince…

    • Publius says:

      From the backbench to the front bench; that’s quite leap and promotion for somebody who has only led school children and most recently, younger voters. He will face quite the challenge leading the Liberal caucus; like herding cats!

  9. Jason Hickman says:

    Idle topic for discussion: Would (or could) the apparent outcome of this race have been different if the LPC was using an “old-fashioned” delegated convention, with delegates elected by paid-up members (not “supporters” joining for free), and the delegates not officially bound to their candidate? In other words, using the system that the old PC Party and the Liberals (as far as I know) used up until the 1990s.

    I think not, in this particular case – JT seems to have the edge in organization, and even though delegates back in the day were free to vote for whomever they wanted, most of them could be counted on to stay with their stated candidate, at least at first. But it would have been interesting.

    Bonus idle topic: What if the LPC elected their leader the way that the Conservatives and (I think) Labour did in the UK back in the older days: A vote of MPs (and presumably Senators) only? That would never happen, of course. The Libs were using delegated conventions as far back as when WL Mackenzie King won the leadership in 1919. But it would be interesting, that’s for sure: If the LPC caucus, and *only* the LPC caucus, were entitled to vote, what would happen?

  10. M5SLIB says:

    Calgary grit said it best… it isn’t a coronation, it’s called winning. Justin went against 9 other people, and he did better than they did. 7 are still left. If they’re good enough, 1 of the other 6 will win.

  11. JamesHalifax says:

    What’s the fuss all about? We all knew Trudeau would take it in a walk.

    The fact that Garneau; the most qualified of the bunch, is throwing in the towel just shows he indeed is able to make decisions based on reality.

    The reality: Some folks prefer icing over cake.

  12. TDotRome says:

    This is unfortunate. He was the best hope to have a scientist in the PMO. Just once, please, just once……it would be nice to have a scientist in charge. You know, the type who makes decisions based on imperical data…….aka reality. Ah, well…………maybe Hadfield will run one day………..

    To quote the body spray commercial………..”Nothing beats an astronaut”

  13. Michael Bussiere says:

    I’m not sure where all this coronation stuff is coming from. There’s only been one coronation in the Liberal Party recently and that was Paul Martin; a man who had all of the credentials to be PM. Dion certainly was not crowned. Ignatieff was the only one positioned in the sticky post-prorogation/coalition quagmire to take over as leader without a race. History is what history was.

    And what exactly is Trudeau supposed to do? Drop out? Change his name? Shave his head? Tell the throngs of people who flock to see him that they are delusional and should support someone else? This isn’t a coronation; this is a phenomenon.

  14. Michael says:

    It boogles my mind that Garneau would pull out, while some of the :cough: :cough: also rans vow to stay in to the bitter end.

  15. dave says:

    The smoke from the Lib conclave is still black. JT and JM…or can MHF make a move? Watch that chimney.

  16. Too bad. Wonder why he is bailing right now? I guess it could be that Joyce has come out of nowhere and supplanted him as runner-up. Better to maintain the mystique of runner up, and keep his powder dry justin case somebody slips on a giant banana peel in 6 months? It is a loss though, no doubt there.

  17. Vankleek Hill says:

    Does Trudeau even want to be leader? Seems like he’s being pushed into it….. If I were the Oracle of Delphi, I bet I would see disaster looming for the LPC…. Truly, in your bones, do you see Justin as somebody who is going to be a great executive?

  18. Sergey Nechayev says:

    Garneau is smart enough to understand that sovereign democracy under a truly dynamic and charismatic leader is the only viable model of power at this point of world History. If Mulcair and Harper were smart, they too would simply accept the inevitable and resign themselves to supporting Trudeau unconditionally.

    I recall Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson saying “You can be critical of lots of regimes around the world and you can question how worthwhile democracy is in a lot of countries right now … The progress in China, where they don’t have to worry about elections, is quite breathtaking” (CBC). Indeed, accepting the inevitable tide of History, we realize submission to these visionary young men is absolutely necessary.

    “Our capitalist model has given us tremendous things,” Trudeau said. “But the time has come for us to look at it critically.” Alexandre Trudeau said, “like my father, in private, Fidel (Castro) is not a politician. He is more in the vein of a great adventurer or a great scientific mind. Fidel doesn’t really do politics. He is a revolutionary.” I know that Justin Trudeau has this revolutionary heart and has the will to triumph over all adversaries.

    A renewed multicultural revolution will cleanse this land of reactionary and bourgeois elements! Their wealth, their Anglo-Saxon and White privilege will be seized! Those collaborators of Yankee Imperialism will be crushed under heel as snakes!

    • Canada Joe says:

      Ohh, I bet. JT as Lenin, that’s a good one! Got any others?

    • Oscar says:

      It’s not a political contest, it’s a popularity contest!

      Now, can presumptive leader Justin walk on or part the shark (harper and mulcair) infested waters?

      Messiah or mutt .. sooner or later!

      • Elizabeth says:

        Same old, same old refrain. According to pollsters, Justin has tapped into a segment of the population that’s usually not interested in or won’t take part in politics. I’d call that gifted, and smart.

  19. Philippe says:

    At the end of the day we can all sit in our comfy chairs and express disappointment.. but we’re trying to serve our own interests in saying that- hoping there would be some illusion of a challenge for Trudeau.

    I’m sure that running for leadership is a gruelling thing.. and as Garneau realized he had 0 chance of winning, can anyone blame him for stepping down? Sure we all wanted someone to stand beside Trudeau as a good second in the end.. but can we really blame Garneau for not wanting to be that prop? I sure as hell wouldn’t want to put in 16 hour days knowing I had 0 shot at winning. I don’t blame him one bit, although I too would have preferred a more competitive race.

    He’ll make a fantastic Minister, hopefully sooner than later.

  20. GPAlta says:

    I’m not disappointed at all. If he couldn’t handle this race, he’d be absolutely useless against Harper. We need someone who can fight and win an election on all fronts instead of falling behind, getting desperate and sloppy, and then giving up. Better to give up now than during the next election.

  21. Oscar says:

    …. “habemus ducem”… (we have a leader!)

  22. Peter says:

    I guess this leaves the field wide open for Deborah Coyne to slip up the middle to sweep to victory.

    You Libs are funny. You have always been the “broker” party whose strength has been to mediate the many linguistic, cultural, regional and ethnic components of this great country, and you’ve often done so very successfully. But you also seem to want to believe desperately that you are all Mensa members with a superior intellectual grasp on what policies in the abstract would benefit the country. Relax, Justin has brought you to where you didn’t dare dream you would be a year ago. Lots of hurdles to overcome, but it’s looking good, isn’t it? Garneau is an impressive guy to be sure, but what are you saying, that you want the race to have a whiff of a post-graduate seminar on public policy? Pretending you are all heirs to Einstein (when all you really are are mouthpieces for the Montral-Toronto axis, not that that won’t get you votes if you play it right) works well in the blogosphere. Not so much at polling stations.

  23. Oscar says:

    It will seem somewhat superfluous to continue the Liberal leadership race now that Justin is only one small step away from leadership.

    Why would any of the other candidates want to make fools of themselves by holding out to the end while babbling amongst themselves. Surely the LPC executives and veteran MPs in the Liberal caucus must step forward and counsel the stragglers in the race to give it up now, otherwise it will become ludicrous.

    The charade should be concluded and all the other candidates should withdraw and give their unanimous support to the presumptive Liberal leader — Justin Trudeau.

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