Liberal leadership season is upon us!

It’s all pretty historic, too. For the first time ever, Grits are lining up to choose leaders in Quebec, Ontario and federally. Never before have the three largest Liberal configurations been holding leadership races simultaneously.

Historians will be excited by that, of course, but historians routinely get excited about all kinds of things that aren’t. The rest of us, should we care?

Well, sure. In Ontario, card-carrying Liberals will be selecting the man or woman who, however briefly, will be premier of Canada’s largest province. In Quebec, Canada’s next-largest province, Liberal partisans are currently musing about the three top candidates to succeed Jean Charest, all men.

And federally, of course, the Liberal Party of Canada is now preoccupied with finding a leader who (it is hoped) will win them back Official Opposition status in 2015, and (it is fervently hoped) government status after that.

All of the Liberal parties are going about things differently. Federally, the leadership race will not conclude until next spring. The leading candidate in that race — some might say the only candidate — is Liberal MP Justin Trudeau. Trudeau is so popular, comedian Mike Bullard was moved to tweet this: “Saw and heard Justin Trudeau tonight. The arthritis in my right knee is now gone.”

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Over on Twitter, I made repeated attempts to ask Gerry Nicholls about what Harper did at the NCC, since Nicholls is clamouring about what he didn’t.  He repeatedly refused to answer.  My “responsible communication” defence thus assured, I wrote the following letter to PMO.  I’ll let y’all know when (and if) I get a reply.

I am a columnist with QMI/Sun Media.

Recently, in response to a column I wrote that made passing reference to Stephen Harper’s time at the National Citizen’s Coalition (NCC), former NCC senior officer Gerry Nicholls wrote a letter to the editor.  In part, his letter states:

“Yes, Prime Minister Harper was indeed NCC president, back in the late 1990s. But he was not, as Kinsella asserts, a “lobbyist.”

As NCC president, Harper’s job was to use advertising campaigns, constitutional court challenges and media appearances to raise public awareness about the importance of free markets, smaller government and individual freedom.”

As you are perhaps aware, such “advertising campaigns” may fall within the definition of “grass roots lobbying” under the provisions of the Lobbying Act, R.S.C. 1985, c.44.  In section 7, therein, Parliament requires disclosure of “particulars to identify any communication technique, including grass-roots communication.”

I made repeated attempts, in a public forum, to question Mr. Nicholls’ about the nature of these NCC advocacy campaigns, and whether disclosure took place.  He made references to legal action, but declined to answer.

Therefore, I wish to ask your office whether (a) public office holders were in any way part of the target audience of the communications campaigns Mr. Nicholls referenced and, if so, (b) whether lobbyist registration was considered or attempted, and why not if not.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

Warren Kinsella, LL.B

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There haven’t been a lot of reviews so far – book pages are becoming a lot less plentiful, sadly – but Matt Price at the Huffington Post gave it a thorough read.

Here it is in true blurb style: “[Kinsella] deserves credit for writing this book, period… he is absolutely on the money…[Fight The Right] is well worth picking up.”

Ha! But you can (and should) read his full review, here, bouquets and brickbats included.

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I’m moving to Canada!

Oh, wait.

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Says it all, don’t you think?

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Gerry Nicholls is formerly a “senior officer” with the far-right lobby group, the National Citizens Coalition.  Last week, I wrote a column that mentioned in passing Stephen Harper’s time heading the NCC.  Nicholls objected to what I wrote, and apparently sent a letter to the Sun.  Here is what he wrote, in part:

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Story here.

If this bastard thinks we’re going to forget about these women, he’s got another thing coming.

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With a $50,000 entry fee, and a $500,000 spending limit – and, most of all, an end-of-January leadership convention – the Ontario Liberal executive is seeking to discourage minor candidates.  They are also signalling that we need a leader with name recognition; there’s no time, now, for someone to get better-known – particularly with Christmas landing in the middle of this thing.  Smart move, on both counts.

So who should we pick?

Before I offer up my handy five-point guide, gratis, I should observe that – for a lot of us – this leadership stuff is happening really, really fast.  Less than a week ago, we had Dalton McGuinty, the winningest Liberal Premier in a Century.  Less than a week later, he’s said that he’s resigning, and it’s left a lot of Ontario Liberals in shock.  It has been a hard time, a sad time.

Filling his shoes is a tall order, and there should be no doubt about that.  But I believe that, if we’re smart, we can pick a leader who will win the next election, which now seems certain to be in 2013.

In my many conversations with Ontario Liberals, I’ve asked them five questions.  Answered right, the questions all point in the direction of one person, and one person only.

Here they are.

1. Do you agree that, with the right leader and a lot of hard work, we can win the next provincial election – with a proven winner, someone who has never lost an election?
2. Okay, you got that right.  But that’s easy.  So who do you think is the leader and the party that represents the greatest threat to Ontario Liberal fortunes?
3. That’s right, Andrea Horwath’s NDP.  Tim Hudak’s PCs are a rural rump; Hudak is highly unpopular; and his pals, like Rob Ford and Stephen Harper, have hurt him plenty.  So, against Horwath, do we need yet another male leader, or a scrappy, smart woman?
4. That’s right, we need an agent of change, and a female leader is the literal embodiment of that, in today’s male-dominated politics.  It’s time; it’s the right thing to do.  The amazing Alison Redford showed the country just that, in the most conservative province in the country, too.  So do we not need a scrappy, smart woman who knows how to beat the NDP, and has plenty of experience doing that, in election after election?
5. Of course we do.  Now, in the past year, we have seen that a lot of voters like the Liberal government’s direction, but not so much the way in which things have been done.  So, the final question:  do we also not need that leader who has been far from the controversies and difficulties of the past year that have – sadly, perhaps unfairly – hurt the fortunes of every member of cabinet?

The answers to those questions are all pretty obvious, when you reflect on them.  And they all suggest that only one person can win this thing, and win big.

Will she do it?  I don’t know.

But if she does, me – and a lot of other folks – will be with her.

(Now, comment away.  I’m interested to see what you folks think, as always.)

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Can Canadian Liberalism survive? Is the party over?

The times are clearly dire, for Canadian Grits. One need only to survey newspaper opinion pages to know this is so.

“(There has been) a new round of media and public speculation about the imminent collapse of Canadian Liberalism,” wrote one respected analyst in the National Post. “The Liberal party (is) dying … the future (will) reveal Canadian national politics as a two-party struggle between the Conservatives and the NDP,” the Post declares in another column.

A Montreal Gazette opinion writer is similarly gloomy. The Liberal Party of Canada is buffeted by “alternate attacks of political depression and paranoia,” he intones. The Liberal brand is “under siege,” it is suggested.

The future is in doubt. “(Liberals are) likely to undergo further factional fighting as prospective contenders try to build support for their future leadership runs,” declares a Maclean’s cover story.

Liberals are “essentially rudderless,” yet another Post columnist writes. “(The Grits) failed to modernize and reposition the Liberal party.”

The columnist quotes a former national director of the Liberals: “The Liberals didn’t know where they were going, and still don’t.”

And so on, and so on. Everywhere you look, it seems, the story is the same. The assessments of Liberal fortunes are similarly dire.

With the federal Liberals in third place and seeking new leadership — and with the Ontario and Quebec Liberal parties effectively leaderless, and facing the prospect of being out of power for a long time to come, perhaps indefinitely — the Liberal party brand seems to be “dying,” as the Post columnist wrote.

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From longtime friend, Chretien loyalist, and future Prime Minister Chris Collenette, who now resides in the land of my ancestors: Fight The Right takes the Emerald Isle by storm!

“Warren: I headed into town today with the family to run a couple of errands and wouldn’t you know that everywhere I went, I ran smack-dab into Fight The Right and I took a couple of photos along the way:

First I stopped into PJ Murphy’s used book store at 1 Lincoln Place across from Kennedy’s Pub.  There sat was Fight The Right displayed prominently along with some other celebrated Irish writers.  PJ took a look at your picture and told me he is from the Wexford Murphys who intermarried the Wexford Kinsellas and no doubt you are distant cousins – no word of lie.  If you ignore the Ledrewesque bow-tie, there is some resemblance – although he is a tad bit older.

Then I rounded the corner to Merrion Square to pay a visit to Oscar Wilde, and wouldn’t you know it, resting in quite a serendipitous manner upon a fallen maple leaf, was another copy of Fight the Right.

After a visit to the play-park in St. Stephan’s Green and a leisurely stroll down past the Grafton street buskers, we stopped by to see what type of wares Ms. Malone was selling.  Wouldn’t you know it, there sat another copy of Fight the Right?!

Then, and I couldn’t have arranged it even if it was 1993 and F. was with me – this costumed leprechaun kept wanting to get in the picture!

Following this little excursion and a train ride home on the DART along Dublin Bay, and after sending the kiddies home with their mother, I settled in at The Old Punch Bowl, one of my locals in Booterstown, Blackrock, and began to peruse the much talked about book.  Review to follow, but from what I read so far (acknowledgements) I like what I see.”

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