OTTAWA — Hey! The Liberal party isn’t dead!

If the vitality of a political party can be measured by bums in seats, then the former Natural Governing Party is the picture of rosy-cheeked health.

More than 3,300 Grits converged here for a policy convention this past weekend. That’s remarkable because policy conventions tend to be pretty dull affairs.

The Lib turnout was remarkable for another reason: The weather. Can you think of any other place you’d rather be than Ottawa — one of the coldest national capitals in the world — in the middle of January? Can you understand why thousands would risk life and limb to travel in the middle of a big winter storm to get there?

I sure couldn’t. About 1,500 delegates would have been a success. But more folks turned out than the governing Conservatives and the official opposition New Democrats got at their most-recent policy conflabs — combined. The Tories and Dippers present this weekend as observers looked shocked by that, and they should be.

Not bad for a party that many gave up for dead back in May 2011, when Michael Ignatieff led it to its worst election showing in history — a third-place rump in the House of Commons.

Comments (15)

Newly-elected Liberal Party president reacts with shock when he hears that Warren has said nice things about him.

Comments (16)

…too bad I totally hate my bandmates, however.

Comments (1)

He should stick to polling, however.

Comments (3)

Last night at the Former Liberal Staffers mob scene at D’arcy McGee’s on the Sparks Street Mall, a young woman (whose name I did not catch) took me to task for being critical of the Liberal Party of Canada.  She was quite upset, and she gave me Hell, and I told her I appreciated the fact that she did so.  Most of the toughly-worded stuff I get comes in the form of anonymous emails.  So I applauded her saying what she had to say face-to-face.  I invited to do so when we meet again, but not in a noisy bar when folks have been drinking.

She seemed to be upset that I was opposed to Bob Rae leading the Grits into the next election campaign.  That’s fair. In response, I told her that I was and am a war room guy.  What I do, in campaigns, is relate critical information about our opponents.  The problem with Rae, I told her, is that there is a mountain of critical information in his past – and his past cannot be erased.  It is part of who he is, and it will present a big, big problem.

At the time, neither of us knew that the spot below had been released – according to the YouTube info, just the day before.  Tellingly, it’s by the National Citizen’s Coalition, which Stephen Harper once led.  I believe it provides a pretty good sense of what the Reformatories will say about Rae in 2015.

Will people be motivated by ads like this?  My youthful critic would say no.  Looking at this, I can’t say my view has changed one bit.

Comments (111)

Heading out of Ottawa, which this morning – like yesterday – was about a billion degrees below zero. And, Your Honour, I verily swear that this post was not written as I drove my VW back to TeeDot.

Here are some impressions of the weekend, which is worth what you pay for them:

1. It was a very, very successful convention. Though just a boring old policy convention, and though it was virtually impossible to travel to Ottawa in the Arctic-like temperatures, 3300 Liberals showed up. That is 2000 more delegates than the Official Opposition party had at their recent policy convention, and a 1000 more than the government’s party had at theirs. By any standard, that is a huge success.

2. After his speech on Friday night, many Liberals – from across the country – were asking if Dalton McGuinty could ever be persuaded to run for federal Liberal leader. I told them what I believe is the truth: he’s just been re-elected to a historic third term, and that’s the job he’s going to do. That said, I too was energized by his speech, which reminded me quite a bit of the speech given to the Democratic party convention in 2004 by a certain young senator from Illinois.

3. On the policy front, I was pleased (even though I am a republican) to see the resolution about severing ties to the monarchy sidelined. I was unhappy (as a democrat) about the ridiculous decision to empower just anybody to vote for the next Liberal leader. I foresee special interest groups (such as the homophobic, anti-choice groups which were very active in seizing control of riding associations in the 1990s) attempting to manipulate the situation to their advantage – and/or Conservatives and New Democrats flooding the leadership selection process to rally behind the weakest choice.

4. It was wonderful to see how many young Liberals were in attendance and active – as well as the large number of people who told me it was the first time they had ever attended a political convention. Its these people who will make the Liberal Party of Canada relevant again.

5. Contrary to what I predicted Sheila Copps didn’t win the presidency. Congratulations to Mike Crawley. Here’s hoping he learns from the mistakes of his predecessors Apps and LeDrew – and that he doesn’t interpret this as a license to bring back the bad old days of 2003-06.

Comments (24)

Bob Rae is running for the leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada.

As he made clear in his speech to the Grit caucus last Wednesday, Rae doesn’t want to be an interim leader anymore. He’s after the top job. As they gathered in Ottawa this weekend for a policy convention, why should Liberals oppose that? Six reasons.

One, he’s breaking a promise. In May 2011, a few weeks after the Liberal party’s crushing defeat, Rae wrote to Grit caucus members and pledged not to run for the full-time leader’s post.

“I think it’s important for the party to look very much to a new generation of leadership,” Rae told reporters. He was right.

But he wasn’t telling the truth.

Comments (25)

Justin, just before he shaved off his facial hair. Thankfully.

Comments (11)

It’s so cold here spit freezes before it hits the ground. It’s so cold here your skin hurts if the wind touches it for a moment. It’s so cold here you cannot believe it.

That’s not all. Yesterday’s snowstorm was really, really bad. One MP told me the 401 got shut down. People took hours and hours to reach Ottawa, over routes that usually take a fraction of that time. Me, I almost bought the farm on Highway 7 a couple times.

Why am I telling you this? What’s it got to do with a political convention?

Because the elements are part of the story. There are 3,300 Liberals here. For a policy convention.

Leadership conventions routinely attract lots of folks. But this is a dry old policy conflab. Why are so many Grits here, in the dead of Winter?

Because Liberals, from all over, want to keep the old party alive, I think. They don’t want May 2011 to be the obituary. They want to bring it back.

Sure, Bob Rae, Martin Cauchon, Martha Hall-Finlay and others are looking a lot like leadership candidates. Hospitality suites, knowing winks, offers of help: the usual. But regular Liberals aren’t here for that stuff. Over and over last night, they told me they were sick of that stuff.

They’re here for the Liberal Party, on the meanest weekend of the Winter you can imagine.

Truly – and forgive the breathless tone – it’s friggin’ amazing.

Comments (26)

Drove up from my sons’ retreat in the woods along Highway 7. Weather was wild! Almost wiped out a couple times, but my determination to deny conservatives the satisfaction of my early demise kept me on the road and heading East. Quick takes on what I’ve seen and heard so far:

• There are going to be more than 3,000 Grits at this convention.  That’s a convention in the middle of January in Ottawa, folks.  Congrats to Curtis O’Nyon and his team.  That’s a pretty amazing turnout for a policy convention – way more than the Cons and Dippers got at theirs, a Sun colleague told me.
• The mood is pretty upbeat.  There’s some predictable tension along the Sheila Copps-Mike Crawley fault-line, of course – Crawley made a point in barraging me in French as soon as I arrived, apparently irritated that I’d pointed out in a column that he was unilingual, while his main opponent wasn’t – but everyone else seems quite optimistic.  It was contagious.
• I heard that a number of pointy-headed intellectuals were approached to speak, in a non-partisan way, at the convention.  They declined.  In hushed tones, they said they were afraid of “retribution” from the Harper regime.  Apparently quite a few of them said this.  “When did we become Stalinist Russia?” I asked.  No one thought I was joking.
• Media turnout was weird.  The Sun was there, as were CTV, CPAC, Star (Susan Delacourt was kissed by Michael Ignatieff, something I’ve never seen a journalist submit to, before), Globe and Post Media, but not so much CBC.  Maybe they’re nervous about the Harper harpies, too.  Whatever the reason, it was weird.  We Liberals like you, CBC! What gives?
• I didn’t sense any love for Bob Rae from anyone I spoke to, but it may be because they were speaking to me.  Rae took a swipe at unnamed “bloggers and pundits” in his speech earlier in the day, which some folks suggested might include Yours Truly.  Rae apparently said he wouldn’t let the Vast Blogger and Pundit Conspiracy “define” the Liberal Party.  I reciprocate, and say we won’t let his leadership, interim or otherwise, “define” the Liberal Party, either.
• Best part: lots and lots of young people, many of whom I spoke with.  If this party is to survive, it needs to get rid of the old farts like me, and become the party of Canada’s next generation.

Comments (27)