A job nobody seems to want!

It was only a little over a week ago that Paul Martin thanked his campaign workers and then made plans to go walk in the snow, stating “I will not lead you into the next election”.

And since then, it’s been everyone for a lifeboat, as one high profile Liberal after another takes a pass on rebuilding and rebranding the once natural governing party. The exodus from the favourites list began with John Manley, making far too much money in the private sector, the once Finance Minister chose to sit this one out.

Liberals got excited when Frank McKenna resigned his perch in Washington, this is it many a Liberal said, Frankie’s coming home and it won’t be long til we’re back at 24 Sussex Drive. But, then Frank said public service wasn’t for him at such a high level, he didn't want the cheese, not willing to give the eight to ten year commitment to the Liberals he felt was needed to refloat the mighty ship Grit.

The trifecta was complete today when Brian Tobin announced his intention was to stay away as well, stating that he had his run, Tobin suggested that it was a time for new blood, new ideas and fair bit of healing for his party.

But where will that new blood come from? With the three highest profile Liberals taking a pass, suddenly the Liberal convention looks like it could be a remake of Snow White (Belinda) and the Seven Dwarfs (pick seven Liberals of your choosing, there’s not much between anyone there at the moment).

Names mentioned apparently with straight faces thus far include, the aforementioned Belinda Stronach, plus, Scott Brison, Martin Cauchon, Hedy Fry, Glen Murray, Stephane Dion, Ken Dryden, Maurizio Bevilacqua and Joe Volpe, Carole Taylor, Christy Clark, Michael Ignatieff and former NDPer, Ontario Premier and now apparent Liberal Bob Rae. Now it seems that anyone with a Liberal membership card gets an automatic placing into the gene pool for the next great leader.

Perhaps the Liberals should contract out the process to that new CTV reality show, our next great Prime Minister. In which four former PM’s (Clark, Turner, Mulroney and Campbell) listen to the candidates and then select the one person they figure is going to make the grade as the next great national leader.

And they may be on to something; we can turn the process into a glorified Canadian Idol audition without the warbling. Instead of ballads there will bombast, policy wonks will recite statistics like Celine Dion hitting a high note, stage presence will count large and the ability to master the twenty second television clip will be the key to success.

While it’s good to see everyone has goals and aspirations, none of the B list candidates really resonate with great leadership potential just yet. Perhaps one of them will sparkle as the days march on to the eventual convention, but right now the list of hopefuls reads like a who’s, who of whos?

Stepehen Clarkson, who has chronicled the Liberals over the years put things into perspective with his comments to CTV news. Clarkson -- a University of Toronto political scientist and author of The Big Red Machine, a book about the Liberal Party -- expressed some disappointment with the quality of the remaining candidates. "They're not dredging the bottom of the barrel, but they're not particularly strong, given the party's been so powerful in our recent past," he told CTV. Ouch, that should put a few egos on the shelf for a while.

Suddenly replacing Paul Martin is not going to be as easy as everyone thought. It’s got to be worrisome for the Liberal machine, to realize that anyone with a track record doesn’t seem to want to get anywhere near the train wreck at the moment. Perhaps one of the Big three will reconsider with appropriate draft, but content in private industry they suddenly have come to realize that it’s probably more profitable and lot more private shilling for major corporations than running a country.

Hope Big Paulie hasn’t made any post retirement plans just yet, just when he thought he had broken away, they might be dragging him back in. It may be that the best choice for tomorrow may end up being the one that was made yesterday!