The Liberals selected a new national leader on Saturday night, in a cliff hanger of a convention which went four ballots before deciding that it was Stephane Dion, not Michael Ignatieff, not Bob Rae who better exemplified all that they believe is good about Liberalism.
Making for a remarkable come from behind (some say come from nowhere) victory and a new direction for the Liberal party of Canada. Dion’s selection marks a victory for the grass root, door to door form of politics. The big machines of Ignatieff and Rae laid to waste by the convention’s end.
Dion who ran on a platform built on sustainability and environmental concerns, seemed to build his base as the week leading up to the convention progressed. He suddenly found himself as everybody’s second choice, the candidate they would flock to once their obligation to those that brought them to the dance were fulfilled.
In the end, it proved to be the template for success, Dion watched as many of his fellow candidates would migrate to Bob Rae, but in the end the delegates chose not to follow. Gerard Kennedy who trailed Dion by only two votes on the first ballot saw Dion’s lead increase as the voting progressed; he then quickly assessed the lay of the convention land and went to the Dion side, which did seem to be the logical spot to land.
Unlike the other candidates, who went to Rae for the photo op and campaign buttons, Kennedy actually seemed to deliver the bulk of his supporters into the Dion camp. With that large a group in play, the migrating Liberals sensed the swing and selected the professor from Quebec, a staunch federalist and champion of the environment, keeper of the two themes that Liberals it seems hold quite close to their hearts these days.
As the convention dramatics played out the talking heads and pundits of television sensed the movement, the Ignatieff campaign was stalling and the buzz was building about the doggedly determined Dion and his positive campaign. The last hour of the televised event must have been the longest and most excruciating hour of Ignatieff’s life, the organizers for whatever reason chose to drag on the theatrics to try and reach the 6:00 hour.
When the in house DJ wasn’t playing the worst music selection known to man, the organizers were busy trotting out John Turner and Jean Chretien for overly long speeches, they then put on a lengthy video presentation of past Liberal Prime Ministers. While all of this played out the television cameras were focused in on Ignatieff’s face, a visage that all but had conceded defeat, showing signs of having received the word and the word was not good.
Finally a mercy rule was invoked, the music stopped, the lights came up and results were in hand. They announced Dion as the winner, Ignatieff seconded the motion and the streamers would begin to fall. The pundits weighed in as how Dion was not beholden to any machine, took no counsel from the party insiders and was very much his own man. David Herle all but conceding that Dion would rarely take his counsel while in the Martin cabinet, and well as things turned out there, perhaps proves that Dion’s a wiser man than he’s been give credit for thus far.
Considering the mess the Liberals had become in the last couple of years, stepping away from the backroom organizers and operators can only be good news for the party, since ignoring the advice of that party machine is probably a darn fine way to rebuild and renew.
Too bad he couldn’t have had a bit of control on the convention timetable though, for the second night in a row a Dion speech ended up cut off in mid sentence. Friday night because he had gone over the convention time limits, Saturday night because the convention organizers left his speech to late into the night, bordering up on the start of Hockey Night in Canada the CBC bailed at 6:30.
Dion should send them a thank you card for their wise programming intuition, while it’s unfortunate that the wide audience of the CBC was denied his parting thoughts, imagine the outrage if he kept Don Cherry from the Saturday night pulpit? Deny Canadians hockey for a political speech and all that good karma would have gone up like so many greenhouse gases…
There will be lots of time between now and the next election for Dion to get his message out to the nation, hopefully with a more judicious use of time.
Making for a remarkable come from behind (some say come from nowhere) victory and a new direction for the Liberal party of Canada. Dion’s selection marks a victory for the grass root, door to door form of politics. The big machines of Ignatieff and Rae laid to waste by the convention’s end.
Dion who ran on a platform built on sustainability and environmental concerns, seemed to build his base as the week leading up to the convention progressed. He suddenly found himself as everybody’s second choice, the candidate they would flock to once their obligation to those that brought them to the dance were fulfilled.
In the end, it proved to be the template for success, Dion watched as many of his fellow candidates would migrate to Bob Rae, but in the end the delegates chose not to follow. Gerard Kennedy who trailed Dion by only two votes on the first ballot saw Dion’s lead increase as the voting progressed; he then quickly assessed the lay of the convention land and went to the Dion side, which did seem to be the logical spot to land.
Unlike the other candidates, who went to Rae for the photo op and campaign buttons, Kennedy actually seemed to deliver the bulk of his supporters into the Dion camp. With that large a group in play, the migrating Liberals sensed the swing and selected the professor from Quebec, a staunch federalist and champion of the environment, keeper of the two themes that Liberals it seems hold quite close to their hearts these days.
As the convention dramatics played out the talking heads and pundits of television sensed the movement, the Ignatieff campaign was stalling and the buzz was building about the doggedly determined Dion and his positive campaign. The last hour of the televised event must have been the longest and most excruciating hour of Ignatieff’s life, the organizers for whatever reason chose to drag on the theatrics to try and reach the 6:00 hour.
When the in house DJ wasn’t playing the worst music selection known to man, the organizers were busy trotting out John Turner and Jean Chretien for overly long speeches, they then put on a lengthy video presentation of past Liberal Prime Ministers. While all of this played out the television cameras were focused in on Ignatieff’s face, a visage that all but had conceded defeat, showing signs of having received the word and the word was not good.
Finally a mercy rule was invoked, the music stopped, the lights came up and results were in hand. They announced Dion as the winner, Ignatieff seconded the motion and the streamers would begin to fall. The pundits weighed in as how Dion was not beholden to any machine, took no counsel from the party insiders and was very much his own man. David Herle all but conceding that Dion would rarely take his counsel while in the Martin cabinet, and well as things turned out there, perhaps proves that Dion’s a wiser man than he’s been give credit for thus far.
Considering the mess the Liberals had become in the last couple of years, stepping away from the backroom organizers and operators can only be good news for the party, since ignoring the advice of that party machine is probably a darn fine way to rebuild and renew.
Too bad he couldn’t have had a bit of control on the convention timetable though, for the second night in a row a Dion speech ended up cut off in mid sentence. Friday night because he had gone over the convention time limits, Saturday night because the convention organizers left his speech to late into the night, bordering up on the start of Hockey Night in Canada the CBC bailed at 6:30.
Dion should send them a thank you card for their wise programming intuition, while it’s unfortunate that the wide audience of the CBC was denied his parting thoughts, imagine the outrage if he kept Don Cherry from the Saturday night pulpit? Deny Canadians hockey for a political speech and all that good karma would have gone up like so many greenhouse gases…
There will be lots of time between now and the next election for Dion to get his message out to the nation, hopefully with a more judicious use of time.
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