Wilson Pickett: the soundtrack of the Liberal Party of Canada Convention

I'm gonna wait till the midnight hour
That's when my love comes a-tumbling down
I'm gonna wait till the midnight hour
When there's nobody else around

So the first ballot is in, the results released across Canada just after the witching hour in Central Canada. It’s a strange way to run a convention, releasing the results after a good portion of the nation has gone to bed,and about the only good thing that might come of it is that Michael Ignatieff might have already turned in himself for the night.

Ignatieff the anticipated favourite as the Liberals marched off to Montreal, laid a bit of an egg on the first ballot. As his handlers were busy promoting the possibility of Iggy taking 35% of the vote, the delegates apparently had different ideas. As the numbers popped out of the Liberal-a-nator 5000, Ignatieff could only claim the love of 29.3% of the gathered.

Bob Rae staked out second place with 20.3% of the vote and Stephane Dion edged out Gerard Kennedy for third place by two votes, translating into 17% of the vote each.

After Kennedy the numbers drop off the cliff as the runners up collected their votes and pondered which horse has the push to take the final stretch of the race.

One thing stands certain, this most certainly won’t be a coronation of Ignatieff, who is in a world of trouble at the moment as his momentum comes to a sudden screaming halt. With an undercurrent of anybody but Iggy making its way through the Palais du Congress, the scrambling of alliances and harvesting of the bottom rungers will most likely have already begun.

Bob Rae would normally be considered the one to benefit the most, but the talk of speech night seems to be that Rae forgot to speak French in any great measure, kind of a huge oversight at a Liberal gathering, a major gaffe at any convention being held in Montreal.

Many would turn to a third place candidate at a time like this, and Dion has always been everyone’s dark horse candidate, but he too had a bit of an error ridden time on the podium. While his speech did nail a few topics close to the heart of the Liberals, he somehow managed to leave two to three pages behind on the podium having run out of time to present his case. A bit of a blunder as he had the chance to claim the attention of the delegates with a fiery wrap up, but instead resembled the professor who misplaced his notes.

The final fourth of the Big Four, Gerard Kennedy had a run of the mill Liberal laundry list, but is still considered a bit of an unknown, despite his years of service in Ontario. His approach to the Quebec issue is decidedly different than most of the current crop of Liberals, which might be considered refreshing by some, but more likely is the thing to scupper his bid for the top rung. His 16% of the vote will be what many observers are looking at as Saturday morning comes along, he’ll no doubt be hanging around for at least a third ballot which will give him and the delegates he holds a good idea which way that Liberal wind is going to blow.

Being a soon to be free agent Liberal delegate in Montreal tonight is no doubt a ticket to a bounty of food, drink and companionship. Perhaps a wise strategy for the front runners is to make sure that the delegates have such a good time tonight that they can’t make it to the ballot box on Saturday.

By the end of the day as the Liberals head home to prepare for the battles ahead, perhaps they’ll be singing another Pickett song, Everybody needs somebody to love.