Manley Organization Prepared to be Kingmakers?

Manley won't enter Grit leadership race

Juliet O'Neill
CanWest News Service

Friday, January 27, 2006

OTTAWA -- John Manley won't enter the Liberal leadership race, but some of his core supporters are vowing to stick together and move as a block, hoping to serve as potential kingmakers for another candidate to replace Paul Martin.

"We would have a significant impact," Brampton, Ont., lawyer Andrew Kania said Thursday, noting that the Manley campaign attracted 50,000 new Liberals in three months during the 2003 leadership race and the core group has stayed in touch for three years since then. "We could tip the balance for somebody."

It's too soon to say who that somebody might be, he said, since none of the many potential candidates, from Ambassador Frank McKenna to celebrity MP Belinda Stronach, has declared.

"But one thing we've agreed on is we're moving as a block and we're staying together and we're going to somebody in due course."

Kania's comments came amid calls from some Liberals against a coronation for McKenna or any other candidate.

"Those of us who remain must not repeat past errors of believing that we can effect change merely by exchanging party leaders," said a letter to party members from former policy chair Akah Maharaj. He called for internal reform and grassroots rejuvenation.

Bill Milliken, an Ottawa consultant and longtime friend of Manley's, said it is unlikely all of Manley's supporters will swing behind one candidate. "That may well occur, but I'm sure there are going to be differences of opinion among us, and that's healthy," he said.

Milliken noted that Manley's letter to supporters had referred to the next leader as "she or he" and he wondered whether the former deputy prime minister was referring to Stronach, the one woman known to be contemplating a candidacy. "She is probably Stephen Harper's worst nightmare because she has looked him in the eye and decided that he's not the right guy," Milliken said, "I think that might be quite useful in a Liberal leader."

Manley's decision freed a campaign network that Kania says is well placed to take advantage of a new leadership campaign finance law that will be tested for the first time by a major political party when candidates line up to succeed Martin. Although candidates with rich, generous family and friends may have an edge, none of them will be allowed to use giant or secret donations from corporations, their own bank accounts or from any other source to finance their campaigns.

The 13-month-old law gives an advantage to those who have already begun or are prepared for a mass fundraising effort based on quantity of donors rather than quantity of donation. Kania says the Manley camp is poised for that.

"I absolutely believed that we were going to win, so I'm disappointed," Kania said. "The person who's going to win is somebody who's going to be hitting the ground hard now and organizing really, really well."

The campaign-financing law is aimed at leveling the playing field by limiting single campaign contributions to $5,200 per donor. Candidates are allowed to contribute twice that, a maximum $10,400, to their own campaign. All donors must be disclosed to the public, although not necessarily before the vote, as candidates are granted time after the new leader is chosen to raise funds to pay campaign debts.