$2 million buys a ticket to the Liberal dance

By Andrew Dreschel
The Hamilton Spectator(Feb 1, 2006)

The clock on the Liberal leadership race hasn't officially started ticking yet and already it needs oiling.

With presumed frontrunners Frank McKenna and John Manley bowing out, the field, far from being wide open, is thick with speculation but thin with contenders.

It could be potential candidates are waiting for Paul Martin to formally step down and an interim party leader to be appointed before committing themselves to an uncertain future.

But as it stands now, it looks as if the natural governing party is several alpha monkeys short of a full barrel.

Money, of course, could be a crucial inhibiting factor.

It's notoriously expensive to mount an effective leadership campaign. And then there's the party's whopping debt, which prior to the election was said to be about $33 million, that also needs to be considered.

In an e-mail response to questions about her own plans, Sheila Copps, who twice ran for leader of the federal Liberals and once for the Ontario Liberals, figures you need at least $2 million to take a stab at it.

Noting she doesn't have that kind of money, Copps playfully asked for suggestions.

Unfortunately, I'm bereft of ideas, but a creative reader has proposed a mud-wrestling match between Sheila and Belinda Stronach as a party fundraiser.

I know who I'd bet on winning two out of three falls.

But perhaps it should be a tag team event with two other rumoured leadership candidates on the card -- Bob Rae and rookie MP and overnight media darling, Michael Ignatieff.

Then again, given their pointy head reputations, Rae and Ignatieff might be better equipped to engage in a fierce egg-rolling contest.

Glamour aside, it's perfectly understandable why Stronach has been considered a likely contender right from the start.

As heir to the Magna International fortune, Stronach's got the bucks to finance a campaign and, since she ran for the leadership of the federal Conservatives in early 2004, she has a wealth of recent experience.

The fact she crossed the floor to the Liberals last spring may be infuriating to Tories, but Liberals won't hold that against her. After all, even the great Winston Churchill, who was first elected as a Conservative, crossed over to the Liberals and then back again to the Tories.

In politics, loyalty is a much more flexible quality than ambition.

Ignatieff has neither Stronach's money nor experience, but at least he's an eloquent, brainy fresh face who's unburdened by any association with either Chretien or the departing Mr. Dithers.

On top of that, Ignatieff wrote The Russian Album, one of my favourite books about family roots and the Canadian immigrant experience. And he's the descendant of a famous Czarist spymaster. What's not to like?

As for Rae, outside of active politics, the former NDP premier of Ontario is both respected and admired. But Ontario voters will never forgive or forget his unpopular recession-era government.

Anyone pushing his candidacy should be serving drinks on another planet.

There are other names in the hopper, of course -- Tory crossover Scott Brison, Joe Volpe, Ken Dryden, and Martin Cauchon.

But surely the Liberals can do better than that, particularly since party connections, loyalty and experience no longer seem to be a prerequisite.

If the party is looking for star quality, it might be that Dan Aykroyd or Shania Twain are ready for political prime time.

Or perhaps the moment has come for Justin Trudeau to pick up his father's mantle and charm us with slogans about a "Justin Society."

Better yet, maybe his mother, Margaret, could take her crusade against bottled water -- surely one of the most pressing issues of our time -- to the Liberal leadership convention.

Whoever does finally throw their hat in the ring, we can at least look back on these early days of broken expectations and predictions as a reminder of why political science should always be regarded as an oxymoron.

Andrew Dreschel's commentary appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. adreschel@thespec.com or 905-526-3495.