Jim Travers makes sense. In Canada. I'm not making this up.
Jim Travers' Star column earlier this week made sense. He seems to have jumped onto the consensus bandwagon when it comes to leadership and renewal in the party. He's even using the same phrases that are scattered throughout the blogosphere. Some of my favorite highlights:
Just days after defeat, federal Liberals are frenetically looking here, there and everywhere for a new saviour. Their time and energy would be better spent searching for the party's soul
"The party as a whole needs to get over the tribal feuding and regroup around some common ideas and beliefs," says John Manley, the former deputy prime minister who this week stepped out of the still unofficial race.Contrast that with the last seven days of hero-worship for the latest coming messiah, Mr. Frank Mckenna. No one of my acquaintance, and certainly no one in the blogosphere has been able to stop talking about how he is the frontrunner in a race that doesn't exist yet and will be annointed the new king of the party. there were certainly hopes expressed that he wouldn't walk into a coronation and they were widespread but the idea that he wouldn't run? The prospect that the saviour might not descend from heaven to save the party?
Liberals and the lengthening list of wannabe leaders should listen. A contemplative truce is necessary if the party is to discover if it still has a purpose beyond winning elections, managing power and rewarding its friends.
Unfathomable.
Even when "friends and allies" suggested he may not run. comment after comment accusing the sourcs of a cynical leak to build up support. the only idea I've heard in the last week that makes less sense is the idea that Martin is planning a comeback tour. Even now, Liberal conspiracy theorists are getting their mental gymnastics all warmed up to paint this as the first stage of a "Draft Mckenna" strategy.
The fact is McKenna is not in the race and short of a divine visitation he won't be entering it. This is further evidence that Paul Wells 2nd Rule is worth keeping on the books.
We are all in danger of losing sight of the fact that the leadership race isn't the point. Nothing is better at getting bloggers riled up into a frenzy than speculation and rumour. Everyone can claim to be an expert on a race that a) hasn't started and b) doesn't have any real candidates yet.
The talk will continue about the importance of party renewal in the structural and policy arenas but the persistent assumption in these discussions (and the frenetic speculation about leadership) is that a leadership race is the means to renew the party's policy and structure. This was the assumption of the Martin juggernaut and it is a dangerous idea as we move into opposition.
Rather, the outcome of a leadership contest and the manner in which it is played out will be the evidence of how well we have managed to renew the party in real and lasting ways. The outcome of leadership is how we evaluate our success, not how we should hope to achieve it.
Tom Axworthy has his work cut out for him and it will require us all to go against our first instincts and put Liberal values ahead of our "liberal ambitions". A vision for the 21st century is not going to evolve in this party without some careful incubation.
posted by Michael Crook @ 1/31/2006 10:22:00 PM
1 Comments:
One of the things I noticed about this most recent election (and I write this as someone who wrote as a commentator for 24 Hours, so please take even me with a grain of salt) is that most media coverage had too much speculative commentary, and not enough content. Newspapers did a much better job of managing and keeping this careful balance, I believe, but in the television media it was almost unbearable.
Pollsters and commentators took the stage and limelight for long tiresome periods of wasted, spinned, rehashed air-time when actual (factual) news coverage was sidelined or minimalized. At the end of the day, in a multitude of cases, the polling turned out wrong or off-base, and the commentators' predictions and musings turned up false.
As the Liberal Party moves towards choosing its next leader in an internal election, I believe it would be well-advised not to settle too comfortably on similar practices. Politics is indeed a game, but political parties and their members have to remember that it is a far more serious and consequential one than most sports. Speculation has its value, to be sure, but Michael's right, it is most often short-sighted in nature and the most important task for the Liberal party right now is not to go into a speculative media feeding frenzy about who's ahead in the race to lead us a year from now, but rather to figure out where we want to be as Liberals and Canadians ten years from now.
I'll probably be guilty of a great deal of mindless, baseless speculation myself as these next few months progress, as many of us will be, but let's all remember that the "big prize" here is not a leadership crown, but rather a better, more focused and principled Liberal party that can build a better, more forward-thinking and prosperous Canada.
Let's keep our eyes on the prize.
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