MP Justin Trudeau (Papineau, Que.) took care to avoid a direct encounter with a healthy pack of hovering reporters, arriving quietly as almost the last of Liberal MPs and Senators to enter the caucus meeting room before a keynote speech from Interim Leader Bob Rae (Toronto Centre, Ont.). Mr. Trudeau paused only for a second, long enough to politely tell The Hill Times he wasn’t discussing leadership, before his assistant nudged him toward the caucus room doors as reporters began turning toward him.
The other most-talked about candidate in the hallways of the log-walled Fairmont Chateau Montebello was New Brunswick MP Dominic LeBlanc (Beausejour, N.B.). He took the opportunity to stop in front of a bank of cameras and microphones for several minutes, confirming for the first time publicly he was considering his candidacy in the contest set to launch officially this fall.
And—signalling the kind of attention both prospective candidates have been getting in party circles over the summer—veteran Liberal MP John McCallum (Markham-Unionville, Ont.) said a leadership battle between Mr. LeBlanc and Mr. Trudeau, who are close friends, is exactly what the party needs.
Despite rumours that Mr. LeBlanc has told acquaintances he would not run if Mr. Trudeau throws his hat in the ring—as Liberals across the country are reportedly urging him to do—Mr. McCallum said he believes Mr. LeBlanc has not ruled anything out.
“I know Dominic well and I still would say that I would not rule it out,” Mr. McCallum told The Hill Times. “I don’t think he’s made up his mind yet.”
Mr. LeBlanc, the late Governor General Romeo LeBlanc's son, will run to win if he runs, Mr. McCallum said. “Why else would he run? If he runs he’ll run to win, and he’s got experience. He’s 100 per cent bilingual. He’s born into Liberal politics. He worked for Jean Chrétien. He’s a good age. He’s smart. He would be a strong candidate, and I’m just saying I would not rule it out.”
Moments before Mr. Rae delivered an upbeat address to the MPs and Senators, informally running through a list of Liberal goals and values almost as a guide for prospective leadership candidates over the coming months, Mr. LeBlanc confirmed he was weighing his candidacy, and at the same time outlined what he considers to be essential qualifications. “I’ve thought long and hard, as a number of other people have I’m sure, about whether I’m the best person at this time to assume the leadership of the party, at a time when it’s never been at a weaker point in its history,” said Mr. LeBlanc, who since 2000 has represented the New Brunswick riding his father held while serving in the government of Mr. Trudeau’s father, the late former prime minister Pierre Trudeau.
“I have talked to people across the country who’ve encouraged me to run. I think the party desperately wants a new generation of leadership. I think the party has to come to terms with the fact that if somebody wants to seek the leadership they have to be bilingual,” Mr. LeBlanc, who cut his political teeth in Jean Chrétien's PMO, told the journalists. “I think some of these things are a given, and I think the experience I have, and friends I’ve made in the party, would make my candidacy an interesting one to a number of people.”
But he cautioned: “I need to come to a rather serene understanding if I’m prepared to say that the next 10 or 15 years of my life will be occupied exclusively with the pursuit of the rebuilding of the party and an election victory, and hopefully leading the next generation of majority Liberal government.”
While Mr. Trudeau avoided the media, quietly taking his seat by a window in a row of caucus seats equally third from the front and third from the rear of the room, other MPs, including Mr. McCallum, were quick to express their appreciation of his qualities, and background, in interviews with The Hill Times.
Liberal MP Rodger Cuzner (Cape Breton-Canso, N.S.) said he thinks Mr. Trudeau would be an “exceptional” candidate for leader. “He’s such an interesting guy. He walks into a room and he has rock star qualities,” he said. “He’s got the magic touch. My mom died this summer, he was down in New Brunswick and he came down for the funeral, he and Dominic. They said when he walked in every head in the church, and the church was jammed, every head in the church sort of turned.”
Mr. Cuzner said people should not underestimate Mr. Trudeau.
“The pundits can pick him apart and say, you know, he’s light in this area, he’s light in that area, whatever. He sits behind me in the House. If you underestimate him, you do so at your own risk,” Mr. Cuzner said, explaining how Mr. Trudeau meticulously followed a training plan, with expert advice, in the months that led up to defeating Conservative Senator Patrick Brazeau in a highly publicized charity boxing match earlier this year.
“We talked about it every second day or so as we got closer to the fight, I was a little concerned. You could see the confidence grow. He was getting good advice. He surrounded himself with the best people he thought he could, they devised a game plan and he stuck to the game plan and he was successful,” said Mr. Cuzner. “You don’t want to make too much out of a charity boxing match, but that template I think would serve him well should he decide to take a run at this leadership.”
Liberal MP Lawrence MacAulay (Cardigan, P.E.I.), a former Cabinet minister in Mr. Chrétien’s governments, expressed favourable opinions of both Mr. LeBlanc and Mr. Trudeau, saying any candidate who hopes to win the leadership, in a vote to be set for early next April, will have to demonstrate belief and support for a strong federal government. “What you have to have is a leader that fully supports a strong federal government. I know that’s what we need,” Mr. MacAulay said. “And we have to have leadership that supports a strong federal government. The problem is the present [Conservative] leadership wants to get rid of a lot of powers, which gives me great fear.”
Reflecting the upbeat caucus mood, Mr. MacAulay said he believes the impending leadership race, coupled with fundraising success in the first half of 2012 and other improvement in vital signs, will boost Liberal morale.
“I think they will feel a lot better, and I also think it’s an enormous opportunity for the Liberal Party,” he said.
“Do I like us at 34 or 35 seats? No, but I believe that certain things happen. I do not believe that we’re in as bad a shape as you might think we are. When you look at our finances, the money is coming in. I think the opportunity is there for the right person to do very well for the Liberal Party,” said the Commons veteran. “I do believe that the country is screeching for leadership.”
Original Article
Source: hill times
Author: Tim Naumetz
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