Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Who Will Be the Next Leader of the Conservative Party?

Ya know, we Liberals have been reading and listening to the Conservative and NDP rhetoric for over 2.5 years now about Stephane Dion not being a leader and people waiting in the wings to take his job.

Some main stream media folks (if not all) have been touting this upcoming election as the last chance Dion has to be leader of the Liberal Party of Canada.

Well people, my question to you is this: who is going to replace Harper and Layton after they both fail in the next election?

For Harper, who loves quitting (think January 14, 1997), there is nobody to fill the vacuum of the reform/alliance agenda. Jason Kenney? Pierre Poilievre? Rob Anders? Monte Solberg? Or perhaps a female! Helena? Josee? Rona? Diane Findlay - oh yeah, she won't be re-elected. Or how about a minority MP? Obrhai? Jaffer? Probably not.

What does that leave the Conservative Party with? A bunch of Harris clowns. Baird? Flaherty? Clement? Laughable really. None of them can hold that party together. None!

And, who will fill Jack's shoes? Pat Martin? Joe Comartin (he'd be my choice)? Libby Davies?

You see where I'm going with this, right? Tom Flanagan prophesizes the demolition of the Liberal Party with the loss of the next election. The real truth is that the Conservative Party of Canada and the NDP are in real peril with a loss. In Harper's case, if Dion forms government. A Conservative loss and Harper's done. In Jack's case, if the Dippers drop under 25 seats (think Hamilton Mountain and Hamilton East-Stoney Creek). A drop in seats and Jack is done.

As for the demolition of the Liberal brand? I recall we had 11 contenders for leadership last time out, any one of which were more than capable of being Prime Minister. The Cons and Dippers? Not so much!

3 comments:

RuralSandi said...

Hmmm...

Prentice replaces Harper
Mulcair replaces Layton

Jason Hickman said...

I recall we had 11 contenders for leadership last time out, any one of which were more than capable of being Prime Minister. [emphasis added]

Hmm ... Nope. Sorry. I'm trying my best, but I can't get my head around "Prime Minister Fry", let alone "Prime Minister Volpe". C'mon, James, let me hear you say "I believe Joe Volpe could, nay should, be Prime Minister" out loud, just once...

More seriously, I think the conventional wisdom is that whomever loses - Harper or Dion - will quit even before anyone can organize to toss them out. I guess the exception would be if we get an *exceptionally* narrow CPC or LPC minority, the loser may hang on to see if it collapses within a month or two, but even that's a stretch.

(I think Duceppe, who was the one leader you didn't mention, is going to hit the exit no matter how the BQ does. This will be his fifth(!) election as leader, and I get the sense from watching him on the news that he's had enough of this nonsense. Do you agree?)

James Curran said...

Joe Volpe has been a major player in the Liberal Party for a verrrrry long time. His network of supporters is coast-to-coast. He was instrumental in the Martin regime and brings a lot to the table.

In addition, he is trilingual and next to Stephane, spoke French better than all the other candidates.

And, Hedy Fry is a dynamo.

Yes. Gilles is done after this one. There are some very good BQ MPs that could step up to the plate though. Carol Lavallee and Pierre Paquette come to mind.