Sunday, November 16, 2008

Memo to My Friend Warren Kinsella

Do you not think that Liberals across the country would like to hear what all the candidates have to say, and as many times as is possible given that the race is only 6 months long and many of us won't get an opportunity outside of Toronto or Montreal to hear these men speak?

Don't you think it's a little elitist to limit such forums to riding presidents,party execs and ex-officios from Ontario? Don't you think the future leader of the party is right about letting the grassroots across the country have access to the leaders' ideas via the national media? Or should we just become the Liberal version of the closed up Conservatives?

This is a leadership of inclusion...or,at least, it should be.

9 comments:

S.K. said...

James, given that media is Mr Kinsella's area of expertise, do you not think it is probably him advising Ignatieff to close the debate to media?

Anonymous said...

I'm with you JC. These "fight club" politics are doing more damage to the LPC than Harper ever could. It's a smart strategy to keep us focused on the IggyBob battle and away from getting a decent look at LeBlanc though.

RuralSandi said...

Is the race truly official? According to Wells, O'Malley, Rae has not officially declared his candidacy.

Rae knew about this - why didn't he publicize his objections a couple of weeks ago?

It's a preliminary right. Has anyone said that all debates from now on will be closed door?

Speaking of LeBlanc, who has quite the pedigree also of connections and schooled at Harvard, his wife has been appointed a judge in N.B. - good for her.

I know I sound stupid here - say LeBlanc won the leadership and moved on to become PM...would she be able to keep her post? Probably this was checked out...I was just wondering.

I can't find much info on LeBlanc either.

S.K. said...

Rural Sandi, that logic is just plain lame. Don't you think resigning his post in the house and telling everyone in the media and the Party he is running, means Rae is running? No one is officially a candidate until they fill out the application andf pay the 90,000 and Ignatieff hasn't done that either.

Fabio Van Manly said...

I tire so very easily of the cult of personality known as Warren Kinsella. His 'cooler than thou' persona irks more than it inspires. As an undecided in this very young leadership race, the entry of WK to the Ignatieff camp moves me not. As a matter of fact it may very well have the opposite effect.

RuralSandi said...

Well, S.K., you are just so superior, we know.

I was relying of O'Mally and Wells about the "official" entering into the race.

Rae has already started off sleazy - do we want sleazy?

ch said...

Rae needs to come clean about when he first asked to change the rules and who he talked to. Some are saying he agreed to the rules set by the executive and didn't try to resolve it with them.

Blues Clair said...

I guess some of Ignatieff's people are ok with "his somewhat ruthless takeover of much of his party's organization."

Fight fair Rae, they cry.

ch said...

Blues Clair, I don't know what Igatieff has done behind the scenes. It is possible he has done some backroom dealing which is not to the benefit of he party. But, Rae is an experienced politician. If stuff has gone on behind the scenes that works against the party, Rae should be able to do something better than going to the media like this.

This just smacks of inside fighting and Rae may be alienating more people in the party if they set the rules, feel he agreed to them, and didn't try to resolve his disagreement with them but instead spilled it out to the media about 12 hours before the event.

I worry this will only hurt the party. Rae may gain some friends in the media, but will lose some supporters inside the party. His friends in the media, may just be using him and in the end, the party will likely be the loser.