Canada’s Liberal leadership contest—a race to the right

Intense jockeying for the support of delegates has resulted from the fact that none of the eight candidates has succeeded in winning majority-support from the party establishment, its MPs, or dwindling membership, let alone the backing of most of the corporate media. A contest initially characterized by affability and bland debates has become embittered in recent weeks with the exchange of inflammatory statements and heated criticism.

Four candidates, who each captured between 15 and 30 percent of the elected delegates (there are also hundreds of ex officio delegates), are deemed to have a genuine chance of winning the race to succeed Paul Martin, Canada’s prime minister from December 2003 to February 2006, as federal Liberal Party leader.

Significantly, just one of the four served in the recently ousted Liberal government and the two front-runners became active in the federal Liberal Party only recently.

The four are: the academic and “liberal thinker” Michael Ignatieff; the former New Democratic Party premier of Ontario, Bob Rae; former Ontario Liberal Education Minister Gerard Kennedy; and former federal Liberal minister Stéphane Dion.

Given the tightness of the race, the election could easily take the form of a scramble for support on a third or fourth ballot.

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http://wsws.org/articles/2006/dec2006/cana-d01.shtml