Okay, here's my brave prediction. As in 1968 (with Trudeau and Turner), and 1990 (Chrétien and Martin), the coming Liberal Party leadership convention will be a showcase for the next two party leaders: Rae and Ignatieff, or else Ignatieff and Rae, depending on which one wins the convention, which at this point is well beyond my precognitive powers. The Liberals have had two wings for a long while, and right now the figurehead positions for both wings are open. I don't think the wings are necessarily left and right. They can shift around just like political parties do. But they will be opposites in some important way. Rae strikes me as the kind of guy who's surrounded by chums, Ignatieff by thralls. I imagine Rae's bunch as power-cozy compromisers à la Chrétien, Ignatieff's as self-abnegating idolators in the Trudeau mold. I give the winner five years of getting mauled by minority parliaments, after which the other one comes back from some university for a coronation convention.
Douglas
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