Another prominent Liberal, Allan Rock, has said he will not be running for the Liberal Leadership. Rock joins several other prominent Liberals who don’t seem to want the position.
And why would we expect any different? The winner of this contest will end up being a resident at Stornoway for a good 5 to 8 years. A productive Conservative Minority and probably majority next time around would require someone capable of slamming the Conservatives day after day after day, with no real chance at the leadership.
Manley sited his age. McKenna sited his age. Hell, even Bill Graham, the interim leader said his age precludes him from sticking around.
Who does this leave?
Well there are quite a few rising members of the caucus and a few who have been around for a couple of elections. But my bet is on whoever has the most experience slamming the Tories…
Hmmmmm…….
Why not David Orchard? He has the “text book” slams down. He has a severe hatred for Harper and McKay. He is now a supporter of the Liberal Party.
The other factor, playing on contenders minds, is the massive debt the Liberals apparently have been building up. New fund raising procedures prohibit major donations which were a big part of the Liberal income. This will severely hurt the party. Even deep pockets like Belinda’s would be off limits from my understanding. She couldn’t simply ask Daddy (or her brother Andrew) to pay off the debt.
This means the leader will likely be someone who understands bankruptcy laws. Considering the fat cows the Liberals relied on have the new restrictions to bar them from dumping, I can only see them coming out of debt with a massive money laundering scheme pulling money out of trust after trust and managing to filter it into the coffers $1000 at a time. And we all know the new Accountability Act is probably going to eliminate the risk of that.