With the withdrawal of Deputy Prime Minister John Manley from the competition to succeed current Prime Minister Jean Chrètien, the race - if it can still be called that - has whittled down to two entrants, a mere fifty percent of the Prime Minister wannabes who originally tossed hats into the red ring.
With the withdrawal of Deputy Prime Minister John Manley from the competition to succeed current Prime Minister Jean Chrètien, the race - if it can still be called that - has whittled down to two entrants, a mere fifty percent of the Prime Minister wannabes who originally tossed hats into the red ring.
Officially, of course, Manley has seen the light: Canada will be a better place with the acknowledged frontrunner Paul Martin installed at 24 Sussex. Still holding out hopes for a senior cabinet portfolio in a Martin-led government, Manley took the high road, announcing his support for Martin rather than acknowledging the impossibility of defeating him.
The reality is, like Industry Minister Allan Rock before him, Manley could see the writing on the wall - and in his checkbook: Paul Martin and his organizing machine are an unstoppable Liberal force.
The race cannot - and has not been - about the exchange of ideas about directions for the Liberal party and the federal government. The race will be (or has been) decided by the candidates' abilities to raise the most amount of money to obtain the influence and support needed. In that regard, party politics in Canada continues to move closer to practices of political parties in the U.S. The sheer volume of cash raised may not match that of our American counterparts but as a ratio of cash raised in proportion to the size of our electorate, the Liberal leadership race only goes to demonstrate we have no reason to feel smug about the superiority of our system.
And in that regard, no one is better on this side of the border than Paul Martin. Successful son in a prominent Liberal political family, Martin was practically born to be the country's leader. He may not have been successful in his last campaign to head the party - the honor that went to Chrètien and stayed there for ten years - but neither did he rest on his laurels waiting for 'da Boss' to call it quits. For the past decade, Martin's long-term position as Finance Minister and wrestler of the nation's deficit has allowed him to amass a wealth of political goodwill among the moneyed class and a veritable volunteer army to coordinate his next bid for party supremacy.
