As delegates were leaving Montreal today, the season's first snow fell briefly this morning in Montreal. There was much traffic on the 20 and I hope nobody missed their flights.
In the meantime, it was still very peaceful by the water's edge.
I trust Liberals are also at peace with with the outcome of the leadership convention. Certain types of Liberals went the Ignatieff route. What are the distinguishing features of Liberals who went that route last April when the roster of candidates was still unclear?
Some wrongly anticipated Liberals would be admiring of Mr. Ignatieff having benchmarked himself as a standout amongst bright people globally. Others felt his academic smarts would translate into political smarts. Still others felt that superior organisational skills of his machine would carry the day.
The bottom line is that the Mr. Dion overcame the organisational machines that split and have dominated the party since Mr. Turner and Mr. Chretien's leadership battle in the 80's. Following that the organisational machines were born.
As a result, that power base is gone and the party can now heal - and that was clearly what this convention needed to pull off as an outcome at the end of the day for the sake of the Liberal party of Canada. Mr. Dion's victory was the cherry on top (because this would not have happened if the new leader were Iggy or Rae), which followed the very powerful messages that were sent along with Mr. Martin's rare praise of Mr. Chretien and vice versa. Mr. Turner was in the mix too for good measure.
The convention process and Mr. Dion's victory together represent renewal on a far more significant scale than could have been created alone by the Red Ribbon Campaign or the Renewal Commission, which were not at all immune from the influence of those same machines. The Nation resolution is just one of a series of bad ideas that only came about as a result of those self-interested power dynamics.
Now, Mr. Dion needs to ensure that those who at most missed the obvious risks from the Iggy route and at least those who lost control of the spin can no longer take such liberties without accountability. Those who would seek seek to manipulate interal processeses for personal gain or the collective gain of one part of the party at the expence of another must not be allowed to do so anymore.
This way, the potential for the Liberal party to emerge from its previous mistakes (which caught up with the party at the last election) and move forward in a way that will make the healing and renewal experienced by Liberals and non-Liberals watching at home over the last few days sustainable.
If Mr. Dion is able to ensure that the same power structures do not return (or creep back in), I am very confident he can successfully pull this off.
Well done!
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