Sunday, April 02, 2006

Why Not Gerard Kennedy?

In response to our post on Canadian and American leaders of the past 50 years, 'MississaugaPeter' said...
"Maybe it will go full circle again with Kennedy (in Canada) and Clinton (in the U.S.), a repeat of previous president last names. But that would not be mentioned since your blog has yet to acknowledge Gerard's existence (in spite of him leading or second in almost every online poll that he is a part of)."
April 02, 2006 12:57 AM

So MississaugaPeter has forced our hand. He has forced us to answer the question, Why not Gerard Kennedy?

Lets explore.
1. Aside from the Daily Bread Food Bank - a fine institution which Next Face admires and has contributed to in the past - what does Mr. Kennedy bring to the table?

2. He is bi-lingual, but so is Ken Dryden. At least he tells us he will be very soon.

3. Next Face has heard it said that Kennedy was born in The Pas, Manitoba and as such, maybe he can carry the 'western' vote. Next Face has been to The Pas. Ok...lets move on.

4. Then there is his "roll up your sleeves and pitch-in style, (and) hard-hitting critiques..." attitude. This is a direct quote from his website - we did not make it up. It is the kind of quote that appears on a bio for someone who realizes that their bio is rather thin on experience and short on accomplishment. Do you think Trudeau would have needed to add his "roll up your sleeves and pitch-in style" to his Legislative bio?

5. And lastly there is this. (Please see picture at right). His close proximity to, and by default his association with, Dalton McGuinty. Now how on God's green earth can that help anybody get elected let alone win a leadership race? Just ask Ben Chin and Judi Longfield.

From Wilkipedia : "...Despite his political inexperience, Kennedy became the front-runner to replace Lyn McLeod as leader of the Ontario Liberal Party in late 1996. However, Kennedy's inexperience and perceived left-wing ideology proved his undoing on the leadership convention floor where he encountered a strong "anyone-but-Kennedy" movement..."

Our work is done here.

As it stands, there are 3 Next Face candidates of record with Rae currently under serious consideration.

28 comments:

Anonymous said...

Next Face,

You said:

"Lets explore.
1. Aside from the Daily Bread Food Bank - a fine institution which Next Face admires and has contributed to in the past - what does Mr. Kennedy bring to the table?"

10 Years of actual political experience as an Liberal MPP: one byelection win, two additional MPP victories, one second place position (5th ballot, results released at 4:35 a.m., McGuinty 1205, Kennedy 1065) in 1996 Ontario Liberal Leadership race (after only 9 months as MPP; ahead of excellent opponents such as Dwight Duncan (now Ontario Finance Minister), Joseph Cordiano (now Ontario Minister of Economic Development and Trade), John Gerretsen (now Ontario Minister of Municipal Affairs)), health critic and education critic while Liberals were in opposition; very well liked Minister of Education for past 2 1/2 years - the Ministry of Education budget this year (2005-2006) exceeds $11.5B (more than the combined budgets of New Brunswick (2005-2006: $6.105B) and Newfoundland and Labrador (2005-2006: $5.331B)).

You said:

"2. He is bi-lingual, but so is Ken Dryden. At least he tells us he will be very soon."

Gerard is bilingual and Dryden is not.

Unfortunately, your other points are not worth mentioning. And you failed to account why he has so many other people considering him and he is "leading or second in almost every online poll that he is considered".

Anonymous said...

mississaugapeter.

Please belive us when we tell you that we think Kennedy would have made an OUTSTANDING Premier in Ontario. We were distraught when he lost in that last ballot and we are devastated by DMcG's legacy in Ontario only 2 1/2 years into his government.

That having been said, this is a Blog devoted to the debate over the future of the Liberal party in Canada and a Minister in DMcG's cabinet - however decent and ready to roll - will NEVER be able to carry Ontario becasuse of his or hers association to a party that has lost the confidence of the people.

The Liberals in Ontario have trampled on the trust of the electorate and that electorate would not endorse a member of that government in the Federal arena.

Anonymous said...

Tobias,

In all polls I have seen lately, McGuinty's Liberal provincial numbers are still higher than the federal Liberal numbers.

The government in Ontario is referred to as the McGuinty Government (something that started with Harris) and not as the Liberal Government. Therefore, Gerard is not entirely associated with any of the promises made by McGuinty that have not materialized. Gerard IS Minister of Education - a ministry that has not been accused of breaking any promises.

Saying Gerard is no good because of his association with McGuinty is like saying all federal MPs are no good because of their association with Martin.

Anonymous said...

Kennedy did not graduate from University, surely Liberals realize that a BA is a must if you want to be Prime Minister of Canada.

(now the Kennedy people will no doubt flood this space with spin about his work experience in a foodbank supplanted the need for a degree -BS!)

Anonymous said...

I never said Gerard was "no good".

On the contrary. I said "..we think Kennedy would have made an OUTSTANDING Premier in Ontario. We were distraught when he lost in that last ballot..."

How did you conclude after reading that that I said Gerard was "no good"?


The Liberals in Ontario will be slaughtered in the next election because of their blatent disregard for the promises they made to get elected. The good ship DMcG is going down and it will certainly take some MPP's down along with it.

And if you are looking for a recent history lesson on a leaders ability to take his members down with him, ask the 167 Conservative Members of Parliament who lost their seats in 1993 if their leader - Mr. Mulroney - had anything to do with their defeat at the hands of an angry electorate.

Anonymous said...

Well said Tobias.

Anonymous said...

The fact that you are considering to include Bob Rae as a potential leader over Gerard destroys your credibility.

Anonymous said...

tobinforpm thanks for the comment...

We would have liked to see Tobin for PM! We were (and are) big fans. Can you get on the phone and let Brian know that?

To speak to your comment, we are only considering Rae. Just like we considered others. There is no lack of credibility in the "consideration" of a candidate.

You are free to criticize our credibility if in fact we ADOPT Rae as our 4th Next Face candidate. Until then, please allow us our God given Blooger right to CONSIDER him as a candidate.

Thank you.
Tobias

Anonymous said...

Tobias

I doubt Brian has any interest in the job now, it's a shame really because it would be his if he ran.

Of course you have your Blogging rights, everyone does... this is a part of democracy. But on the flipside, open critism is as well.

Being from Ontario, I continually pick at my own brain as to why Liberals would want Bob Rae leading them, it doesn't make any sense in any regard. I lived through 5 years of his so called leadership and I pray that the rest of Canada will not have to experience the travesty that he will bestow upon all of us.

PS.. 'mississaugapeter'... hope you signed up to be a part of Gerard's Team.

Anonymous said...

1. Aside from the Daily Bread Food Bank - a fine institution which Next Face admires and has contributed to in the past - what does Mr. Kennedy bring to the table?

10 years as an MPP and his experience as Minister of education is more political experience than nearly everyone in the race. Throw in his running a 30 million dollar food bank for business experience.


2. He is bi-lingual, but so is Ken Dryden. At least he tells us he will be very soon.

Dryden is not billingual. Kennedy is.


3. Next Face has heard it said that Kennedy was born in The Pas, Manitoba and as such, maybe he can carry the 'western' vote. Next Face has been to The Pas. Ok...lets move on.

Kennedy lived 26 years in Western Canada.


4. Then there is his "roll up your sleeves and pitch-in style, (and) hard-hitting critiques..." attitude. This is a direct quote from his website - we did not make it up. It is the kind of quote that appears on a bio for someone who realizes that their bio is rather thin on experience and short on accomplishment. Do you think Trudeau would have needed to add his "roll up your sleeves and pitch-in style" to his Legislative bio?

That's not his official biography. I don't see anything wrong with have that kind of style.


5. And lastly there is this. (Please see picture at right). His close proximity to, and by default his association with, Dalton McGuinty. Now how on God's green earth can that help anybody get elected let alone win a leadership race? Just ask Ben Chin and Judi Longfield

McGuinty is still fairly popular and Kennedy is considered on of his best Cabinet Ministers. This isn't Bob Rae we're talking about.

Anonymous said...

Oh, and as for Kennedy losing in '96, it was because he had a "lack of experience". Well, duh. He had 1 year of experience as an MPP then. Much like Ignatieff and Dryden lack experience now.

Kennedy has a deacade of experience in politics this time.

S.K. said...

Stop with the Trudeau references already. And Trudeau was relatively inexperienced when he beat Paul Martin Senior for the leadership. Kennedy has at least as much experience is fluently bilingual, his wife is from the maritimes, he has lived in Quebec, and was born in the west. He also has cabinet experience at the provincial level. Since federal, provincial relations are key right now, its a great asset.

Much more than haven't lived in the country for 27 years.

Anonymous said...

SB.
Sorry but on this we disagree.

Trudeau is the baseline.
The party should strive for nothing less substantive, intellectual or brazen.

It may be time for us to publish our Manifesto again so that you might all be reminded to focus on the task at hand as we see it.

Anonymous said...

And that task is to win back Ottawa, right?

Do you think Iggy could become next PM with the amount of spin Liberals (let alone tories) are putting into this whole 'torture' thing, sounds like he is a disaster waiting to happen... next.

Anonymous said...

tobinformp.

The "Iggy thing" frankly has us torn. On the so called torture issue, SB posted the entire text of the article and we posted a comment on her site that went - in part - like this :

"...Take a step back for a second and ask yourself when the last time we even had someone in the Federal arena who could have :
a.written something like this,
b.provoked discussion in this manner, and
c.offered up this type of transparent look into his thought process.

For those three reasons I can't help but applaud him.

I am able to divorce the essence of the thing from the thing itself. It is - I think - an intellectual exercise with a "no-win" outcome.

Just the fact that he is putting stuff like this out there is remarkably courageous in my view."



We frankly are more interested in a short list of leaders that will force a debate and energize and renew the party and bring it back to where it once was. The cream always rises to the top and will in the Next Face debate as well.

Dan McKenzie said...

Gerard almost won by 17,000 votes in the last election. I strongly doubt Dalton, who isn't particularly unpopular will hurt his chances. Especially if David McGuinty also runs for the leadership.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said: Throw in his running a 30 million dollar food bank for business experience.

What are you suggesting? That running a 30 million dollar food bank qualifies Gerard Kennedy for leading this country? What kind of statement is that? Is this not a serious case of grasping at straws?Is this not proving the Next Face thesis to be 100% correct?

Is it true that Gerard Kennedy did not graduate from University?

Mr. Knightley said...

This anonymous guy writes a lot... I'm pretty sure it's a guy's name.

In any case, I think that Minister of Education for three years and MPP for 10 are enough experience, and no, I frankly don't think that graduating from university has any bearing on this. Let's not be disingenuous. Kennedy's skills are as good or better than most and, to paraphrase Lincoln, find out what brand he drinks where he didnt' graduate and let's have all our candidates drink the same brand and not graduate from the same place.

Kennedy has one major problem: he's a control freak. On the other hand, if Katie telford, his chief of staff, heads up his organisation or plays a major role, then my money is on Kennedy. They are deadly together.

Anonymous said...

Tobias

I am not 'anti-Iggy' like some other bloggers out there. As a matter of fact he would be #3 on my short list. I am saying he is an easy target for the Tories, and one that would have a hell of a time winning the top office given the negative spin everyone has been able to put on him.

Anonymous said...

Gerard's has more experience than running a $30M food bank. For the last 2 1/2 years he has been running the $11.5B Ontario Ministry of Education (budget exceeds the combined annual budgets of New Brunswick ($6.105B) and Newfoundland and Labrador ($5.331B).

No other leadership candidate other than Ralph Goodale can boast running an organization that size.

By the way, information concerning Gerard's academic accomplishments is forthcoming. What is a fact is Gerard did stop attending the University of Alberta at the age of 22 so he could head Canada's first food bank. He has not looked back since.

Anonymous said...

Wow, you are seriously underestimating Kennedy's experience in his 10 year political career. Unlike Iggy, he has a political record. We have a sense of the type of decisions he makes and results he can produce. He credibly stands for party renewal and unlike other candidates, has a long history in the Liberal party. He is definitely a top 3 candidate.

Anonymous said...

I'm not entirely sure why living in the West, or having a connection to the West, or any other province for that matter, is a qualifier for a leader. I've lived in the west my entire life, and I assure you that I don't care where any candidate has lived as long as his/her policies reflect my values and that they are bilingual. I, of course cannot speak on behalf of all Westerners or Canadians, but I think you'll find that many people think similarly.

In short: political spectrum - important. Experience - important. Where they live or have lived - not.

Anonymous said...

Once again Liberals are looking for a messiah. Gerard Kennedy is now the next face to lead Liberals to government. Why Gerard? Because he is bilingual? Because he is young? Because he ran a food bank? Because he’s ambitious? Nobody has explained in any detail what the man stands for. Why does the Liberal Party need him? Right from the first time this guy ran for the Liberal Party of Ontario Leadership there were true believers out there who believed that Kennedy has been touched by God himself. But let’s also recall that there was an “anybody but Kennedy” movement at the convention. Why you ask? Was it because he rolled up his sleeves and had run a food bank? No it was because anybody that came in contact with him and wasn’t all gaga over him concluded that Gerard Kennedy was a major league asshole with a gigantic ego to boot. This is a man who loves himself too much. Why do you think that most of the Ontario Liberal caucus would love it if Gerard Kennedy ran for the leadership of the Federal Liberals? Because they can’t stand his enormous ego and would love to get rid of him. As for you Kennedy-heads out there: remember that for every one of you there are ten people who would rather the party be lead by anybody but Kennedy and would rather not hitch their stars to an egotistical windbag like Gerard Kennedy. Wake up people he is not the answer.

calgarygrit said...

I think it speaks very well of Kennedy that these lame critiques are the best darts people can throw against him...

It also bodes well for his electoral chances.

Anonymous said...

'ap'

Great post my friend, your words have made me rethink my stance as a Kennedy supporter.

Honestly 'ap', grow the f*** up. The 'anybody but Kennedy' movement was done only because of his lack of political experience and had nothing to do with his so called 'enormous ego'.

I find it rather odd that there has been all this inuendo about him being a 'hard-ass', but yet no one of any merit has come forward to back up these claims other than some anonymous bloggers.

Even though I strongly disagree with 'tobias', he makes a compelling arguement why Kennedy shouldn't be considered as a front runner unlike your childish rhetoric that sounds like it is coming from a scared tory.

Come 'ap', let's hear a solid fact based reason why people shouldn't get behind Gerard...

I'm listening.

Anonymous said...

My Bad 'ar', I called you 'ap' by mistake ;)

Anonymous said...

If TobinforPM thinks Ignatieff supports torture, then maybe TobinforPM should learn how to read (by that I don't just mean looking at the words)!

Anonymous said...

"Tobinforpm,"

I'm not attacking Kennedy - I see no reason why he shouldn't run if he wants to. He's certainly a capable politician. I admit that I have my reservations about him being leader of the party, but to be quite honest, I think it would be foolish to make one's mind up this early in the campaign. Rather, I was just making note that whenever a political leader has any remote connection to the west, it's held up as this huge asset, as though all westerners will be impressed by this. The reality is that having lived in the west does not make a politician more sensitive to the issues of the region, nor more likely to have any solutions.