Rae pops in to hype coalition

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 06/12/2008 (6476 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Liberal MP involved in what one media report described as an aggressive bid for control of his own party is stopping in Manitoba today to chat.

Bob Rae, MP for Toronto Centre, visits Winnipeg just as there are more signs of internal turmoil in his party, which has formed a coalition with the NDP, supported by the Bloc Québécois.

On Thursday, there was fresh pressure on leader Stéphane Dion to resign, making way for a new leader to rule the coalition.

Liberals are in a quandary, however, about what to do if Dion does step down early — whether to appoint a caretaker leader or try to install one of three leadership candidates who are campaigning to replace Dion at a scheduled May 2 convention.

"He has to make a decision that he thinks is in the best interests of the party, the best interests of the country," Toronto MP Bryon Wilfert, a strong Dion loyalist, said.

The matter will be discussed, if not decided, at a meeting expected Wednesday by the Liberal caucus — 76 MPs and 58 senators — which has the right to choose a new leader who would be appointed by the national executive of the party.

If an interim leader is chosen, the leadership convention could go ahead in May. Installing one of the leadership candidates — Rae, Michael Ignatieff or New Brunswick MP Dominic LeBlanc — now would require two of them bowing out and that is unlikely by many accounts.

Wilfert is angry and upset by a "shabby, shabby, cavalier" public call for Dion’s head by Scarborough Liberal MP Jim Karygiannis, who said the five-day-old Liberal-NDP coalition will collapse if Dion stays on.

However, other Liberals were disgraced by the amateur, out-of-focus video of Dion delivering an address to the nation during the parliamentary crisis earlier this week and see it as the last straw for Dion.

Former deputy prime minister John Manley said in a letter that Dion should step down after being "resoundingly rejected" by voters.

Rae is said to be positioning himself as the coalition’s new champion.

Former senior Liberal cabinet minister Lloyd Axworthy said Friday he’s glad Rae has emerged as the spokesman for a Liberal-NDP coalition at a time when opposition parties should be rallying for public support.

Axworthy said Rae will likely make the argument a coalition is a far better option than Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who is incapable of governing or dealing with the economic crisis.

"What he’s doing is demonstrating leadership and that’s what Canadians have an appetite for," said Axworthy, who threw his support behind Rae as leader in late November. "(Michael Ignatieff) seems to be kind of backing away from all this and I think the fact that Bob Rae is showing leadership should tell people he is ready to lead and is not simply backing off and trying to play the odds."

Liberal Anita Neville, MP for Winnipeg South Centre, said reports of cracks already emerging in the coalition are over-stated.

"Does everybody sing exactly from the same songbook? No… But I certainly wouldn’t describe it as turmoil."

Neville has not endorsed a candidate yet.

A public forum featuring Rae will be held at the Crescentwood Community Centre at 1170 Corydon Ave. from 10:30 a.m. to noon today. It’s open to anyone.

gabrielle.giroday@freepress.mb.ca

— with files from Canwest News Service