Dear Rana

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 11/03/2015 (3862 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Dear Rana;

I hope this letter finds you well, and that you are close to making a decision on where you will run in the upcoming election.

I was going to suggest Tyndall Park, but it looks like you’ve decided to give it to someone else. It would’ve been a terrific place for you to make your name given former Liberal MLA now MP Kevin Lamoureux’s strong connections to that part of the city. I do see Lamoureux’s daughter Cindy is running in next-door Burrows, so at least that’s something.

Oh, well.

Anyway, the point of my writing to you is about candidate recruitment.

I happen to know where you might be able to find seven sitting MLAs, and maybe two others, who have some knowledge of what it takes to run a government. Most of them have done a lot of heavy lifting for their boss over the years. 

At this point, none of them have been given the green light by their boss to seek nomination again in their constituencies. I’m not too sure if their boss will even give his blessing for each of them to run again, or that he’ll find someone else to fill their shoes.

Now, given recent events you may have heard about, all of the seven aren’t really in their boss’s good books. There’s supposed to be a plan for each of them to be allowed to kiss his ring again, but it hasn’t been put into action yet.

There’s also a question of whether all of the seven will actually want to seek election under their boss’s flag.

One, maybe two, heck maybe even three, may want to do something else in life and not return to work on Broadway. Who could blame them?

Rana, this is where you come in.

Why don’t you call each of the seven and ask if they want to run under your flag? Two of them live on the other side of the Perimeter Highway, but they’re nice enough people always up for a chat. They’re also damn fine constituency workers.

Suss them out, Rana. Give ‘em a good old pep talk that they’d be welcome in your tent. Treat them to a latte at Molgat Place. Ask them to bring some of their supporters along. You’ll need to use the boardroom and get some extra chairs. Maybe even cater it.

I mean, really, there’s not that much difference between your team and theirs. We all know that. We really do.

The only drawback, and it’s a big one, is that they tend to wear orange a lot. Their closets and sock drawers are full of orange clothing.

Now, you and I know that orange only looks good on tigers and sunrises, and neither really currently describes the team they ride the bench for.

All of them would look good with a touch of red. It would add a bit of colour to each of them. It would give them a bit of zip.

So give each of them a shout, Rana. Set up a meeting. Maybe bring Justin along so he can have his picture taken with each of them so they can post it on Facebook. Everybody is on Facebook these days. And everybody looks good standing next to Justin.

Hope this helps.

Your friend, Bruce. 

bruce.owen@freepress.mb.ca