Liberal team flying into action

is that Ace and Gary or Bob and Michael

I wrote the other day about how the Liberals have a much stronger team that the Conservatives and how they needed to stress this if they hoped to turn their fortunes around. Apparently people smarter than me were thinking the same thing as Bob Rae and Michael Ignatieff have started appearing with Dion at various campaign events. Tonight on the National Rex Murphy talked at length about how odd it is to have Dion’s two main rivals now essentially burdened with the task of turning the Liberal campaign around. What I think is more strange is just how dominant party leaders have become in Canadian politics. Our system of government requires not just strong leaders, but also strong MPs to fill the cabinet ranks. Harper’s lack of strong MPs has highlighted just how important it is to have a strong team.

I think that if Stephane Dion plays it right he can make showcasing his team a sign of strength. Honestly I think it is necessary to use members of the Liberal team because Dion does not match up well to Harper one on one, but that cannot be the message that the Liberals put out. What Dion needs to talk up is that it is a sign of strong leadership to trust your colleagues. Harper cannot trust his caucus, they are too inexperienced, and in many cases too radical to allow them to run around saying whatever they please. The Liberal caucus on the other hand has a number of very talented, very likable, and very sensible MPs.

Aside from Bob Rae and Michael Ignatieff who are already taking starring roles I think the Liberals need to utilize Ken Dryden, Martha Hall Findlay, Ujjal Dosanjh, Marlene Jennings, Scott Brison, David McGuinty, Justin Trudeau, Marc Garneau, and many others (I cannot find a good list of Liberal candidates to work off of so I have to utilize my poor memory instead). A lot of people do not like Stephane Dion, he rates very poorly on his personal numbers, but if he is pictured with other members of his team maybe people will start to remember why the Liberals have been the governing party of Canada for most of its history. The Liberal party has always attracted an enormous array of talent, and this Liberal caucus, and Liberal slate of candidates is really no different.