Gerard Kennedy has been picking up steam across the country; he's the favourite of the Blogger community and we must understand the power of Blogs to boost somebody's profile and power. Howard Dean, anybody? Kennedy is left-leaning, bilingual, grew up in Manitoba, went to school in Alberta, has an Acadian wife, and hails from a fiscally responsible provincial government. He's Jack Layton and Stephen Harper's worst nightmare. www.draftkennedy.ca

Not his first our of province foray, Kennedy was also seen pressing the flesh at the Nova Scotia Liberal convention despite that party's dire third place standing in provincial polls.

My understanding was that Kennedy didn't actually make the trip to Halifax despite rumours.

I've heard he won't be campaiging until after resigning from cabinet and the legislature and he won't do that until after this Thursday's budget. So, if he is in Vancouver campaigning on Saturday, one must assume he'll resign Friday.

Very interesting.

Would be great to know where that reception is being held...

hey Thomas,

read the article properly, it clearly says reception at Mike Hillman's home..duh..

"He's Jack Layton and Stephen Harper's worst nightmare. www.draftkennedy.ca"

Hilarious, Thomas. Really.

A provincial party leader, especially if they're Premier, is a possible serious contender in a national party leadership contest. But I can't recall ever seeing a provincial Cabinet Minister being a serious candidate in a national leadership race.

I think it show's how well informed bloggers are.

actually, no provincial politician has ever become Prime Minister.

Not a great example but Kim Campbell was a BC provincial politician who became Prime Minister.

.....Sorry, should have mentioned as well that Sir Charles Tuppoer served in the provincial Cabinet in Nova Scotia.

Diefenbaker was leader of the Conservative Party of Saskachewan

And Alexander MacKenzie was a Ontatrio provincial politician/MLA as well.

Add Kim Campbell and that is four,"provincial politicians" that have become Prime Minister.

And now we really know how informed Bloggers are :)

I should have said become a Liberal PM. Sorry about that. Alexander Mackenzie - you are right about that one.

"I can't recall ever seeing a provincial Cabinet Minister being a serious candidate in a national leadership race."

Actually, Stockwell Day won the leadership of the Canadian Alliance as Provincial Treasurer in Alberta.

That was one of Stockwell Day's problems. He thought politics was easy like the way it is in the one party state of Alberta. National politics is way more sophisticated. Another reason to be wary of a provincial politician. Day was a star in Alberta like Kennedy is a star in Ontario.

blogger

Being a Liberal in Ontario is alot harder than being a Conservative in Alberta. Kennedy has lost a couple of battles already, he knows what it takes to win a tough fight.

Quite different from Stockwell Day.

Bloggers are generally very ill-informed, or worse, they are given packages of "official information" by party HQ to spread around, making it look like its coming from the grassroots. This is the technique Karl Rove used in the CBC documents gambit in 2004.

Imby, ... or is it imby, is wrong about Kim Campbell. She was never in the BC Cabinet, and went from being a provincial backbencher to being a federal MP in 1988. Then she went into the Federal Cabinet, and from there to Prime Minister. And from there to Los Angeles.

I was wrong about Stockwell Day, however, and S. Davis should be recognized as the only truly well-informed blogger here. Are the Liberal bloggers saying that Gerard Kennedy is going to follow in the footsteps of Stockwell Day, who like Kennedy is bilingual?

Note that "DraftKennedy.ca" seems to be registered through an anonymous service (http://whois.cira.ca/public). There's no information identifying the people behind it on the site, either.

I'd like to see a little more transparency in this "grassroots" campaign before I believe this is anything but astroturf.