Oh my god how boring was Kennedy when he visited Victoria!?!?! I was expecting someone exciting and dynamic but he just droned on and on. So dull. I was very unimpressed. And why did he have all those people from Vancouver tagging along behind him and trying to get people into supporting him? Doesn't he have anyone from Vancouver Island to be his hander?

Firstly, let me post an article below about Kennedy that appeared in the Globe and Mail last Saturday by Jeffery Simpson.

At first, I thought Kennedy would be a shoe in for top two or three but now that I hear more about him, the other candidates seem to be a better and better choice. Is Kennedy peaking to soon?

I also hear that Kennedy's BC Organizers are like Oil and Water which has also been a hinderance for Martinites and Rock head supporters trying to work with each other.

Personally, after listening and hearing things about Mr. Kennedy and his organizers it looks like the Federal Liberal Party maybe ending up with another Glen Clark, the former Premier of BC. And you know where he took us. Glen Clark was also young, Minister of Finance, well respected by the party and the Unions and I believe he too did not have a university degree.

I like many others agree having a University Degree does matter if you want to be Prime Minister.

Style, sure, but where's Mr. Kennedy's substance?

JEFFREY SIMPSON
From Saturday's April 29, 2006 Globe and Mail

Gerard Kennedy's handlers chose an arresting photo-op for his official entry into the Liberal leadership race.

Mr. Kennedy made his declaration standing in Ottawa on an outcropping of land, framed in the background by the neo-Gothic spires of the Parliament. The cameras ate up the backdrop, but they missed the large body of water between Mr. Kennedy's location and Parliament, an apt metaphor for his task ahead.

Mr. Kennedy is a provincial politician trying for the top job in Canada, prime minister via leadership of the Liberal Party. No premier except Nova Scotia's Sir John Thompson, let alone a provincial minister, has ever become PM.
There's a first time for everything, of course, and Mr. Kennedy intends to create a precedent. He has good looks on his side, and a gaggle of Liberal MPs at his side, more than any other leadership candidate thus far.

He has a good track record as the head of food banks in Edmonton and Toronto, and a reasonable record in opposition and as Ontario's minister of education. He's a decade younger than the other major candidates, which will be attractive to those who want a generation jump. But leader of a national party and possibly prime minister of Canada? Remember the water metaphor.

Mr. Kennedy stopped by The Globe's offices this week, and one thing was immediately clarified. His official biography says correctly he was educated at Trent University and the University of Alberta; he graduated from neither. He does not have a university degree, which is not the end of the world but looks rather odd in a contest against candidates with imposing academic firepower.

When the conversation switched to French as a kind of test, Mr. Kennedy flunked. He's got some vocabulary, grammar, syntax and sense of the language, but he's hard to understand and certainly a long, long way from reasonable fluency. Unilingual English-speaking journalists might fall for the impression that Mr. Kennedy is bilingual. He is not.

Regrettably, Mr. Kennedy needs a whole lot of work on issues. Not surprisingly for a provincial politician, his views of foreign affairs are untutored and hesitant. On domestic issues, he seemed caught between his old instincts as a provincial politician and his new vocation as a national one, be it in discussing equalization, federal conditions on provincial transfers, the mythical "fiscal imbalance." He talked around a lot of these issues without many straight lines.

Mr. Kennedy has time to swat up on issues, although he better not rely on those MPs who surrounded him this week, since they don't represent the cream of the Liberal caucus. There's time, too, to put together a better stump speech than his opening one, which was long, long on clich鳠and short, short on actual ideas.

It wasn't good enough to cruise into the nation's capital ? the big leagues of national politics, if you'll pardon the arrogance ? and be so thin on substance. A televisual candidate can get away with that kind of performance in five-minute television chats, but not when he meets mano-a-mano Liberal delegates who will have searching questions.

Mr. Kennedy's greatest advantage in this nascent race is the lightness of his baggage. Other candidates carry heavy weights ? Bob Rae's years as Ontario premier, Michael Ignatieff's pro-Iraq war position and long absence from Canada, Ken Dryden's leaden speaking style, St鰨ane Dion's problems in Quebec.

Mr. Kennedy arrives, little known but somewhat ballyhooed, as an Ontario minister with a Western Canadian pedigree (he was born and raised in the West) in a race full of pure Torontonians, a newish face in a party looking perhaps for something a bit out of the ordinary. Whoever wins this contest will have to be the acceptable second choice for a large number of delegates, so the candidate with the lightest baggage might be well-positioned.

On paper, then, Mr. Kennedy is well-positioned: good-looking, roots in the West, an Acadian wife, experience in social activism and education. He's got to persuade thoughtful people, however, that he is thoughtful. He also has to live down his reputation at Queen's Park as a loner, a minister who burned through staff and was a micromanager. We'll see how many former provincial cabinet colleagues support him. Those who have declared their intentions thus far, favour other candidates.

The bottom line, now that all 10 leadership candidates are officially declared: There is no front-runner and there most certainly will not be, given each candidate's liabilities.
It might have been thought before he breezed into Ottawa that Gerard Kennedy had the fewest liabilities.

Not necessarily so.

Say Jenn, you don't happen to be involved in another leadership campaign do you?

(And what does it mean to be someone's "hander". Is your post suitable for this family oriented web-site?)

I thought Mr Kennedy gave a thoughful speech last night. To me he represents an excellent choice for Liberals to turn the page from the divisions of the past and move forward. The fact that he has so many young people supporting him is also nice to see. I was impressed by that young lady from the party executive who introduced him. Mr Kennedy is clearly a sincere individual who has taken the time to think through how the Liberals can make Canada a better place - he is a man that has a coherent vision for the country. I appreciate the experience he has on the front lines of our society which contrasts with the credentials of others in the race. The last thing Canada needs is another lawyer or snobby academic from the ivory tower to come and save us. If I were Mr Kennedy, I would take the hard article from Jeffery Simpson as a badge of honour. Mr Simpson has a long record of only spending his time criticizing the people in politics who actually have a chance to become Prime Minister. It seems to me that he was equally critical of Mr. Chretien, Mr. Martin and Mr. Harper at various times before they became leader. In fact, in the case of Mr. Harper, Simpson has been particularily viscious in the past. If Mr. Kennedy wins and I think he just might, he can expect to receive more difficult press in the days and months upcoming. After all, in our democracy, it is what seperates real contenders from mere pretenders.

One other thing I forgot to mention in my last post. If Generation X was being honest he would have posted the enitre article by Mr Simpson and not the severed version found above. It seems Generation X may like what Mr Simpson had to say about Mr Kennedy but not what he had to say about Mr Dryden. You can't have it both ways Generation X. Either way, this sort glaring inconsistency is what the Liberal party needs a whole lot less of if they are ever going to regain the trust of the Canadian people again.

Kennedy seems like a bit of flake. Not alot of substance. Another disappointing liberal candidate.

I had to laugh when I heard someone compare him to Stockwell day. I can totally see it.

Garth, I call it like i see it. You, on the other hand, are clearly working for Kennedy.

I meant to say handler. Your criticism makes you sound like the mob of Vancouver goons Kennedy brought with him to brow-beat us into supporting him.

"Goons from vancouver?" You mean like Shannon salter a native from Salt Spring island or that nice young girl from abbotsford that was with Kennedy? Sounds like the Marissen -Dion cult are getting nervous. They are probably right to be nervous.

Jenn that is a rather peculiar response. I feel like I poked a bear.

"I also hear that Kennedy's BC Organizers are like Oil and Water which has also been a hinderance for Martinites and Rock head supporters trying to work with each other."

As someone who was quite involved in Rock's leadership bid and is now supporting Kennedy, I take issue with the above comment from Generation X.

There are a number of supporters on this team with all sorts of backgrounds - some former Rock supporters, some former Martin supporters, some former Chretien supporters, and, God forbid, a lot of people who simply identify themselves as Liberals.

The team is working very well together and it is heartening to see an end to the internal squabbling which unfortunately has characterized the party for many years. I for one am quite looking forward to working with individuals like Bruce Young and Shannon Salter, who were very vocal and effective supporters of Martin. It's great to be on their team.

If any other Liberals reading this blog are interested in joining our rainbow coalition, as we on the Kennedy team call ourselves, by all means contact us.

Dean, your comments sound very sincere and honest. But some of the Martinites couldn't motivate a goldfish to swim let alone have the gumption to sign up a significant number of supporters for Kennedy.

You were one of many people who observed these individuals and equated their presence with results for the Martin campaign. They were just window dressing, nothing more. They took orders and pretended to be in the know. When it came time to be seen they were always in the forefront. When it came time to actually deliver they were very good at looking busy and important.

It takes a lot of work and commitment to recruit enough people to take over the party and oust a sitting prime minister. People need to be motivated, driven and above all firm believers in the cause.

What you refer to as "internal squabbling" was the fire that kept the party going, the struggle between two gigantic egos that when working together were an unstoppable force that produced record surpluses, economic growth and stability at a time our country desperately needed it. Its only when these egos refused to give way to common sense did the delicate balance that existed rupture and the end result manifest itself with the current state of affairs.

Good luck with the Kennedy campaign. He is fortunate to have dedicated people like yourself on his campaign.

Rainbow coalition????Puleeze!

Gerard Kennedy is a good guy but I still think he's more needed by Dalton McGuinty and the Liberal Party of Ontario to make sure John Tory and the "Progressive" Conservative Party of Ontario doesn't lead another Common Sense Revolution to take the Provincial Parliament of Ontario.

Kennedy has NO DEGREE and now wants to be PM?
He should really go back to school and run to be president of a campus club or something. Hell, even Harper has two degrees!

"... another Glen Clark, the former Premier of BC. And you know where he took us. Glen Clark was also young, Minister of Finance, well respected by the party and the Unions and I believe he too did not have a university degree.

I like many others agree having a University Degree does matter if you want to be Prime Minister."

Posted by GenerationX on May 3, 2006 01:52 PM

As GenerationX well knows, Glen Clark did have a university education:

http://www.thepacificclub.com/index.php?pageId=33&cms_showRelease=1&cms_release_id=48

"He holds a bachelor of arts degree from Simon Fraser University and a master's degree in community and regional planning from the University of British Columbia."

More importantly, there are few people as shallow or as fully gripped by status anxiety as GenerationX. Most would allow that, while advanced education is an advantage in today's world, whether in business or labour or politics, it still has not become an absolute requirement in the same way as in, say, the licenced professions such a law, engineering, medicine or dentistry. BC Premiers Bill Vander Zalm, William R. Bennett, and even W. A. C. Bennett had no post secondary schooling, and in fact the younger Bennett did not complete high school. While I would not recommend that course to anyone, the point is that if a person is succeeding by other means, well, then they are succeeding.

Perhaps GenerationX is just laying down some early groundwork for the next BC election, in that NDP Leader Carole James does not have a completed university degree. Maybe he figures this little factoid will help the new Liberal Leader, Carole Taylor, to win another victory for the Board of Trade crowd by denouncing James as underqualified.

Kenny's campaign is going great guns

I totally agree with Dean Crawford's comments. Yes, the people working on Gerard Kennedy's campaign are proud Liberals. It will be great working with people such as Shannon Salter, Bruce Young and Dean Crawford.

Tek Manhas

To Peter A. Ker,

You are a very nice chap. But everyone knows you are a Marissen supporter. Some of us who really care about the federal Liberal Party are trying hard to repair the damage your group has left in it's wake.

Have a nice day.

The World Doesn't Care Peter!:

Weren't Bruce Young and Shannon Salter a big part of the group you suggest needs repair from when you say "Some of us who really care about the federal Liberal Party are trying hard to repair the damage your group has left in it's wake."???

Weren't Bruce and Marky-Mark arm in arm during the last two election campaigns in BC?

I don't think Peter was in the war room.

'confused', you need a refresher in reading comprehension.

I was simply saying how this little fellow Ker, seems to feel that his opinion matters, when it really does not.

I did not refer to Bruce or Shannon as they are hardcore organizers worthy of respect. Marissen is not.

The World Doesn't Care Peter!:

I would hazard a guess that Peter's opinion matters a hell of a lot more than some bulletin board loser who hides behind a pseudonym to take potshots at the guy. You're pathetic.

Peter Ker's supporting Dion for every right reason. He knows everything, and has immense respect for his dedication, commitment and hard work. He's been anything but a koolaid drinker for quite some time!

Re Degrees, we've had lots of leaders with them and look where they've taken us ;)

And please, can we stop referring to "war" rooms????? Can't those of you with Degrees come up with a better term?

tee hee

How contradictory (or symptomatic) of today's Liberal Party, to offer rampant speculation on "good Liberals" or "bad Liberals" when British Columbians should soon hear what it really took to be a B.C. Liberal under the Paul Martin banner. It ain't gonna be pretty.

It's the elephant in the room, which nobody wants to see, consider, or discuss ... i.e., what it took to be a Martinite Liberal, especially but not exclusively in B.C. ... and what it will take to clean that up. Or, what kind of province we'll have if god forbid, it isn't cleaned up.

What's critically important isn't which guy has the best hair or offers the best canapes or even delivers the jolliest speeches. What's important is recruiting a Liberal leader with the palpable moral fortitude to steer the old party through the coming dirt-storms.

Laugh if you like, kiddies, but this Liberal Leadership race will win or lose in the longterm, depending upon the sheer integrity of the new leader. It's a mini-election to decide whether the Liberal Party deserves to live. Or not. The issue is one of stark peril for the nation.

It's unthinkable (but possible) that Canada might fall into a permanent rightwing Theocracy, with Stockwell Day and Tom Flanagan in charge. Only an honourable, admirable, trustable Liberal Party leader can answer that call to save this country.

The Basi, Virk, Basi trial is scheduled for 5 June, 2006, B.C. Supreme Court, Vancouver.