Rae wouldn't address speculation that Liberal Leader Stephane Dion may offer him the candidacy in Bill Graham's Toronto Centre-Rosedale riding, if he were to step aside, or the Mississauga-Streetsville riding of Wajid Khan who recently defected to the Tories.
I would forget about Graham's riding and put Rae up against Khan. It won't be easy to unseat Khan, despite what some people think, so it's important to have a high-profile, seasoned pro, like Rae in the fight. Rae is particularly articulate on foreign affairs, which should match up well against Wajid's vast expertise- cough!
8 comments:
Actually I would rather we put Kennedy up against Khan as opposed to Rae. Even though I think people in the 905 belt have largely moved on, I do remember this region voting massively for Mike Harris in 1995 so I am a bit concerned Bob Rae is still quite unpopular in this region. Back in November, Paul Szabo conceded he would lose his riding if Rae became leader. Now off course I don't think we will lose Mississauga South now with Dion, but the point is lets choose someone who is less of a liability here. Or even better, how about Martha Hall Findlay who comes from the 905 belt. She would almost certainly beat Wajid Khan.
If anything we need Rae to run in an NDP held riding since he is more likely to attract soft NDP votes than soft Conservative votes.
a strong candidate needs to be run in Toronto Centre to avoid the NDP "joining up" Parkdale, Trinity Spadina and Danforth especially since Maria Minna in Beaches is likely to face a strong challenge from Marilyn Churley next time out. If the Liberals want to be the party of cities they can't afford to let the NDP envelop the downtown seats in the largest one in Canada.
Running Bob Rae against Layton (Rae's old stamping ground) would put Layton on the defensive, force him to campaign in his riding rather than be an absentee and drain resources from other Toronto NDP campaigns so that Centre can be held and seats like Parkdale won back.
The latter by the way is where Kennedy should run, why throw away his name recognition in the ward? After the disastrous Watson campaign provincially the NDP pretty much run everything except town dogcatcher there.
I read something that said Kennedy is likely to run in Parkdale-High Park against Peggy Nash.
at the time paul szabo was also on the attack for iggy...wouldn't put much stock in that. i agree though, rae should run to unseat a high profile dipper.
I agree with Mark Dowling. Lets realize that Rae has very little appeal to Conservative-Liberal swing voters while is a strong asset in wooing NDP-Liberal swing voters. Someone like Martha-Hall Findlay is far more likely to woo Liberal-Conservative swing voters than Rae so if she needs a riding to run in, this would be a perfect one. Another possibility is Halton since Garth Turner running as an independent will probably split the right wing vote. The only concern here is after Garth Turner loses, holding the riding might be tough in the following election. In am 90% sure we will win Halton next election, but far less confident of us holding it in the following election.
Kennedy is in.
damn it. Shoulda gone to the bookies :)
So the liberal progressive principles stand for what - ndp or con? That's the problem, you don't stand for anything, and it's just about power. Don't you guys have problems just parachuting candidates in who have nothing to do with a riding. Anyway, I guess you have concerns that you can't win against cons.
Post a Comment