With the recent departure of Bob Rae from the race, it looks like Iggy is the candidate. Although I still refrain from calling him the the "winner". He's basically been acclaimed, he's won by default, not the resounding victory I'm sure he hoped for.
At this point I'm behind him. When the leadership race started I didn't pick a side. I didn't particularly like or dislike any of the candidates. All I knew was the the party needed a big change in the way they organized, raised money and governed. For me, the best leadership candidate was the one who would take this responsibility seriously and address the problems within the party
If Iggy turns out to be that person, then my support will be with him. A big indication of this will reveal itself in the days to come. It will depend on how Iggy and the party go about instating him as leader. As of now, over 800 party officials will be part of the vote to take place over the next day or so. The media is calling this a coronation. Last I heard, we don't live in a monarchy. As far as I'm concerned Ignatieff has to continue to work hard for my support. He didn't have to put up much of a fight for the job: no debates, no policy platform, nothing. Since we didn't get to "choose" him as the leader based on his merits, he must prove to Canadians (with his actions, policies, party reform ideas) that we would have selected him when given the choice between the 3 original contenders.
As for Rae, I've had mixed feelings about him from the start. I know he's a brilliant orator and has great ideas, but I knew he carried a lot of baggage from his time as NDP Premier. That being said, the way he announced the end of his candidacy shows his true character. He did it with an honourable and sincere statement to the press. It was followed by an appearance on CBC's Politics with Don Newman. I though Rae was very candid and practical in his responses. He was asked direct questions about the reasoning behind his decision, the coalition's fate and his future role in the party.
I hope that Ignatieff accepts the hand of friendship that Rae has extended and they can start to get started on a process that has been long overdue: rebuilding the party.
Since Ignatieff's the man at the top, I think it's important for us to know everything we can about him. After all, he could very well be our next Prime Minister. I came across this great interactive feature on the Globe and Mail's website. It's a timeline of some of the major events in Michael's life.
To understand where someone is going, we need to know where they came from. I think the link above can get us started on the process of understanding Ignatieff, but there's still a lot more for us to find out. Hopefully, he will have policy platforms and party reforms outlined and released soon.
I for one will be watching and waiting.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Monday, December 8, 2008
Liberal vs. liberal
No, there isn't a typo in the title of this blog.
I've been a liberal all my life and have also been active in the Liberal Party (I'm of the Ajax-Pickering Young Liberals). But I don't take my party affiliations to mean that I agree with everything the party is doing. On the contrary, I know that the best way to affect the party at a grassroots level is...like this. By getting my views across and get a conversation going from the bottom up.
I don't want to be another one of the endless political blogs in the blogoshpere, but with the coalition, Liberal leadership race and proroguing of parliament in the headlines, I couldn't help myself (I promise, I'll branch out to other topics). Therefore, I wanted to start off by talking briefly about my political views.
There are a lot of things the Party does that I don't like. However, barring any extreme events, I'm most likely going to be voting Liberal in the provincial and federal elections to come.
I've met many people who would follow Liberal policies blindly without thinking about them twice. These are the same people who think that because we're in opposition, we must oppose everything the Harper government proposes. I'm a bit different.
I have no qualms in disagreeing with the Party or with giving credit where credit is due . There are many things that the Harper government does that I don't agree with (as a matter of fact, I disagree with most things they do). However, they have proven themselves to be the choice of Canadians, twice, and this is no minor feat. They must be given credit for running well-organized, strategic campaigns.
I know that without fail, every press conference of Harper's is followed closely by similar conference, press release etc. from the Liberal Party denouncing everything Harper said. I know, I'm not that naive. I know the role of the official opposition. But honestly, isn't there anything Harper has done that the Liberals can kinda agree with? Maybe "agree with" is too strong. I would settle for "not hate". There must be a way to be 95% partisan and try to work together at least 5% of the time.
I voted for the Liberals in the last election, therefore I expect to get something in return for my vote: a party whose caucus members spend time representing my constituency in Ottawa and not on their own internal squabbles. The Liberal Party must go through an intense reform process if they want to win the confidence of the Canadian public again.
I'm a liberal and a Liberal. I would like nothing more than to see a Liberal government (asap). Let's hope that with the right changes to the party, more Canadians can say the same. It's people who get involved at the grassroots who act as the check and balance for such reforms and make sure we're headed in the right direction. I'm hoping that in enough time (and more substantial postings) I can be one of those people. Yeah, I know it's a lofty goal....but those are the most interesting ones ;)
Side Note:
Ok, so this post wasn't exactly "news commentary". To be honest, it's a bit of a rant that's been floating around in my head since Oct 14. I know that once I get these "background" thoughts out, I'll be able to move on to actual commentary of current events.
I've been a liberal all my life and have also been active in the Liberal Party (I'm of the Ajax-Pickering Young Liberals). But I don't take my party affiliations to mean that I agree with everything the party is doing. On the contrary, I know that the best way to affect the party at a grassroots level is...like this. By getting my views across and get a conversation going from the bottom up.
I don't want to be another one of the endless political blogs in the blogoshpere, but with the coalition, Liberal leadership race and proroguing of parliament in the headlines, I couldn't help myself (I promise, I'll branch out to other topics). Therefore, I wanted to start off by talking briefly about my political views.
There are a lot of things the Party does that I don't like. However, barring any extreme events, I'm most likely going to be voting Liberal in the provincial and federal elections to come.
I've met many people who would follow Liberal policies blindly without thinking about them twice. These are the same people who think that because we're in opposition, we must oppose everything the Harper government proposes. I'm a bit different.
I have no qualms in disagreeing with the Party or with giving credit where credit is due . There are many things that the Harper government does that I don't agree with (as a matter of fact, I disagree with most things they do). However, they have proven themselves to be the choice of Canadians, twice, and this is no minor feat. They must be given credit for running well-organized, strategic campaigns.
I know that without fail, every press conference of Harper's is followed closely by similar conference, press release etc. from the Liberal Party denouncing everything Harper said. I know, I'm not that naive. I know the role of the official opposition. But honestly, isn't there anything Harper has done that the Liberals can kinda agree with? Maybe "agree with" is too strong. I would settle for "not hate". There must be a way to be 95% partisan and try to work together at least 5% of the time.
I voted for the Liberals in the last election, therefore I expect to get something in return for my vote: a party whose caucus members spend time representing my constituency in Ottawa and not on their own internal squabbles. The Liberal Party must go through an intense reform process if they want to win the confidence of the Canadian public again.
I'm a liberal and a Liberal. I would like nothing more than to see a Liberal government (asap). Let's hope that with the right changes to the party, more Canadians can say the same. It's people who get involved at the grassroots who act as the check and balance for such reforms and make sure we're headed in the right direction. I'm hoping that in enough time (and more substantial postings) I can be one of those people. Yeah, I know it's a lofty goal....but those are the most interesting ones ;)
Side Note:
Ok, so this post wasn't exactly "news commentary". To be honest, it's a bit of a rant that's been floating around in my head since Oct 14. I know that once I get these "background" thoughts out, I'll be able to move on to actual commentary of current events.
And So It Begins!!
Welcome to my blog. I have been thinking about starting a blog for many months now, so this has been a long time coming for me. It's funny that I've spent so long thinking about the title, the content, the colour every little detail and today, within an hour or so, I got it all together.
Before I get into what motivated me to (finally) start today, I'm going to start by telling you a bit about myself. I was born in India, but have lived in Canada since I was a toddler. My entire life has passed living in the suburbs of the GTA whether it be in Oshawa, Brampton, or in Pickering where I now live. I graduated from the University of Toronto with a BBA specializing in Management.
I'm a self-proclaimed news junkie, but haven't always been. I was the kid who never read the paper, watched the news or knew anything about politics (except what I learned in Grade 10 civics). Encouraged by my professors to keep up with current events, I started reading the paper.
I started by reading the comics and the horoscope sections. I was interested in finding out about current events, but every article seemed to require understanding background knowledge about the issue and I had no idea where to begin.
Slowly, I started understanding the news and before long I was hooked. Now, I'm at the point where I have to get my news "fix" throughout the day or I feel out of touch.
Now I know that's not typical. My goal with this blog is to give my opinion on news of the day, but also to provide the crucial background information that's often missing in then news media. That way, even if you haven't followed a story since it "started", you'll be able to get up to speed on the issues!
This is my first blog, so feedback and comments are more than appreciated.....honest to blog (from the movie "Juno", see here I am providing "back story".....lol).
Before I get into what motivated me to (finally) start today, I'm going to start by telling you a bit about myself. I was born in India, but have lived in Canada since I was a toddler. My entire life has passed living in the suburbs of the GTA whether it be in Oshawa, Brampton, or in Pickering where I now live. I graduated from the University of Toronto with a BBA specializing in Management.
I'm a self-proclaimed news junkie, but haven't always been. I was the kid who never read the paper, watched the news or knew anything about politics (except what I learned in Grade 10 civics). Encouraged by my professors to keep up with current events, I started reading the paper.
I started by reading the comics and the horoscope sections. I was interested in finding out about current events, but every article seemed to require understanding background knowledge about the issue and I had no idea where to begin.
Slowly, I started understanding the news and before long I was hooked. Now, I'm at the point where I have to get my news "fix" throughout the day or I feel out of touch.
Now I know that's not typical. My goal with this blog is to give my opinion on news of the day, but also to provide the crucial background information that's often missing in then news media. That way, even if you haven't followed a story since it "started", you'll be able to get up to speed on the issues!
This is my first blog, so feedback and comments are more than appreciated.....honest to blog (from the movie "Juno", see here I am providing "back story".....lol).
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