It's Official

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.