Chasing my tail

In his concession speech, former Prime Minister Paul Martin just stepped down. He is now looking to provide a smooth transition of leadership, but will continue to represent his riding for the near future. This move was inevitable, given the bag that he was left holding, as well as the fact that he was asking for a fifth Liberal mandate, but I am stunned that he did it tonight. It was a gracious, classy, well executed speech and I can only commend him for decisive action. This party needs to completely distance itself from the the old boys club of Jean Chretien if they wish to contest the next election in 17-24 months.


I can't wait to see who crawls out of the woodwork now. Bourque.com has a poll running now.

Belinda certainly can't pull it off - she's too new to the Liberals, and really without record.
Brian Tobin has flipped back and forth between provincial and federal politics way too often. He's hedging from his private life.
Copps, Manley - too close to the Chretien/Martin governments. Yes there was dissent and bad blood, but they were still in Cabinet.
McKenna - former premier, now ambassador to the US (Martin appointee). Not sure if he's far enough away from the ole boys club.
It would be a perfect opportunity for an unseated member to move back into the House... and there's always Ken Dryden!

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The dynamics of this minority government are going to be interesting. There are a total of 308 seats in Canada. A majority is 155. As it stands now the Conservatives have 124 seats, the Liberals 103, Bloc Quebecois 51, NDP 29 and 1 independent.
So, a majority means not only Conservative/NDP (politics does make strange bedfellows!), but he needs that independent seat as well. Or, they could court the Bloc *g*.

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Luckily my prediction of a Conservative majority was off the mark. I'm fairly sure stella0017 isn't going to be packing her bags for Europe just yet.