mr.x
Nov 10, 2008, 4:07 AM
Leadership hopefuls set eyes on Vancouver
Liberals will vote on its new leader during an upcoming convention
Juliet O'Neill, Canwest News Service
Published: Sunday, November 09, 2008
OTTAWA - Now that the Liberal party has set the ground rules, several potential Liberal leadership candidates plan to announce over the next week their decisions on whether to enter the race to replace Stephane Dion.
Deputy Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff plans to make his bid official after Remembrance Day, joining already declared candidates Bob Rae, a Toronto MP and former premier of Ontario and Dominic LeBlanc, a New Brunswick MP and son of former governor-general Romeo LeBlanc.
Toronto MPs Gerard Kennedy and Martha Hall Findlay, who both ran last time in 2006, and Ottawa MP David McGuinty, brother of the Ontario premier, also are poised to announce this week whether they will run.
The party announced more details of its leadership plan Sunday, setting March 6-March 10 as "super delegate" weekend. That's when grassroots Liberal members elect more than 6,000 delegates to vote for a new leader at an April 29-May 3rd convention in Vancouver, with a leader to be selected on Saturday, May 2nd.
Ex-officio delegates, from MPs and senators, to riding association presidents and 2008 election candidates, also will be eligible to vote. Together with observers and media, the Liberals expect about 10,000 people to attend, a number that Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan says will inject between $10 and $15 million into his city's economy.
Everyone who wants to vote for delegates must be a signed member of the Liberal party by 5 p.m. Friday, Feb. 6th. There are 22 delegates allowed from each of 308 ridings, 20 elected and two automatic - the riding president and the candidate from the 2008 election.
Party president Doug Ferguson also told a news conference after a weekend meeting of the 22-member national executive about a plan to build fundraising into the leadership campaign process for the cash-starved party.
While the leadership candidate entry fee is $90,000, a candidate can get a rebate of $25,000 for each 1,000 individuals he or she signs up to the Liberal Victory Fund. The fund requires a minimum $10 monthly contribution, half to the party and half to a riding association.
The Liberals also will take 10 per cent of all money a candidates raises for his or her campaign. They set a ceiling on campaign spending of $1.5 million. That's much less than the $3.4-million ceiling in the 2006 race, though the most anybody spent was $2.5 million.
"The mood was very good," Ferguson said. He said the executive members "totally focused on what's best for the party, not on what's best for any individual leadership candidate." "There was never any discussion about trying to keep people out," he added. "That did not enter into it, whatsoever."
The Quebec wing of the party proposed to exclude from the race candidates who had not repaid their debt from the 2006 race. That would have barred Hall Findlay and Kennedy.
© Canwest News Service
Perhaps at the new convention centre?
Liberals will vote on its new leader during an upcoming convention
Juliet O'Neill, Canwest News Service
Published: Sunday, November 09, 2008
OTTAWA - Now that the Liberal party has set the ground rules, several potential Liberal leadership candidates plan to announce over the next week their decisions on whether to enter the race to replace Stephane Dion.
Deputy Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff plans to make his bid official after Remembrance Day, joining already declared candidates Bob Rae, a Toronto MP and former premier of Ontario and Dominic LeBlanc, a New Brunswick MP and son of former governor-general Romeo LeBlanc.
Toronto MPs Gerard Kennedy and Martha Hall Findlay, who both ran last time in 2006, and Ottawa MP David McGuinty, brother of the Ontario premier, also are poised to announce this week whether they will run.
The party announced more details of its leadership plan Sunday, setting March 6-March 10 as "super delegate" weekend. That's when grassroots Liberal members elect more than 6,000 delegates to vote for a new leader at an April 29-May 3rd convention in Vancouver, with a leader to be selected on Saturday, May 2nd.
Ex-officio delegates, from MPs and senators, to riding association presidents and 2008 election candidates, also will be eligible to vote. Together with observers and media, the Liberals expect about 10,000 people to attend, a number that Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan says will inject between $10 and $15 million into his city's economy.
Everyone who wants to vote for delegates must be a signed member of the Liberal party by 5 p.m. Friday, Feb. 6th. There are 22 delegates allowed from each of 308 ridings, 20 elected and two automatic - the riding president and the candidate from the 2008 election.
Party president Doug Ferguson also told a news conference after a weekend meeting of the 22-member national executive about a plan to build fundraising into the leadership campaign process for the cash-starved party.
While the leadership candidate entry fee is $90,000, a candidate can get a rebate of $25,000 for each 1,000 individuals he or she signs up to the Liberal Victory Fund. The fund requires a minimum $10 monthly contribution, half to the party and half to a riding association.
The Liberals also will take 10 per cent of all money a candidates raises for his or her campaign. They set a ceiling on campaign spending of $1.5 million. That's much less than the $3.4-million ceiling in the 2006 race, though the most anybody spent was $2.5 million.
"The mood was very good," Ferguson said. He said the executive members "totally focused on what's best for the party, not on what's best for any individual leadership candidate." "There was never any discussion about trying to keep people out," he added. "That did not enter into it, whatsoever."
The Quebec wing of the party proposed to exclude from the race candidates who had not repaid their debt from the 2006 race. That would have barred Hall Findlay and Kennedy.
© Canwest News Service
Perhaps at the new convention centre?
