Angry in the Great White North

Over and over again, Liberals are going on the record to say that they want an abbreviated leadership campaign, with as few candidates as possible:

Toronto MP John McCallum said a short campaign with few candidates would keep costs down.

"From a financial point of view for the Liberal party, and one thing we're lacking is money, the more candidates there are, the more they raise money that might otherwise go to the Liberal party," he said.

Nova Scotia MP Scott Brison said "the more colleagues that are running for the leadership, the less effective we will be on the floor of the House of Commons."

Vancouver MP Hedy Fry said a race with three or four candidates "might help us to focus and help us to have a faster turnaround and get on with it and rebuild, because we need to get on with it, now."

Nova Scotia MP Geoff Regan said many Liberals to whom he has spoken want a small group to choose from.

"I think they want to see people who are very serious about this and who are really running to win," he said.

Judy Sgro takes the idea to a logical extreme:

At least half a dozen MPs made clear they want a focused campaign with a small roster. "I think the fewer the better," said Toronto MP Judy Sgro. "Frankly, I'd like to see the main contenders go in a room, flip a coin and come out and say this is who our leader is."

I think she's made her point.

Of course, the Liberals will be hard pressed to afford a full blown leadership campaign.  Candidates from the last leadership campaign, which is nearly two years in the past now, are still paying off loans. Party fundraising, which competes for funds with the leadership candidates, has been a disaster for those two years, and shows no sign of turning around.  The annual subsidies from Elections Canada will now drop by $1.6 million as a result of dramatic drop in the popular vote in this past election.

But here's the problem.  Let's say we that peer pressure and formal rules combine to keep potential second-tier leadership candidates out of the race, leaving the field to Michael Ignatieff, Bob Rae, and maybe just Dominic LeBlanc as an also-ran.  In that scenario, LeBlanc can't survive the first ballot, and should either drop out now, or run a minimalist campaign solely for the opportunity to play kingmaker.

It'll work, and it'll be cheap.  It'll also mean that the next leader of the Liberal Party will be over 60 years old, and might not lead more than one campaign.  So that means another leadership campaign in four to six years.

That's not necessarily a bad thing in of itself, but it does means that the candidates in that campaign will largely be unknowns, with little experience in leadership campaigns.  Fighting a leadership campaign helps prep a candidate, earning great experience in being able to organize and fundraise, as well as giving the candidate who otherwise is focused on his or her own riding an opportunity to go from coast to coast and design a coherent national party policy, or at least a set of principles, to offer to other Liberals to consider.

First-timers can't expect to win, but they develop profiles and credibility and important skills, and hopefully are that much more effective (and serious) candidates the next time around.

Before the leadership campaign of 2006, Martha Hall Findlay was known as the Liberal who stepped aside for Belinda Stronach, and that's about it.  Since her leadership campaign, she's been perceived as a front-bench Liberal. 

It works the other way, too.  Joe Volpe was one of the best known Liberals in the caucus, but after the leadership campaign in which he was caught accepting donations from kids, few think Joe Volpe can ever mount a credible leadership campaign.

The point is that leadership campaigns do much more than just select a leader.  It can strengthen the party by identifying, and then testing, the next generation of potential cabinet ministers, and indeed, the next leader that might follow the one actually chosen.

An abbreviated campaign with limited participation restricted to "serious" candidates will achieve none of these things.  That will be a problem, especially if, within a few years, the Liberals have to hold yet another leadership campaign.

But then the Liberals can't really afford to think that far ahead.  On the other hand, what serious political party can afford not to.