Rae positioning himself 'if Iggy falls on his sword,' says York University professor Drache
With Harper heading for another minority government—and some say perhaps, just maybe, a slim majority—it might not be long before Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff heads back to the halls of higher learning.
By Tim Naumetz
Published Apr 19, 2011 7:30 PM View story Email Comments To the Editor
The Hill Times Photograph by Jake WrightRoad trip: Since April 6, Liberal incumbent Bob Rae has traveled to West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country, B.C., Kelowna, B.C., Calgary, Alta., Kitchener-Waterloo, Ont., Mississauga, Ont., Ajax-Pickering, Ont., and Cornwall, Ont., on Tuesday night, following a news conference in Ottawa.PARLIAMENT HILL—Bob Rae is criss-crossing the country to help low-profile candidates raise their campaign money and profiles but—even though ticket prices in out-of-the way places can be as low as $20 for a breakfast compared to the $500 each Liberals paid to see Justin Trudeau in Brampton this week—political observers say Rae is also putting something in the bank for the future.
With Prime Minister Stephen Harper at the moment heading for another minority government—and some say perhaps, just maybe, a slim majority—it might not be long before Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff heads back to the halls of higher learning.
It’s a two-sided coin though, political scientists say, with Mr. Rae, who is running for re-election in Toronto Centre, Ont., likely not just thinking about the future but, perhaps first and foremost, the dire circumstances the Liberals face as polls put Mr. Harper’s Conservatives comfortably ahead in the campaign’s home stretch, if not quite in majority territory. As well, Jack Layton and his NDP are nipping at the Liberal Party’s heels in new territory, particularly Quebec.
"The Liberals are fighting for their life,” said York University professor Daniel Drache. "[Rae] is positioning himself, if Iggy fell on his sword. But he’s a team player, he wants to boost the Liberal Party, he knows if they can’t claw back four percentage points, they’ve got big problems.”
Mr. Rae has been flying under the radar of the national campaign news media since at least April 6, when he appeared in Saskatoon to boost local Liberal fortunes and, later the same day, in Montreal.
Since then, he’s been to West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country riding in B.C., Kelowna, B.C., Calgary, Alta., the hard-fought territory of Kitchener-Waterloo in southwestern Ontario, Mississauga, Ont., the key riding of Ajax-Pickering, Ont., one of the final frontiers in the Greater Toronto Area, and to Cornwall, Ont., on Tuesday night, following a news conference in Ottawa where Mr. Rae delivered one of his trademark biting attacks against Mr. Harper and the Conservatives.
At that appearance, Mr. Rae challenged Mr. Harper’s claim in this campaign that he supports the Canada Health Act and the Conservative promise to inject new money into provincial healthcare systems by six per-cent a year once the current funding agreement expires at the end of 2013. He argued that with Mr. Harper’s past term as president of the National Citizens Coalition, founded 40 years ago by an insurance company executive who wanted to destroy medicare, Mr. Harper’s claim that he supports the public health system and wants it to survive without a parallel private tier might be difficult for voters to believe.
“Mr. Harper is a right-wing guy, and right-wing guys don’t believe in the Canadian healthcare system, they never have and they never will,” Mr. Rae told a crowd of reporters in the National Press Theatre, acknowledging a Hill Times report that Mr. Harper publicly endorsed a U.S.-style private health-insurance model in 1999 when he led the NCC and also called concern about a two-tier health system a “bogeyman.”
“They fought [medicare] tooth and nail in the 1950s, they fought it tooth and nail in the 1960s, they fought it right through the '70s and '80s. [Former Ontario Progressive Conservative premier Mike] was there,” said Mr. Rae, who was with Ottawa-area Liberal candidates—retired air force Col. Karen McCrimmon running in Carleton-Mississippi Mills and Steve MacKinnon running in Gatineau. “I know these guys, Mr. Harper doesn’t believe in the Canadian healthcare system, doesn’t believe in it for a minute. Who’s he kidding? He’s just not prepared to touch it because he knows that the Canadian people like it, so he’s not prepared to do anything.”
The Press Theatre attack on Mr. Harper was like a campaign pit stop for Mr. Rae, who also highlighted Conservative plans to spend billions of dollars on new fighter jets. The news event was on his way to the Cornwall appearance, followed later by a 7:15 a.m. $20-a-ticket breakfast on Thursday in Barrie Ont., to support Liberal Colin Wilson in his challenge against Conservative incumbent Patrick Brown, and a $150-a-ticket “Intimate evening with Bob Rae” at the establishment Torys law office in downtown Toronto Thursday evening.
Before he left for Cornwall, Mr. Rae added yet another stopover on his hectic schedule, stopping off at the new right-wing Sun News Network studio in Ottawa, satirizing Mr. Harper with a keyboard performance himself, admittedly slightly off key on the vocal side, during a stand-up head-to-head interview with Krista Erickson and a taped interview with Sun News bureau chief David Akin.
The Torys event in Toronto offered the $150 entry price to members of the party’s Victory Fund, launched nearly three years ago under former leader Stéphane Dion.
But, though even the $250 ticket price for non-members of the special membership fund was nowhere near the $500 entry fee to see Mr. Trudeau at a fundraiser Tuesday night for Liberal incumbent Ruby Dhalla in the riding of Brampton Springdale she is battling to win again, University of Toronto political scientist Nelson Wiseman agreed Mr. Rae’s efforts in this campaign may have payback after the election, depending on the outcome and Mr. Rae’s personal goals.
“I think they intended to have Rae travel around, or he offered, right at the beginning,” Prof. Wiseman said.
“But there’s another calculation,” he added. “If Harper wins, and he’s going to win the election, we just don’t know how big it’s going to be, if he wins a majority, Ignatieff might decide to check out in short order, and then the heir apparent is Rae.”
Howard Brown, a lifelong Liberal and co-founder of the Victory Fund, though, told The Hill Times it is the smaller fundraising events, in areas across Canada where Liberals have sometimes not won a seat for years, that are also crucial as the party attempts to stuff its war chest for this campaign, as well as the future.
“Most people are trying to help across the country,” he said. “There are active Liberals that I speak to on a regular basis who are working their hearts out in Alberta to try to improve that Liberal vote in every election.”
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