Kibitzing

Carol Patterson, the Official Mom of Shades of Gray, china freak, and perhaps the last remaining Chretien Liberal on the planet, has sent me one of her occasional "Mom" emails, urging me to get involved in the Liberal leadership race. Arnold Patterson, Official Grandfather of Shades of Gray and one of the great lamppost Liberals ("put a red flag on that lamppost and I'll vote for it"), will doubtless be sending me an email agreeing that this is a splendid idea and why don't I get involved in the Liberal leadership election?

I, conversely, am a Patterson Liberal: I'd be an enthusiastic Liberal if they ran a Patterson in my riding (it happened in 1968 and 1974, not that it was my riding at the time) but otherwise I'll pass for now, thanks. This is for several reasons, among them the terminally hopeless condition of the Nova Scotia Liberal Party, the great shape of the Nova Scotia NDP, and a sense that at the moment the federal Liberals are sort of looking at a long stretch in opposition. But Mom is right that the leadership race the Liberals are going into is an interesting one, and I'll be paying close attention to what the various contenders have to say.

John Godfrey, for one, in addition to his status as the greatest President King's College ever had, has been saying very interesting things about focussing on the environment and cities. I have a feeling that these two issues are going to be the issue in Canadian politics over the next twenty years or so, as we face our absolute last chance to stop the planet from becoming a swamp and as this becomes even more of an urban nation. Also, if he can get my mother, who hated him as a prof in the 70s, to call him "brilliant," he really must be something.

Also in the brilliant section of the field is Michael Ignatieff, but he comes in with more baggage than Godfrey does, and I'm still uncomfortable, as I've said, with his support of the Iraq war. I realize that he thought it was a good idea for far more honourable reasons than the nuts who were in charge of it, but I honestly don't see, in retrospect, a lot of ways it could have turned out as anything other than a disaster. Also, he hadn't lived here in a long, long time prior to the last election, a point I raise not for nativist or tall-poppy syndrome reasons but because it means, perforce, that he's less in touch with life in Canada than his opponents. It's not a disqualifier, but it is another hurdle. All of that said, Ignatieff is one of the few politicians who could hope to clear it, and I'm interested in hearing what he has to say.

There are other interesting Grits running (Ken Dryden and Stephane Dion, for example) but I have to say that early on my pick from the bleachers would be Godfrey. It should be an intersting race.