It's time for a Liberal leader not from Quebec
Manley: Ex-Ottawa MP's musings coincide with review of PM

Jack Aubry
The Ottawa Citizen

February 26, 2005

The time is coming for a non-Quebecer to lead the Liberal Party of Canada, says former deputy prime minister John Manley, one of the early front-runners to replace Paul Martin.

Mr. Manley broached the controversial topic of successive Quebec Liberal leaders -- three out of the past four, 31 out of the last 37 years -- during an interview with the Citizen this week.

"I think it is also important to recognize that we have had leaders from Quebec for quite a long time, and you know, maybe that's part of the alternance," said Mr. Manley, the former MP for Ottawa South. He was referring to the Liberals' tradition of alternating between French and English leaders, which began with Wilfrid Laurier.

Thousands of Liberals will gather at their policy convention next week in Ottawa, in part to hold a required leadership review. While Mr. Martin is expected to be overwhelmingly re-approved as leader, Liberal leadership hopefuls and their emissaries will curry favour in the hallways and cocktail parties of the convention.

The party would be expected to cast a more critical eye on Mr. Martin's leadership if he fails to win anything short of a majority government in the next election.

Mr. Manley, who was the most powerful cabinet minister at the end of Jean Chretien's decade in power, dismissed the suggestion that if the party continues to follow the alternance tradition, the next leader of the Liberals should be a francophone.

Although Mr. Martin is a Montreal-area MP, he is an anglophone and is originally from Windsor.

"Mr. Chretien ran in '84, Mr. Martin ran in '90. I think it is clear that the party, when these (leadership races) arise, wants to have a choice," said Mr. Manley, who has not hidden his intention to run again for the leadership. What Mr. Manley did not mention is that Mr. Chretien and Mr. Martin lost their first leadership bids.

Mr. Chretien to John Turner in 1984, while Mr. Martin, a rookie MP, ran far behind Mr. Chretien in 1990, losing on the first ballot.

During the 1997 federal election, the Reform party ran controversial ads showing pictures of Quebec leaders, such as Brian Mulroney and Pierre Trudeau, with red crosses through their faces. The ads suggested it was time for a non-Quebec prime minister.

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