Dominic Leblanc for Liberal Leader?

This will be a short post, as many personal things have kept me away from the BlogWorld for a few days now.

First of all, I want to say that one of the things that drives me nuts is when I get the feeling the a journalist is legitimizing his or her personal opinion in an article by stating that "others are saying..." Case in point: When Andy Savoie lost in the most recent federal election, one reporter noted the next day, "Some are already talking about Andy as a potential provincial Liberal leader." He'd hardly even had a chance to clean up his office and 'people' are already talking about his future? Hardly 8 hours had passed! Give me a break!

I thought this was the case again when I read an article which suggested that Dominic Leblanc might be considering a run for the Liberal leadership. Turns out though that his name is being mentioned by a few, although he's far from front-runner status. Indeed, on the outside Dominic Leblanc looks like a great potential leader. He's young, bilingual, not from Quebec, has experience in Ottawa and has important contacts inside the Liberal party. However, the Harvard-trained Lawyer has yet to hold a cabinet post, and we don't really know if he has the managerial and leadership skills to lead a party.

I, for one, am not willing to count him out at this point. He's a guy that was popular both with Chretien and with Martin, and so he wont revive those old tensions if he wins. We have to remember that this is the first time probably since 1968 that the Liberal Party has had a REAL leadership race without the result being pre-determined months in advance. The guy who won it that time was a little-known academic from Montreal called Pierre Elliot Trudeau, who had only served a short stint as justice minister. Could Leblanc be the next Trudeau? It is hard to say, but joining the Liberal leadership race might not be a bad career move, even if he is a long shot. If he does better than expected he'll be a sure pick for cabinet next time the Liberals take power. He'll also gain a national profile, and the next time a leadership race comes up, he'll be amongst the first MPs journalists and politicians turn to as an immediate front runner.

Dominic Leblanc does have a young family, and this could hold him back. Either way, at only 38 years young, the fact that he's even mentioned now means that he could have strong potential in the future.