Marc Garneau, retired astronaut and current MP for Wesmount-Ville-Marie, has withdrawn from the LIberal leadership race. – Photo courtesy of NASA
Well, well. It seems that Marc Garneau has read my last column concerning the giant splash Justin Trudeau is making in the Liberal Party of Canada’s leadership race. The retired astronaut has thrown in the towel, so convinced is he of the inevitable outcome of the race. I am joking, of course. The reason for his decision is much simpler: Garneau has proved astute enough not to hang onto pipe dreams.
Garneau has, so he says, surveyed thousands of party members and supporters and decided the message could not be clearer. Trudeau’s edge is so solid that nothing will stop him from becoming leader next April. One wonders how the other remaining candidates will justify staying in the race. I imagine that Garneau is not the only one wanting to avoid humiliation by withdrawing before the vote.
Yet, Garneau’s announcement is still a bit surprising. He is the candidate who has uttered the most cutting remarks towards the favourite. He has played the experience and maturity cards against Trudeau and intimated that the Papineau MP has more style than substance. But all this is old news now – Garneau has turned the corner and Trudeau is his man from now on. He will be a “loyal soldier” as he hinted during his farewell speech.
For Trudeau, this support – although unnecessary to the quest for the party leadership – brings him a man of great intellectual capacity who hasn’t been shy of proposing public policies during the leadership race. Once the campaign is over and Justin Trudeau is at the reins of the Liberal Party, Garneau should play an important role in the party’s team and be of benefit to the new leader.
The final vote now seems nothing more than a mere formality. But once set up in the party leader’s chair, the harshness of reality will come down on the new leader. For Trudeau, the leadership race will perhaps have been the easiest step. With the leader’s title come serious responsibilities. He will have to, among other things, unify his caucus, oversee the development of a plan to present to the Canadian public, criss-cross the country in order to help the party raise much-needed funds and, of course, ward off opponents’ attacks. These attacks will be coming in the near future.
It will be interesting to see how Trudeau handles himself before Prime Minister Harper in the House of Commons. Harper has many years of parliamentary experience and rarely seems rattled at the close of the ritual question periods. Personally, I can’t wait to see the dynamics between these two.
We should nevertheless have some sympathy for Trudeau, who will be saddled with all these responsibilities. He is a man with small children who will have to spend much time away from his family, which isn’t easy when there are young ones at home. But these are the sacrifices Trudeau will have to make. His party needs to be renewed and he will be the prime architect of that renewal. To achieve his goals, he will have to engage relentlessly with his party members and all Canadians.
We will know in less than two years, when the next general election takes place, if his efforts have paid off. First, he must win the leadership race – a mere formality, as it stands.
Translation Monique Kroeger
