The Centre of the Universe

If the question of your humble scribe's politics were to come up, the answer would be big-L and little-l Liberal. I'm not a fanatic, or a zealot; if anything, I'm a centrist. The Liberal Party, at least federally, bridges the gap between the well-intentioned but publicly expensive policies of the NDP on the left, and the well-intentioned but publicly expensive policies of the Conservatives on the right. It has seemed that the natural ruling party tend to appeal to people's sense of compromise. How wonderfully, typically Canadian.

Of course, common sense and fair play are also typically Canadian, and so this January, after more than a dozen years, they decided it was someone else's turn - temporarily. It's always temporary. It just depends how long temporary lasts.

But this is old news. What's new news (if that's not redundant), is the announcement (or rumour thereof) of several candidates for the Liberal leadership. Smart people, most of them - but I can't help but notice the strong Toronto area representation - Michael Ignatieff, Gerard Kennedy, Bob Rae, maybe Ken Dryden, maybe others.

Coming from T.O.'s more successful neighbour, Mississauga, I'm not discouraged by the amount of local representation in the race. I am, however, wary of how it will appear to the Rest of Canada (there is, you see, a ROC that applies to Toronto, not just Quebec). Of course it's natural that the nation's greatest concentration of anything (including leadership candidates) would be found in the nation's largest city, but it doesn't help disprove the views in Quebec or out west that the Grits are as concerned with them as they need to be.

I know Ignatieff has already addressed the need for better relations with small-town and rural Canada, and I hope it can be done. In any case, it should make for an interesting race.