Ujjal Dosanjh eyes Liberal party's top spot

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      Ujjal Dosanjh’s French needs some work. But the former B.C. NDP premier and reelected Liberal MP for Vancouver South hopes Quebeckers won’t mind that too much, if he joins a potential race to replace Liberal party leader Stéphane Dion.

      “Absolutely, I rule out nothing,” Dosanjh told reporters on election night (October 14) as dejected Liberal partisans who had gathered in the Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre’s junior ballroom saw their numbers in Parliament whittled down while the other parties padded their ranks.

      Dosanjh said that he previously nixed the idea of running for
      Liberal leader because he “didn’t speak French”.

      “But you know what, while I have the utmost respect for the Québécois, people of Quebec, I think that those of us that are immigrants, first-generation immigrants, are already saddled with the burden of having to learn one official language,” the Indian-born politician said when asked if he plans to throw his hat into a leadership contest. “Maybe they can make an exception.”

      Dosanjh said, “I did rule it out last time but I’m not ruling it out.” He supported former Ontario NDP premier Bob Rae’s leadership bid at the 2006 Liberal convention following the defeat of the Paul Martin government in the federal election earlier that year.

      On June 3, 2004, the Georgia Straight reported on the disappointment of former federal NDP leader Audrey McLaughlin over Dosanjh’s defection to the Liberals. In a letter to the former provincial NDP leader, McLaughlin stated that his decision to run that year under the Liberal banner was a betrayal of his supporters. She acknowledged, though, that people have the right to change political parties.

      “However, I do not believe that your decision can be seen other than in the light of pure personal ambition and ego,” McLaughlin told Dosanjh.

      At the Wall Centre, Dosanjh vowed in a rousing speech to pursue a debate within his party with the aim of seeing its caucus not cast a single vote in support of the Stephen Harper government.

      On the other side of the country, Dion pledged on election night that Liberals will act responsibly to make the second Conservative minority–led Parliament work.

      Dosanjh, who served as federal health minister during Martin’s government, also talked about “the campaign that I’m going to run” in the next general election to persuade Canadians not to vote for the NDP.

      If Dosanjh wants a leadership race, he might have some persuading to do if he’s going to win over Dion supporters like reelected Vancouver Quadra MP Joyce Murray.

      “I want to remind people that Stephen Harper’s first election as leader of his party led to a minority Liberal government,” Murray told the Straight. “So he [Harper] lost his first election that he entered into as leader as well, and there’s no difference this time here.”

      Long-time Vancouver Centre MP Hedy Fry joined the Liberal leadership race in 2006. She later dropped out and supported Rae instead.

      On election night, taking another stab at the party’s leadership was farthest from the mind of Fry, who had just beaten her high-profile challengers: Conservative candidate and former Vancouver-Burrard Liberal MLA Lorne Mayencourt, UBC academic and NDP candidate Michael Byers, and Green party deputy leader Adriane Carr.

      “The Liberal party has a constitution,” Fry told the Straight. “We abide by the constitution. I suppose we will see what the constitution says.”

      According to the party’s constitution, a leader ceases to hold that position after, among other conditions, that leader announces an intention to resign.

      When Dion conceded defeat in a speech before his supporters in Montreal, the Liberal leader gave no indication that he’s quitting. Speaking in French, the language Dosanjh would need to master to lead the party, Dion said, “Canadians are asking me to carry the Liberal values with a team that is less numerous but that is hardened and determined.”

      Comments

      4 Comments

      David Wong

      Oct 16, 2008 at 11:19am

      How soon people forget the mighty Liberal Party machinery. How soon they forget why the Party is in it's dismal situation it finds itself in now.

      Don't blame it on Dion.

      Blame it on the ambitions of the former party leader who did everything he could to encourage division, nepotism and the loss of bright young supporters.

      No thanks to one man's blind personal ambition to become Prime Minister at all cost. The cost being the lost of bright minds and independent thinkers ... a loss to the Liberals, but a gain to the Greens, the NDP and to the Conservatives.

      You Liberals need to welcome these people back.

      Can you federal Liberals can endure another similar costly personal ambition drive? It's a smart business tactic to check out your talking heads' laundry.

      Let's remind ourselves: “However, I do not believe that your decision can be seen other than in the light of pure personal ambition and ego,” McLaughlin told Dosanjh.

      This message is eerily similar to the one that was given by NDP MLA Harry Lali (earlier this year) on his tribute to departing colleague MLA Corky Evans:

      "It was British Columbia's loss that the New Democrats in 2000 chose a pretentious leader who put political expediency before principle instead of electing a visionary like Corky." The leader who "put expediency before principle" was Ujjal Dosanjh, then a New Democrat, now a federal Liberal member of Parliament. "
      <a href="http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=29d2a5ea-9c02-439b... target="_blank">www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=29d2a5ea-9c02-439b-97ed-4...

      Have a look at the BC NDP legacy left behind by Mr Dosanjh. They've been slowly rebuilding over the past few years... slow to build, and all it took was one individual to quickly take it down.

      Message to hurting federal Liberals:
      "remember the old Aesop's tale about allowing the camel in the tent"

      RickW

      Oct 17, 2008 at 7:47pm

      Ujjal Dosanjh just shot himself in the foot, if he thinks he has a chance for the Liberal leadership, when he ranted on about the irrelevance of the NDP.

      David Wong

      Oct 18, 2008 at 8:23am

      Here's what Rick W is referring to (from CTV):

      [...] The Liberals, he (Ujj) said, obviously bled votes to the Greens and NDP to no purpose.

      "(The) NDP's irrelevant insofar as the federal scene is concerned except insofar as they have the ability by splitting the vote to effectively elect a Conservative government, which they've done twice," he said Wednesday.

      He criticized Layton's "pretension to the throne," campaigning as if he could become prime minister when the NDP "didn't have that kind of support."

      "If you say you're applying for the job of prime minister and you gain less than one point nationally in the polls, what does that say? Everyone recognizes that was simply a delusional Jack Layton". [...]

      http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/mini/CTVNews/20081014/election2008...

      Now, isn't that the kettle calling the stove black?

      Wasn't it the same Ujj who said a similar thing to David Emerson, when Mr Emerson crossed over to the Conservatives?

      RickW

      Oct 18, 2008 at 2:48pm

      Dosanjh, like Emmerson, is an opportunist, even more so than the average career politician, most of whom do not change parties. As an opportunist, he cares less for the welfare of the nation than he does for his personal well-being.

      My "take" on his rant is that he was denied some plum by the results of the election, and was looking to castigate anyone but himself. He can take some comfort in the assurance that he WILL have multiple pensions when he quits politics (which, for the good of the country should be sooner than later).