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OTTAWA
- (Web posted Feb. 25, 2002 @ 5:10 p.m.) Winning the leadership of the Canadian
Alliance could be one of the easier political battles the contenders will have
to endure this year.
The victor will inherit a party that was
almost ripped apart in 2001 by internal bickering that ultimately saw several
key members, such as Chuck Strahl and Deborah Grey, bolt from the CA benches to
sit with Joe Clark's Tories.
A lot of the fuss was created by public gaffes and mistakes by former leader
Stockwell Day, who's campaigning for his old job against Alberta MPs Grant Hill
and Diane Ablonczy, and former Reform MP Stephen Harper..JPG)
The new leader will have to ensure he or she
has the support of all 57 Canadian Alliance MPs, while implementing a strategy
to rebuild Canadians' faith in the party.
Jason Kenney, CA member of Parliament for
Calgary Southeast and long-time Day supporter Day, said the party will be
unified behind the winner.
"I'm very optimistic about us
pulling in behind the leader. Whoever it is," said Kenney, during an
interview with PoliticsWatch.
But he admitted the true test of that claim
will come after the leader is announced in April.
"I have no doubt that there will be a small handful of people,
regardless of who wins, who express their discontent," he said.
"That happens in every leadership, and
every nomination, and every election, but I don't think there will be a critical
mass of doing that."
Day and Harper are the two leading
contenders in the leadership race, while Hill
and Ablonczy, who advocate rebuilding the Alliance while promoting a unity
platform with the Tories, take up the rear.
Day and Harper have squabbled in recent days over who has the most support among
party members, but Harper is the candidate who has the most CA Mps in his camp.
Keith Martin, member of Parliament for
Esquimal%2010-05-01.JPG) t-Juan
de Fuca in British Columbia, is one of 27 MPs who backs Harper's leadership bid.
After the campaign is over, Martin said the party has to get on with the job of
rebuilding its reputation among Canadians.
He said the party must attach itself "to big solutions that will address
the problems that Canadians are concerned about: the economy, health care, and
the lack of democracy in the House of Commons."
Martin added, however, an effective tool in achieving that goal would be uniting
the Canadian right.
"The Alliance, in my view, has to have
a meeting with the Conservatives and people who vote Liberals, but held their
nose, to form a single opposition," he said.
The mail-in voting to decide the new leader
begins on March 8 and continues until March 20. The new CA leader will be
announced in Edmonton in April.
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