Imposing the message

There's been plenty of talk today about Frank McKenna's past anti-choice actions as Premier of New Brunswick. But while there's plenty of speculation about McKenna following the same strategy that PMPM used on same-sex marriage, some Liberals may be looking to tie McKenna's hands instead:

There is a consensus building within the (Liberal) party to have some sort of policy exercise before the leadership convention to replace Martin. But whether it will be a full-blown national convention or smaller ones held across the country is yet to be decided.

The best indication so far, is that the vote to replace Martin probably won't happen any earlier than November.

It strikes me as odd that the Libs would be looking at policy first rather than leadership. Surely if there's anybody in the party who's seen as having a vision worth implementing, the party would prefer to go through a leadership race first, rather than dictating what the next leader will have to say once chosen.

Which isn't to say there's no upside to such a move...assuming that the Libs are resigned to having a leader with serious policy baggage. The effort to come up with a policy platform first could help to inoculate the Libs against the obvious flaws of each of their leaders. From McKenna's anti-abortionism to Ignatieff's warmongering and validation of torture, there's plenty about the Libs' potential leaders that the party will want to suppress - and putting words in the mouth of whoever takes over next could be one way for the party to claim that any public concerns are outdated.

But then, the talk seems to speak more of the Libs' lack of trust in their potential leaders than of anything positive about the party. And if the Lib party apparatus has that little trust that their next leader will be in tune with Canadian values, it's hard to see why voters should believe the next Liberal leader any more than the last one.