HIGH HOPES MEET OLD HANDS

Calculating Rae Doesn't Match New Energy

The endorsement of Liberal members on the floor
of the party's convention to legalize marijuana
put a temporary crimp in Bob Rae's plans to become permanent leader.

He has publicly opposed the resolution to
legalize, regulate and tax marijuana production,
distribution and use as flawed. But after 77% of
the delegates in Ottawa voted to pass the motion,
he picked himself up, dusted himself down, and
tweaked his position to fit the new reality. In a
post-convention press conference, he said he
supports the spirit of the resolution but has to
look at the practical implications.

He can console himself that a hardy rump of
delegates voted late Saturday night to retain the
leader's right to veto policy he doesn=92t like.
Despite a warning from Young Liberal President,
Samuel Lavoie, that =93it will be difficult for any
leader to ignore the will of the members=94, one
suspects that is exactly what this leader will do
(let's dispense with the pretense of =93interim=94 =AD
after all, Mr. Rae did in the speaking notes to his closing remarks).

This has been the strange dichotomy of what has
been a very successful convention for the
not-dead-yet Liberal Party. On the one hand, was
the burst of energy and artlessness from the
majority of members, who want a clean break from
the political artifice and brokerage politics of
the past. Delegates were not asking what their
party could do for them, but what they could do for their party.

On the other, was the crass cynicism displayed by
the leader and the old hands around him, who seem
determined to string out his interim status as
long as possible for maximum political advantage.

The marijuana issue was a good example of a party
grasping for ideas that, if not new, are not in
vogue. One delegate from British Columbia won
wild applause when he said the Liberals =93need to
show leadership, courage and creativity.=94

This proposal was pushed by the young Liberals,
as was a resolution to sever links with the
monarchy that went down to defeat. While passage
of the resolution may open the Grits to =93soft on
crime=94 attacks from the Conservatives, it may yet
prove to be a political winner.

It is, of course, not a new suggestion. In the
early 1970s, the Le Dain Commission concluded
that Canada's prohibition laws have created a
sub-culture with little respect for the law,
diverted law enforcement capability, clogged the
judicial system and provided a base of funding
for organized crime. In 1972, Pierre Trudeau was
elected on a platform of easing up on marijuana
prohibition, which he then failed to implement.
Even the Progressive Conservatives talked in
their 1979 Throne Speech of changing the Criminal
Code. But the war on drugs in the U.S. has sapped
the enthusiasm for reform of every government since then.

Bob Rae's Damascan conversion is, then, to be
welcomed, despite its jaw-dropping audacity. In
his closing speech, the Liberal leader identified
a number of other areas where the Liberals will
have to improve, if they are once again to become a serious force in the
land.

Amid the hocum of a typically blustery Bob Rae
performance =AD =93We need an Ottawa winter to be
followed by a Canadian spring=94 =AD he paid lip
service to the need to embrace change, do better
in Quebec and build stronger riding associations.
=93We Liberals do not resent success and we do not punish failure,=94 he
said.

Young delegates heading out into Ottawa's
sub-Arctic weather could do so well satisfied
that their party is on course to make a full recovery.

But it's my bet that many left with the slightly
disconcerting feeling that their enthusiasm for
doing politics differently is at odds with the
cold, calculating nature of their 63-year-old leader.