My guess is that it’ll be Trudeau who will most likely claim victory. But this is not a coronation. For one thing, all of the ridings have equal votes regardless of their population of Liberal supporters – so while he may be the most popular overall, he won’t necessarily win all the ridings. But if he does win, it will be because he deserves to win. Justin fought the hard battle, had more volunteers, raised more money and performed better in the speeches than his peers – and better than anyone ever expected at the outset. And I think he’ll win, not because of his father’s legacy, but because of who he is and what he promises to do for the Party and for Canada.
A different Trudeau at a different event – the country seems to want what it had then.
Earlier that Saturday morning I had been invited to meet, coffee and converse with some Burlington keeners and to promote my book “The End of September”, an historical novel about Canada and Quebec, (available at Chapters and Different Drummer) I did see a number of the Executive at the conference centre and wondered what they thought of the candidates; neither of us seemed to make much difference to size of the audience. Then I caught another over-crowded train back to Burlington and spent the next fifteen minutes figuring out how the tunnels worked so I could get back to the North parking lot. Who would have thought the train could be this full on a Saturday, but there was a game on, I guess. Perhaps it is time for GO to plan their route schedules to match the transportation demand out there, I secretly thought to myself, not wanting to be known as a trouble-maker for thinking that idea out loud.
Ray Rivers, rayzrivers@gmail.com, 445 Mountsberg Rd Campbellville
Ray Rivers, shamelessly flogs his book every opportunity he gets.
Ray Rivers, a former Aldershot resident, was president of the Burlington Provincial Liberal Association from 1996 to 1998 and ran in the 1995 provincial election against Cam Jackson. He became VP Policy for the provincial party in 1996 and served until 2004. The Rivers family moved to live on a farm in Flamborough in 1997. Ray is currently VP Policy for the federal electoral district of Ancaster, Dundas, Flamborough and Westdale.
