MONTREAL – When the decisive fourth ballot was looming at the Liberal party leadership convention last weekend, senior prairie Liberal MP Ralph Goodale had to decide how to vote.
His preferred candidate, former Ontario NDP premier-turned-Liberal Bob Rae, had been dropped from the ballot and Goodale could vote for either rookie Toronto MP Michael Ignatieff or veteran Quebec MP Stéphane Dion.
Dion got the nod, in part because of his past championing of western issues in cabinet.
Goodale said when the Quebec MP was intergovernmental affairs minister in the cabinet of Jean Chrétien, it was his job to reflect provincial and regional interests to cabinet.
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“This would never make it into the press and maybe the Saskatchewan government would never notice it but when there was an issue of their interests at the cabinet table, he was always arguing passionately on their side, on their issue,” Goodale said in an interview on the convention floor Dec. 2. “You couldn’t help but notice his understanding and passion for regional interests.”
Dion also was an ally when then-agriculture minister Goodale would argue at cabinet for increased farm supports.
“He always got it and he got it well so his mind is in the right place on those agricultural issues,” said the Regina MP.
But Goodale said the major reason for moving to the Dion camp is his ability to unite Liberals after more than two decades of feuding between rival leadership aspirants.
Through the 1980s, party forces loyal to Chrétien organized against then-leader John Turner who had defeated Chrétien in 1984.
Through the 1990s, the rivalry was between the supporters of prime minister Chrétien and Paul Martin, defeated in the leadership vote of 1990.
The feud led to Chrétien’s forced retirement in 2003 followed by the leadership triumph of Martin and then a divided party limping into the losing 2006 election campaign.
Goodale, long a Martin loyalist who served in three Chrétien cabinets, said the Liberal civil wars must end.
“My primary issue that Stéphane agreed with is that we must unite the party, ensure that divisions are behind us, that they’re buried, that they’re not going to come back again,” he said. “I think this convention is the catharsis where those feuds are finally set aside”
