CTV will air a TV special this weekend - the finals of Magna's Canada's Next Great Prime Minister contest and the judges will be Joe Clark, John Turner, Kim Campbell and Brian Mulroney (apparently, Jean Chretien had other commitments).
The irony seems to be that while there are students in Canada's schools ready to enter the contest, most of the "obvious" candidates to lead the Liberal Party are indicating their lack of interest. John Manley, Frank McKenna and Brian Tobin have all said "no" since last week leaving only Allan Rock (and Sheila Copps?) to decline.
The good thing is that the next leader will almost certainly be someone who was not associated with the Chretien government and subsequent controversy. The though part will be that the new leader will be largely unknown to Canadians and will have a lot of work to do to rebuild the party.
Scott Brison, the rumor-mill has it, is still interested, but he is also being touted as a possible interim leader. It is more likely that that job will go to Bill Graham. Either way, Canada will have a gay leader of the Official Opposition if and when the forces of darkness (aka the CPC) move to reopen the same-sex marriage debate. Unfortunately, Graham would be akin to the Brokeback Mountain leader - loves his men but stays with his wife and kids.
The new cabinet will be sworn on Feb 6 and then we should start to see things - and the media honeymoon - change rather quickly.
Update: Another drop-out from the list of presumed contenders: Alan Rock. So whoever the new leader will be, (s)he will be unlikely to be tinged with the Chretien legacy. The leadership contest will be among a new generation of Liberals, both candidates and electors.
