It would be interesting -- she could certainly keep some of the good will we've seen towards Jack Layton. That said, over the next four years (a little less) the memory will fade a little and the key will be, who can be a strong leader standing by themselves:
http://bit.ly/oRP3fG
August 28, 2011
Someone added a chalk message Friday to the Jack Layton tributes at city hall:
"Olivia for Prime Minister. OK, Jack?"
Perhaps the line should have read: "OK, Olivia?"
After all, Layton's widow Olivia Chow is the one to decide if she will run for the NDP leadership.
At the moment, Chow isn't talking about her political future. In response to a Star email Sunday asking if she would comment on leadership plans, the Trinity-Spadina MP wrote only:
"I am looking to take a few days off to swim in a river — walk in the woods and sleep."
Chow looked after her husband until he died at home just before dawn on Aug. 22. She worked on his final letter to Canadians and cooperated with federal protocol officials on the state funeral Saturday at Roy Thomson Hall.
Nor surprisingly, she added in understatement: "I'm a bit exhausted from organizing the invitation list and the program of yesterday's celebration."
But her silence — and lack of denial on a leadership bid — is interesting.
It's clear she has some thinking to do.
The chalk message underscores the possibility that Chow, who's been the public face of a nation's grief, might be pressured to pick up the torch from her fallen husband.
...
"If Olivia wants to be a candidate, she's the instant front-runner," says political analyst Robin Sears, senior partner at Navigator Ltd. and a former NDP heavyweight.
3 comments:
Chow would certainly be the front runner, and would provide the party with more publicity in general, although I don't think that's what the part needs now to forge ahead.
JM, as you know I am TRUE orange, regardless I for one would NOT support Ms. Chow's bid for leadership of my party. Yes, I concur, she knew Jack's intentions intimately but I am not convinced that she could provide the leadership, or the glue, necessary to keep us moving forward. Yes, she most likely would be "uncontested, however,it would be a grievous error for the party. As an aside, all the best with your party's search for a permanent leader, it definitely is imperative that both of our partys hold PMSH's nose to the grindstone.
Shouldn't it be up tot he Canadian public who gets to run the NDP party?
Are we living in a Communist country?
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