A Little Rae of Sunshine for the Liberals

It's been said that the NDP are Liberals in a hurry. Well it appears that the old canard may have legs. Rumours are abounding in the Press that former NDP Premier of Ontario Bob Rae is being courted by the Federal Liberals to run in the upcoming election next spring. It helps his brother is a long time Liberal backroom boy. And it helps that since he has retired from politics Bob's profile has been kept up with royal commissions, and other public policy work, where he has moved further and further to the centre, making him the ultimate prize for the Liberals.

Strange days as they say, but he proved himself a liberal when he was Premier, and took on the unions and the left of the party with is New Social Contract, which ended up being the prelude to Mike Harris's Common Sense Revolution.
Paul Martin slayed the deficit dragon with cuts to social programs across the board, Bob did the same in Ontario. Birds of a feather.

Heck next the Liberals will be courting Ralph Klein, after all he used to belong to the party. Just kidding. He is retiring from politics, or so he says, we are still waiting with bated breathe for that joyous day.

The public eye bats its lashes at ... Bob Rae
JIM COYLE
Who'd have thought that, at 57, the onetime boy wonder of Canadian politics would find himself being courted by federal Liberals obviously looking beyond the current occupant of the prime minister's office to who might fill it nextAnd who'd have thought Bob Rae would seem so appealingly suited to the task?

Liberals want Rae to join fold
Ex-NDP premier says Air-India his current priority
After that,
The case for a Rae candidacy was bolstered with the release yesterday of a Toronto Star-SES Research Associates poll.It said former New Brunswick premier Frank McKenna, 57, now the Canadian ambassador to Washington, is the frontrunner in the undeclared leadership contest with support of 23 per cent of the 1,000 people surveyed.Rae and former deputy prime minister John Manley, 55, were tied for second at 11 per cent apiece followed by former federal minister Martin Cauchon, 42, and Harvard University professor Michael Ignatieff, 58, at 4 per cent.Among Ontarians polled, 20 per cent favoured Rae compared to 17 per cent who back McKenna.