Candidate Profiles: Bob Rae

Now, we come to the man in second place, Bob Rae.

Bob Rae

Rae is an interesting fellow. After Volpe, he's the hardest to defend. I mean, ask anybody, and they'll tell you that they would never vote Liberal with Rae at the lead.

But then the polls come out and show him almost more electable than some of the others. It really doesn't seem to make sense.

Anyways, with that out of the way, I must say that Rae is far and away the most "politiciany" of the bunch. He's a great public speaker, and would probably do well leading the party. Yet there's some part of me which really doesn't believe he would actually try to change things. He's got the highest average fundraising numbers of anyone. He's taken out way more loans than the rest of the candidates. I just get the sense that he's another member of the old guard (even if he is the newest member).

But even if he may not be the greatest person for the job, as I said, he's a politician and would do very well in debates. He seems masterful at weaving his way in and out of topics without people noticing, and would definitely be a way to steal lots of NDP voters.

Convention Prediction:
Bob's gonna have to try to show that he can win, and that he's not unlikeable. If he does, then he stands a great chance at winning. Ideally he's going to want to pick up a bottom tier candidate or 2 to help solidify his support, then hope that he can steal more of the 4th place people's delegates than the 3rd place person. Even at that, he's going to have to hope for the "stop Iggy" movement to be strong. And even with all that, if I had to put my money down on anyone, I'd put it on him.

Future:
He'll stick around for a bit, to show that he's a real Liberal. He'll be a strong voice in opposition if we're there, either as a leader or just as a normal MP. Prime Minister Bob Rae? I guess it could be worse. But unless if he gets to that point, hard to say how long he'll stick around. I would guess if he wins the leadership he'll last either 2 wins in a row or 2 losses in a row. If he doesn't win, I could see him sticking around for a few years, especially if he's given a decent cabinet spot (maybe something like industry).