Won't make a whit of difference who runs or is selected. They're "dead men walking", the lot of them.

It is very doubtful anyone associated with Campbell and the HST could turn public opinion around in regards to the Liberal party after the scandals of the budget lies, BCR sale, Virk, Basi lawyer payout, and of course the HST, etc.
Unless there is a miracle whoever wins the leadership of the Liberal party should resign themselves to the fact he or she will be leader of the opposition after the next election.

Unless something pretty spectacular happens in the not to distant future I would have to agree with Socredible.

A lot of the media, and others are still talking as if the Liberals still have legs. The fact of the matter is they havent really moved on the HST issue.

The are still trying to find a way to keep the tax and give business and corporations a $1.8 Billion gift. Having a referendum a year from now, is not the answer. If the referendum should get the required number of votes, they would then have to have legislation to reinstate the PST, recind the HST rebate, explain why thay cant reinburse taxpayers for the taxes paid from July 1/10, etc; etc; etc;

This would bring the issue to the fall of 2012, and so it will still be a hot button issue going into the next election.

They now have to move fast to get rid of this tax, get rid of Campbell and Hansen, elect a new leader, do a Major Cabinet Shuffle, and somehow show the electorate that they have changed and are willing to do a better job.

Along with all the other problems mentioned above. It really does not look good for them.

A new paint job on the same old house is probably not going to be good enough.

Have a nice day.

Commonwealth, ha ha.

I don't understand why you think James is out. He hasn't given any indication as to his plans. In fact, when asked about it, he didn't return the reporters call. If he wasn't interested he would have denied it.

http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2010/11/14/16138761.html

Anyone who came in from outside to lead the current Liberal caucus would have the same problem Bill Vander Zalm had when he became Social Credit Party leader in 1986, coming back into politics after having previously left Bill Bennett's government.

He saved their bacon in the election that followed, because he hadn't been party to many of the unpopular moves Bill Bennett made with his "austerity Program". If it had been any of Bennett's other Ministers who'd got the job, Social Credit would've been toast in '86.

With the Zalm at the helm, it got a reprieve. Thanks also in no small part to the televised ineptitude of Bob Skelly, the then NDP leader.

But once the election was over, and their political skins had been save, the insider's knives were out to backstab Vander Zalm at every opportunity. He had more trouble from those formerly in Bill Bennett's Cabinet who wanted the top job themselves, and were passed over for it, than he did from the NDP.

And that's what James Moore (who's a virtual unknown, with no chance anyways), or Carole Taylor would be facing.

The likely front-runners still in the Liberal Cabinet have already been too contaminated by Campbell to change course. He's made out that the decision to have the HST, and introduce it the way it was, was a "joint decision". Made after he'd consulted them. And they, by their silence in not denying that, have condemned themselves to defending the HST to the bitter end.

It's a hopeless situation for them all. And the only question now is what's the next "label of convenience" Party their MLA's are shortly going to start defecting to going to be? The quest for personal political survival pretty well dictates that's what lies ahead. They're not too smart, but not so stupid that they'll all hang together if there's any possibility of some still avoiding the noose.

My the slipperiest liar win! Maybe James Moore, darling of the Fraser Institute and one of the most prominent stuffed shirts ever to graduate from UNBC will run. I would dearly love to vote against this clown.