Don't Take Any Guff From These Swine

Leadership races can always be the source of great political monotony. Of course Canada entered a dark age in 1985 when the Partie Quebecois introduced the horrific "One Member, One Vote". Now I am not going to go through the corrupt nature that this process can create, but simply expose the fact that it fails to promote the greatest thing that could ever happen in Canadian politics, "The Convention Floor".

Of course the federal champions of this time honored tradition have been the old Progressive Conservative Party, and how fitting that their final act would exemplify this phenomena. Who could ever forget Mr. Orchard and Mr. MacKay's encounter on the convention floor. Forget what happened after, at the time it made for good t.v. The Progressive Conservatives were famous for these epic moments in history. It all began in 1967 with Robert Stanfield eating a banana as he was declared Leader of the Progressive Conservatives and potentially the next Prime Minister of Canada. Nine years later the Progressive Conservatives would entertain us again in one of the most dramatic Leadership Conventions in the history of this country. Seven years later they would release a sequel that arguably could have been better than the original. Both of these features starred Joe Clark and Brian Mulroney, both hall of famers in leadership convention folklore.

unfortunately the life time achievement award does not go to the old P.C.s. Instead it goes to the Ontario Liberal Party. Provincial Leadership races tend not to produce the kind of media exposure that they deserve, but the Ontario Liberals have managed to give us some barn burners, from their six ballot epic in 1967, to the four in morning fifth ballot upset in 1996. The Ontario Liberal Party takes the cake for capturing the imagination of convention junkies such as myself, unlike their federal cousins who only have one great race to their name, 1968. Of course this could all change come December, when the Federal Liberals assemble in Montreal. Convention junkies could be in for ride of their lives.