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Former British prime minister Tony Blair, right, and former New Brunswick premier Frank McKenna attend a luncheon in Montreal Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2008. (Ryan Remiorz / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

Frank McKenna won't run for Liberal leadership

Updated Tue. Oct. 28 2008 6:08 PM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

Frank McKenna, the popular former New Brunswick premier and U.S. ambassador, announced Monday that he will not run for the leadership of the federal Liberal Party of Canada.

""Although I have been deeply moved by expressions of support for me from across the country, I have not been persuaded to change my long-standing resolve to exit public life for good,"" the 60-year-old McKenna said in a news release.

"" My only regret is that I cannot honour the expectations of friends and supporters who have shown enormous loyalty to me.""

McKenna served as New Brunswick's premier for 10 years, coming to power in 1987, winning all 58 seats in the legislature.

McKenna has repeated many times he has no desire to re-enter politics, especially at the federal level.

He said in Monday's news release that the challenge of winning a leadership race, restoring the health of the party and returning a Liberal majority government requires a longer time commitment than he is prepared to make.

""There will be an ample number of well-qualified candidates to do this important work,"" he said.

Despite considerable urging from politicians to run, there were those in the party that feared his decade-long absence from politics would be a liability.

""We remember what happened to John Turner. He was away for a while, he came back, the expectations were very high and he didn't meet them,"" said CTV parliamentary correspondent Roger Smith. ""Some people thought that could happen to McKenna as well.""

Turned resigned from politics in 1976 and was convinced to return after Pierre Trudeau retired almost a decade later. In 1984, Turner took a gamble, calling an early election and suffered an overwhelming defeat.

McKenna's struggle with the French language is also seen by some as a liability.

""Certainly after the language difficulties of Mr. Dion, I'm sure the Liberal Party will be looking for someone as fluently bilingual as possible,"" said Smith.

McKenna was appointed deputy chairman of T-D Bank Financial Group in May 2006. He has also served on the boards of many national companies and also as Canada's ambassador to the U.S. He resigned that position after Stephen Harper's Conservatives came to power in 2006.

Liberal MPs Michael Ignatieff and Bob Rae were frontrunners in the 2006 Liberal leadership race that Dion eventually won. Both will likely play the same role this time around, although neither has officially declared they are running this time around.

New Brunswick MP Dominic LeBlanc, the son of former governor general Romeo LeBlanc, indicated to the Globe and Mail on Monday that he would run, although he has not official announced his candidacy. Because LeBlanc is also from New Brunswick, many Liberals took this as a sign that McKenna would not be running.

A leadership convention would likely take place next May in Vancouver, where the party already has convention space booked for what was scheduled to be its biennial policy conference.


Please Add Comments(24)

G.J.M.. CALGARY
at least one liberal knows when to quit.. most don't and old NDP's simply become liberals..



GC
Brian Tobin, come on down your are the next contestant on....




J.B. Windsor
Mr. McKenna just proves he has too much class to go back to politics. He was an excellent Premier of New Brunswick



Gen-X
John Manley or Justin Trudeau are the Libs only hope. Rae is wasting his time and money if he thinks as a former NDP premier he has anything new to offer.



Jim
Dion was the first leader of the Liberal party in a century to not become PM. His successor will be the second.



Ken - Calgary
Keep clinging to your Liberal bashing, right wingers. We are very much looking forward to ramming those words right back down your throats when the Liberals dethrone your Emperor.



Bruce
At this juncture it really matters not who is the figure head of the Liberal Party, because all of the same players are still there who have been involved, one way or another, or complicit by their plausible deniability in all of the scandals from 1993 to 2006. Nothing has changed or will ever change in a party that cannot bring itself to be truthful about anything. Brown paper bags full of cash passed under or left at the restaurant table.




Mark W....A proud Canadian
Today is a sad day for Canada. Frank McKenna not running for the leadership is very negative. What else can you say?..



Layton B in Moncton NB
Hmmm, John Manley? Ignatief? Tobin, yea Brian Tobin. There's a guy who's decent, respected, has a charisma that is hard to find. Regardless of who takes the reigns, the Canadian populace should pray he or she can unseat Harper. Frank was a fantastic premier, he helped turn the province around, picked up the pieces after the CN Shops had closed in Moncton. I think that we're looking at the best hope for Canada...saying 'no thanks'. No wonder I always feel in an election that I'm voting for the lesser of evils.



Johnson Mapple
Smart people go out at the top of their game. Chretien stayed too long. Paul Martin never had a chance. Dion never got to the top. The current frontrunners are the same old tired faces and leftovers except Justin Trudeau but he's a rookie; good attitude maybe but no game to bring to the table. Harper could be PM for a long time.



Den
/sadface

Mckenna was an excellent premier and would be as good for our country.



Caleb, Ontario
It never ceases to amaze me how a potentially interesting discussion board turns into partisan, moronic postings by people that should probably have their internet taken away from them.

1.
Someone writes ""Dion was the first leader of the Liberal party in a century to not become PM. His successor will be the second.""

Funny, despite horrible leadership on Dion's part, one of the worst showings in Liberal history, this person seems to think that Harper will be around for so long that he will go through as many Liberal leaders as Liberals have gone through Progressive Conservative, Reform and Canadian Alliance leaders in their off season.

2.
""John Manley or Justin Trudeau are the Libs only hope. Rae is wasting his time and money if he thinks as a former NDP premier he has anything new to offer.""

A brand new politician with no experience? A washed up politician who's only accomplishment is stepping into the Finance position after Canada's most successful Finance Minister set up massive surpluses? Neither of these two have a shot at the Liberal leadership.

As for the two front runners, Rae and Iggy, its going to be one of them unless other actual entities start jumping in, but this seems unlikely - afterall this is a shortened leadership campaign, only 6 months instead of a year, and will require people to get in soon or never catch up to setting up a team and fundraising.

Iggy's problem is the same as last time - 1/3 of Liberals will die to ensure he is finally made god's gift to the Liberal Party, and 2/3 of the party will move to Alaska before they allow him to win.

Rae may be it...



Dale Wilson - Edmonton
Gen-X

You must be kidding - Justin Trudeau is the only hope of the Liberal Party?

What, exactly has this guy ever done to warrant being allowed to be Prime Minister? I believe he taught primary school for a few years...my kids grade one teacher is a nice person but I sure as heck am not going to vote for her...

OH MY - is this all you have? Good luck getting more than 5 votes West of the Ontario / Manitoba border...we like folks to actually earn senior positions out here...you guys just don't get it do you?



Ryan P.
Manley-As a Conservative; I'd give the Liberals a look----and that's saying ALOT. As for a Rae, I think the Conservatives have some stock footage lying around which the rest of Canada might wish to see from Ontario in the early 90's.



Doug BC
As a lifelong Liberal who has defected to support the Conservatives,I am sorry to hear Mr.Mckenna is not interested.My suspicion is that he saw the number of socialists who have taken over,and decided he would have trouble re-building a party that needs to be closer to the political centre.Or,perhaps the rules committee is making ot tough for anyone not sitting as an MP now to actually have a chance.
My guess is,that most parties now in office in Canada will likely be defeated the next time they run.Fair or not,when the economy is in turmoil,most governments get turfed.They get blame for things they have no control over,and often take to much credit when things go well.
I never thought I would live to say it,but if the Liberals elect another left wing social engineer,I may well find myself transformed into a Conservative for the rest of my time on earth.
Just as the Conservatives need a couple of slightly liberal members,the Liberals are desperate for a more conservative,and fiscally prudent leader.
Personally,I could possibly support John Manley if he got the policies in order.But Rae,never.And Justin Trudeau is just as much of a socialist as his father was.As are Dosanjh and most of the others who are expressing an interest.
I did not give up on the Liberals because of Dion or any other leader.I quit because they got just as socialist as the NDP.Bad policies,high taxes,and little emphasis on the national debt,for a start.



NoOne
Who on earth would actually want to be the leader of the Liberals at this point in time?

They're in a death spiral and until they realize that they have deeper problems than their leader they will continue to lose support from Canadians.



Juoian Hooligan
All Conservatives know how to do is throw mud. Some day in the not too distant future, they'll eat that mud.



Dad
That's incredibly too bad



J. Edwards, St Catharines
Bob Rae will be the next Prime Mister of Canada. Who knew an NDP guy would do that? It's the only logical choice the Liberals could make and I'm a Conservative.



Keith in Gibsons, BC
There is nobody in the wings and nobody in the party who can bring sufficient "wow!!" to the leadership to turn the party around. They need to do what the conservatives did: start a liberla "reform" party and rebuild from scratch.



rita
I knew he wouldnt.He's classy guy.but he knows it's a sinking ship



Jason David Luke
For everything you've gotten out of a life in politics - you owe us, McKenna.



roy cotton
I think the way the political landscape is in Canada our political parties better get used to working together because we're becoming more like Italy where they have colation parties more than not we definately have too many parties and its going to be very tough to win majority governments.



GenX (Vancouver)
Frank McKenna is/was the only legitimate contender for the Federal Liberal Party Leadership. His pros outweighs the cons and he brings a breath of fresh air from the stagnant contenders they have now. He has both charisma and substance but most importantly he is NOT arrogant and can represent both Main St. as well as Bay St. Unfortunately, I don't see that in any of the other leadership hopefuls so I am content in parking my support with the Conservatives for the time being.



 

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