Blogging Tories Challenge: Which Liberal MP Should Become The New Interim Leader?

It’s a fair question that John Ibbitson asks in the Globe today, and it’s one that deserves a bit of thinking.

The Liberals want someone that can keep the party in the headlines with its head held high, demonstrating that they have just as much a capability of forming the next government as Thomas Mulcair’s NDP. The NDP want to see someone who’ll keep saying they agree with Thomas Mulcair, whom Mulcair can rhetorically outshine and who can make life as difficult as possible for whichever deluded fool actually wins the permanent position. As for the mainstream media, they want someone who can make the headlines with good quotes, the occasional screw-up, and (if everyone is very lucky) feed into the media line of “can this screwup party make a comeback?”

But what do Blogging Tories want?

To answer that question, we’ll go by John Ibbitson’s criteria and list those members of the Liberal caucus who have yet to express an interest in the position that Bob Rae currently inhabits, and who have at least some name recognition. (Okay — although Stéphane Dion meets said criteria, we’re not listing him. There is such a thing as being too cruel to a big-L Librano.) I’ll limit this list to ten names, and you can pick up to three.

Note that we’re not listing the usual suspects, whenever people discuss the Liberal leadership. Like I said, the interim cannot go for the permanent job; that’ll be for another time.