In a minority government, any rumoured or actual vacating of seats becomes important. It’s crucial for the government in power, but no less so for the Opposition, since any vacating would reduce its ability to express non-confidence in Parliament.

Thus, this Toronto Star story is important, reporting a rumour that Liberal MP Joe Fontana may step down to run for mayor of London:

Uncharacteristically, the media-friendly Fontana declined to be interviewed yesterday. But he has told associates he will announce shortly that he is leaving the federal political scene to jump into London’s mayoral race, which culminates in a Nov. 13 vote. A former London city councillor, he has been under pressure to challenge Mayor Anne Marie DeCicco-Best, who is seeking her third term.

Personable and popular, Fontana was elected to three consecutive terms as national chair of the federal Liberal caucus.

He toyed with the idea of running for the Liberal leadership after Martin quit early this year but decided against it. Instead, he threw his support behind former Ontario education minister Gerard Kennedy.

Fontana is now the Liberals’ parliamentary critic for science and research.

Yes, this would be a blow to the Liberal caucus. Not a serious one, since the critic portfolio isn’t a major one, and if it came down to a confidence vote, all three parties could still bring down the government. But it’s a blow nonetheless.

It would be a blow to caucus morale because Fontana’s assumed resignation sends the message that being a Liberal on the national scene is less important than being the leader of a local entity, which would be especially telling given that he was a former Minister and no mere backbencher.

It would be a blow because this supposed resignation isn’t occurring because of health or scandalous reasons, which means it’s a further implicit criticism of the leadership abilities of Bill Graham.

And it’s a blow because at the local level, the constituency people would now need to spend time and resources scaring up a new candidate, assuming the Liberals are still serious about wanting to be ready for a fall election.

Of course, Fontana could still change his mind and stay on. I’d be curious (and so would The London Fog, I bet) to see what kind of incentive would be needed . . .

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 7th, 2006 at 09:23 and is filed under Libranos, Parliament. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.