It's Speech Night.

Hello Nik.

Both Martha and Belinda Stronach were absolutely great with speaches that hold true/
resonate with all of us as Citizens of Canada, and the rest of the world. As Martha said,
never under-estimate the power of women! They have given renewed hope to voters, as
individuals who do count!

Blossom
Montreal.Canada
blossom@videotron.ca

Scott Brison is the man that we all underestimated, and is the one who can always move
an audience with his vitality, his courage, his convictions, his global personality, and his
great sense of humour, and the great vision that he has, through the eyes of our youth.

Love him!

blossom

Enjoyed Martha's presentation but she acknowledge she's present in the race as a women's rep not a contender.

Scott Brison, not an inspiring presentation and didn't hold my attention. Had higher expectations for him. Like Martha, seemed to speak not as a serious contender.

Hi Nik,

If we want real change in the Liberal party, and new policies in this new gloval world,why do we always consider the old leaders,
and why don't we consider new blood, and give them our trust, and give them a try?
blossom

Joe Volpe, good speech, more global, liked his passion for Canada, on television seemed like he had the attention of audience

Hi Nik,

Mr. Volpe always speaks out for the democracy that the US stood for, in the old days!
The "sky is the limit for all", and this is the way for the future democracy of the world.
He is always a great orator, however, his reputation is so badly tarnished, but I am really
anxious to see where his vote goes, and his endorsement of "The" candidate, is very
important to me, and I do not see it as tarnishing his ideal candidate. It is time that we
have an inkling of who would make the best PM of Canada, and without prejudice.

Thanks;
blossom
montreal.canada

Hello Nik,

Ken Dryden always a 'winner:...Always a uniter....Whoever he sides with, is going to be
the best choice candidate for the next Prime Minister of Canada...I have that much faith
in Ken Dryden, whom I only knew before by name. I wonder if he could move us all to
vote for him as the next PM.
Anxiously awaiting to see what Stephane Dion, and Bob Rae have to say. Ken Dryden
is no less, and up there with the winner.
Since he has voted "no" to the motion of "nation of qc, he would be my first choice, and
seems to be the only one, so far, who puts all of his energies to defending our right to
be Canadian, across the board, despite an electoral vote. He can stand his own on a
platform. He knows what the word 'direction' means, and this is what Canada needs...
A man who knows the road-map.
Blos

blossom

Ken Dryden really surprised me... This is by far the most emotional I've ever seen him! A very impressive performance, although he should have gone with a teleprompter to enable him to keep more eye contact with the crowd. Poor planning, though that he ran long and didn't get to finish.

Hello Nik,

Stephane Dion's English is no longer anyone's reason not to elect him. His goals, and
ideals, and his clean, and historical past, are a lot of reasons why he could be the next
PM of Canada, and Leader of the Liberal party.
Blos

Stephane Dion - well, you can tell we are in the top tier of candidates now! This is more of a campaign style speech than a leadership speech. Lots of sniping at Harper and the Conservatives.

The envirnoment seems to be a common theme so far among all the candidates. They all know this is an area where the Conservatives are weak, and are exploiting it.

The disappointing thing so far, is that virtually all of the candidates have talked about the same old things the Liberal party has been talking about - and doing very little about - for years.....Kyoto, child care, status of aboriginals. Where are the new ideas for party renewal? Government accountability? This is just Chretien/Martin repeated, for the most part.

Gerard Kennedy - you have to give him credit for guts, running that video comparing himself to Laurier, King and Trudeau!

Although I'm not a French speaker, his accent and pronunciation sounds better to me than I expected - this was supposed to be a weak area for him. It certainly sounds better than Scott Brison's!

He has very good stage presence. He is also the first candidate to talk about party renewal and what the Liberals have to do to regain the trust of Canadians. A strong finish with his appeal to delegates to forget about the backrooms and vote their hearts.

My opinion after listening to Gerard Kennedy was that he lacks the depth of experience necessary to become prime minister.

Bob Rae - did differentiate himself by talking more about his past than policy, and in a bit of a self deprecating way at points. Speaking without notes and with a handheld mike also showed him to be the polished politician that he is, although he appeard to lose his train of thought at one point.

He did speak about his vision at the end, but I didn't hear much different than the other candidates.

Bob Rae delivered perhaps the best feel good speech of the night, but nothing was actually said.

Michael Ignatieff - A strong performance, as expected from the front runner. He certainly did nothing to hurt himself in this speech.

But again, the same themes as the other candidates not much new here.

I missed most of Michael Ignatieff's speech, but did hear the part where he said that any student that studies hard and has the ability to succeed at university will attend university. This, combined with the Liberal Day Care program, should help defeat Stephen Harper’s conservatives come the next election.

Overall, a lot of disappointing speeches, both in context and emotion, and the ones that had some emotion and enthusiasm were lacking in context. Non- the- less the candidates were addressing mostly a partisan audience and seemed to be content to go along with whomever the delegates select as their next leader as long as they can depart the convention arm in arm. No more internal squabbles.
Wonder why Rae did not use at least some French and also why Dion ....the most disappointing presentation of all did not speak abit more in French?
I cannot understand why the Liberals continue to attack the Tories on environmental issues when they have done nothing....absolutely nothing to conform to the limitations that they signed onto.
Read the reports provided by Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development Reports at the following link:

http://www.oag-bvg.gc.ca/domino/other.nsf/html/99repm_e.html

Check out the comments from 1997 to 2006 and keep in mind who was in power at that time!!!!

I just saw the numbers for the first ballot. It has to be huge disappointment got Michael Iggnatieff. One has to wonder if they lent Martha Hall Findlay ex-offico votes in exchange for her support.

The play out of the first ballot is yet another scene from the scipt otherwise known as the 1996 Ontario Liberal leadership race.

It will make for an intersting 2nd ballot. I have seen this picture before. This one is going at least 4 ballots.

Nik, I thought Dryden's speech was pretty good. It started off pretty slow and very confusing, but I think he ended strong, had the crowd gripped and looked like a leader. Unfortunately, he's not in the running.

As for the contenders, I think Rae was the best. Clearly the most confident, he controlled his speech, was comfortable and I think connected. I was unimpressed by Ignatieff and thought Dion and Kennedy were good (Trudeau opening was very smart).

As the first ballot results tell us - this one is not over and looks like Iggy is in deep trouble. No growth - in fact, it looks like he lost votes when you combine delegates and ex-officios.

Nik Im back after blacking out the Chretien speech on my tv, I had to deal with a serious issue in the Canadian Embassy in the Philippines where the dysfunctional Foreign Affairs staff lost my forms and photos, they truly are incompetant, sometime do a Blog on the unaccountable and incompetant Civil Service we have in this country. I think most are at this convention, I believe Civil Servants in Federal government should not be able to vote in a Federal Election only Provincial and Municipal. Anyways back to the point, it is 12:42 am BC and your asleep. I do not think anyone will defeat Harper because of the branding, but Im betting Bob Rae will win on the second ballot 8-5 odds. I do not get up until 10:00 give us your thoughts before they Vote, can a winner be Elected on Saturday, Speeches I rate Bob Rae and Ken Dryden, Michael for the lack of a better came across like a fairy to me, not a real man speech , to flowery, I like a W.A.C Bennett type of speech.

Hello Nik,
Due to lightning, we had a power failure, and lost power during Stephane Dion's speech.
This morning, I am listening, fortunately, to the rest of the delegates speeches, and my
one and only choice is Bob Rae. Haven't yet heard Mr. Ignatieff's speech, but, Bob Rae
is my first and last choice.
Nelson Mendella is also a hero of mine.
Blos

P O W E R !!!!!!!! P O W E R!!!!!!! Again, every speech sounded like Canada will go China Syndrome wihtout the Liberals running Canada, and every other Party is incompetent and has no values other than the ALMIGHTY LIBERALS. Again the Liberal Party of Canada shows its true colors, all it wants to do is be in power at any cost.

From best to worst: Bob Rae, Ken Dryden, Scott Brison, Stephane Dion, Gerard Kennedy, Micheal Iggliateff, Martha Finlay and lastly, Joe Volpe. Rae had the best delivery. Ken had the most passionate. Brison had the most energy. Dion had a serious but warm speech. Kennedy... I expected better from him. He was too monotone with his stressing of message and powerwords. When they all come out forte, there's no buildup. Kennedy needs more schooling. Iggy simply turns me off. His message, his past stances with Quebec and Iraq, I could go on but this man isn't fit to lead our country. Call me... opinionated. Finlay and Volpe both spoke as defeated candidates, Joe especially.

All in all, there were no real surprises. I was hoping Kennedy would surprise, but didn't. Ken did better than most people expected. Iggy bombed in my opinion. And I expected that as well (mind you, I'm biased). Brison surprised me a little. He's a better speaker than I thought. Overall, I wished all the candidates would have talked more on the details of their platform. Most were too vague, especially and purposely so, Bob Rae. Not one of them dropped a website for info. For all the time it would have taken...