Advertisement

‘One brick at a time,” former PM Paul Martin says of Liberal rebirth

Former prime minister Paul Martin makes the early rounds at the Liberal Leadership Convention on Saturday, April 6, 2013.
Former prime minister Paul Martin makes the early rounds at the Liberal Leadership Convention on Saturday, April 6, 2013.

It is just before noon at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre and the trappings and decorations of the Liberal Party of Canada’s Leadership Convention are slowly taking shape.

Some 1,500 chairs sit empty, but former Liberal prime minister Paul Martin is already imagining what comes when they are filled.

“I am expected to see a lot of momentum, and I think we are already seeing that,” Martin told Yahoo! Canada News. “There are a lot of Liberals outside and the mood is very, very good. I think the people are confident.”

Martin, the last Liberal to stand as prime minister, will be among the first to speak when the Liberal convention gets underway Saturday afternoon. He’s likely to reminisce about his time in office, between 2003 and 2006, the last time the Liberals held power.

[ Related: How the federal Liberals will select their new leader]

Since then, they have spun through a trio of party leaders, including outgoing interim Leader Bob Rae. They have spiraled down in seats and, in the last election, the party was ousted to third-party status for the first time in the modern era.

“A great deal of it is about party renewal. It is also about the message that the Liberals are going to take to Canadians,” Martin said.

Part of that message better be inclusivity, considering the party is not in a position to pick and choose their base of support. That is why, for the first time, the next Liberal leader will be chosen by not only party members, but those who classify themselves as party supporters.

[ Political Points: Liberal Party leadership format a “dumb” idea? ]

But stretching out a hand to a wider voting base means the party could not hold an intensive "rah rah"-style convention of the past, which tend to be high on emotion that lead to a bump at the polls. Instead, there is a week of voting between Saturday’s rally and when the winner is announced next week.

Martin said he is pleased with the more inclusive process. If choosing between a “rah rah” weekend and inclusivity, he’ll choose inclusivity.

“I think has been a tremendous success. There were a lot of questions about it. I myself had questions about it. It has worked out really, really well. I think it is probably going to change the face of democracy inside party politics for decades to come,” Martin said.

“I think this reaching out to Canadians has been very positive…. You do this one brick at a time.”