In introducing the newly-acclaimed Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff, Bob Rae gave the kind of gracious, rousing and succinct, 14-minute speech that former leader Stephane Dion failed to deliver last night. Rae, who was, until December, a front-runner for the Liberal crown, told assembled Liberals that this was not the time for divisions, dashed ambitions or “griping about what might have been.”
In introducing the newly-acclaimed Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff, Bob Rae gave the kind of gracious, rousing and succinct, 14-minute speech that former leader Stephane Dion failed to deliver last night. Rae, who was, until December, a front-runner for the Liberal crown, told assembled Liberals that this was not the time for divisions, dashed ambitions or “griping about what might have been.”
Speaking to those “gripped by anxiety,” who are “paying bills and taxes without knowing how long their jobs will last, or when the next job will come,” he urged the party faithful to come together. “As never before,” he said, “Canada needs the Liberal Party to be at its best, and the world need Canada to be at its best.”
It is time again “for Canada to be the voice “for jobs and justice” and “for national unity and national purpose,” he added. “I stand here with one clear, direct, and very simple message to you: I want Michael Ignatieff to become the next, great prime-minister of Canada.”