Bob Rae's March toward Coronation

In a development that will likely surprise few, it seems that steps are being prepared to permit Bob Rae, the Liberal Party's interim leader, to run for the permanent leadership. I have little doubt, despite his initial denial that he was seeking the position, that this was Rae's plan all along.

His messiah complex, so evident in his efforts to blame everyone (unions, Buzz Hargrove, the economy) except himself following his loss after one term as NDP Premier of Ontario, is obviously very much alive.

Should they choose Rae, I think the Liberals will find that something else is very much alive as well in Ontario: people's memories of his disastrous rule in which he quite blithely abandoned many of the principles that had guided the NDP for a very long time, choosing instead to placate business interests at the expense of the common good.