Traditions preserved

In choosing Stéphane Dion over Michael Ignatieff on Saturday, the federal Liberal party continued its long-standing tradition of alternating its leaders between Anglophones and Francophones.
That certainly didn’t seem to be the case leading up to last week’s leadership convention in Montreal. If that tradition was cast in stone, for instance, you would have thought more Francophone candidates other than Mr. Dion would have entered the race.
Yet evidently it is, judging by how the convention played out.
Mr. Dion was sitting in third place with about only 18 percent of delegate support on the first ballot. His “all-important” speech Friday night was anything but rousing. And when Ken Dryden was dropped from the race after the second ballot Saturday morning, his walk over to Bob Rae seemed to give the former Ontario NDP premier the momentum he needed to capture the leadership.
But Gerard Kennedy, a close fourth to Dion and who might have overtaken him on the third ballot, opted instead to also drop out of the race and threw his support behind the former environment minister.
As it turned out, Mr. Kennedy’s move cemented the Liberal “tradition”—and perhaps put him in the driver’s seat next time around when it’s an Anglophone’s turn to lead the party.
Time will tell if Liberals made the right choice to maintain that tradition by electing Mr. Dion. A decision that cannot be questioned, however, is the one in which delegates agreed to continue with the convention-style culmination of a leadership race.
True, conventions are expensive and difficult to organize, but nothing can match the drama they provide as candidates begin dropping off the ballot, especially when they “make their move” to support one of the remaining contenders.
The fluidity of momentum makes for gripping TV while offering ordinary Canadians a rare glimpse of politicking at its very basic level.
It’s one tradition of Canadian politics, both federally and provincially, that should be preserved by all parties.