Interesting news across the border in Ontario, where their premier, Dalton McGuinty, is stepping aside. He's headed up the province for nine years and is in the middle of having to trim the budget, running headlong into teachers unions who are acting a bit like their peers in Chicago.
After a couple of terms, you start to overstay your welcome, especially if your in a tough budget time and have a plurality government who needs one of the opposition parties to pass anything. After a decade, Tory hero Mike Harris ran out of gas, as his Common Sense Revolution ran into a pack of contras. Harris' predecessor, Bob Rae, had much the same budget-cutting headaches McGuinty has now, making him persona non grata to public-sector unions and was essentially run out of the NDP and into the Liberal party, where he's now the interim federal Liberal leader.
The Liberal federal race is wide open, with former First Son Justin Trudeau being the early favorite; if his dad Pierre was the Canadian JFK, Justin is Patrick Kennedy without the rehab issues. Rae has pledged not to run as part of taking on the temp job, so McGuinty would have a shot, especially if he can bring the Ontario Grits with him.
However, I can't recall the last time a provincial leader jumped to the head of a federal party; the closest that comes to mind was Stockwell Day going from Alberta's cabinet to head of the Alliance Party. Stock was dealt a tough hand and could have used some federal seasoning, but running the largest province for a decade would be decent prep work for running the country.
Interesting times up north.
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