Lalonde the legend

This early in the game, we really don't know much about the respective visions of our leadership candidates. For this reason, the supporters they accrue are so compelling.

I was particularly interested to see Marc Lalonde land in the Ignatieff camp. This is a man for which I (and most Liberals, I hope) have the utmost respect. He is most famous for his closeness with Trudeau. Indeed, he caused one biographer to opine that "Marc Lalond [was] very much like Trudeau... Intelectually... so close to him that one wonders whether it is not... Lalonde who invented him." Marc Lalonde co-authored with Trudeau a seminal article on functional politics in 1964. This article, that set Trudeau's mandate in declaring that "The primacy accorded to regional interests and the absence of leadership at the central government level threatens a dislocation of the central state", was later held in triumph on the eve of the constitution's patriation.

He is among the greatest party leaders we never had. I hope dearly that he elaborates on his support of Ignatieff at some point.