Liberals grouch about size of slate

Some wish for fewer in leadership race

Are there too many Liberal leadership candidates?

The first leadership debate in Vancouver two weeks ago was widely panned as a bore, and few are expecting the second in Winnipeg this weekend — with its non-debate interview format — to give the Super Bowl a run for its money.

That has prompted grumblings about the large number of candidates, both among analysts and within the party, as well as questions whether the race wouldn’t be better off with a smaller slate.

Yet some say the long list of contenders shifts the focus to on-the-ground campaigning — which is where the Liberal party needed to step up its game anyway.

“It’s very healthy for the party,” said national party president Mike Crawley. “We’re in the business of trying to attract more people into the party.

Crawley said the fact there are so many candidates for the leadership was nearly unthinkable in the early fall.

He was alluding to concerns Montreal MP and presumptive front-runner Justin Trudeau — who raked in $673,000 of the $1.15 million fundraised by leadership candidates during the last quarter of 2012 — might scare off all major challengers.

In addition to Trudeau, the slate now includes former astronaut Marc Garneau, Vancouver MP Joyce Murray, former MP Martha Hall Findlay, former Liberal minister Martin Cauchon, constitutional lawyer Deborah Coyne, Ottawa lawyer David Bertschi, retired lieutenant-colonel Karen McCrimmon and Toronto lawyer George Takach.

“In the fall, everybody was concerned there would be no candidates,” Crawley said. “And instead we have a number of very qualified candidates from different perspectives offering a lot of new and different ideas.”

But having such a large number of candidates has created problems, starting with organizing the race’s five debates; both analysts and party members complained in the aftermath of the first debate in Vancouver on Jan. 20.

There are worries Saturday’s event in Winnipeg will be worse as candidates won’t debate each other but instead participate in individual, 11-minute interviews.

Leadership candidate Hall Findlay has joked she doesn’t expect a ratings bonanza in Winnipeg.