I think you're right. The LPC went with Trudeau in 2013 despite his many and well known deficiencies. Her had there things going for him:
- Persona- he's handsome, personally very pleasant, and charming;
- He's a great campaigner - he actually loves campaigning and he does it well; and
- Name!!!
But that's all there is and that's all there ever was. Dion and Ignatieff knew that - look at the critic posts they assigned to him in the post-Martin era - fitness and amateur sports and so on.
But he and his team recruited - in 2014/15 - a pretty substantial list iff candidates and they ran a good-to-great campaign in 2015. Then it all began to go sour. There was no vision ... sorry that's wrong, there was a
green,
feminist vision but they failed to implement much of it because there was no coherence or discipline in the cabinet.
Now,
it seems to me, Freeland is yesterday's woman and Carney is interested in almost anything expect leading Canada and there needs to be a sacrificial Anglo before Joly can have her turn. If I was a Liberal
I think I would start polishing Anita Anand, Marci Ien, Filomena Tassi or Ginette Petitpas Taylor.
I suspect that either Anand or Ian might well frustrate Poilievre in Ontario and secure another Liberal strong minority, at least.