Is this the best theyve got?

Moose Jaw - The Liberal Party of Canada, enveloped in more than a century of arrogance, has long thought of itself as the natural governing party of Canada.
The Liberals have dismissed intermittent Conservative regimes over the past 100 years as nothing more than course corrections for the natural governing party.
A look at Canada's political landscape since 1896 makes it easy to see why anybody would come to this conclusion.
In that time, every Liberal leader has been prime minister (when he steps down next year, Stephane Dion will become the first Liberal Leader since the 1880s to not become prime minister (Edward Blake was the only other Liberal boss to fail to win an election).
As well, in the 112 years since Wilfrid Laurier became prime minister, the Liberals have reigned for 78 of those years.
So, it's obviously tough for the Liberals to swallow two straight electoral defeats and being forced to call Stephen Harper prime minister.
However, if the Liberals don't find anyone else to enter the race to replace Dion, they may be finding themselves sitting in the wilderness a lot longer.
So far, there are three entered in the race - Torontonians Bob Rae and Michael Ignatieff and New Brunswicker Dominic Leblanc.
As nice as it is to see Leblanc sitting at the big boys' table, he is anything but a big boy. He is strictly the nice candidate the contenders pat on the head and say, "Ahh, it's so cute to see you trying."
And then there's Bobby and Iggy. Where have we seen this battle before - oh yeah, two years ago.
If Ignatieff gets picked as leader, he could actually win the keys to 24 Sussex Drive.
Although it sounds like a terrible description - aloof academic - Canada has picked a few those before as prime minister (see Pierre Trudeau, Louis St. Laurent and Harper for examples), so Ignatieff might have a hope.
But there's also been examples of aloof academics flaming out, with Dion being a recent, obvious example. Ignatieff may never connect with average Canadians.
As for Rae, his track record as one of Ontario's most villified former premiers, will hurt him there and in other parts of the country where he has just one image - as the guy who screwed up Ontario.
Now, I for one think any party that can arrogantly view itself as the natural governing party maybe deserves a few extra years in the political wilderness. We don't need one party that is more dominant than the others.
However, if the Liberals want a chance at leading this country again in the next few years, the party needs to find somebody fresh, charismatic and powerful (it's still too early for Justin Trudeau, however).
I'm not talking about an Obama - those come along once every few generations - but at least someone with the gravitas to really capitivate Canadians, something we don't have right now.

Jason Small can be reached at 691-1255.