Liberal MP Dominic LeBlanc may be the dark horse in his party's leadership race, but he's already found his rally cry, saying that it's time for a new generation to revitalize the ailing Grits.
And Liberals may be looking for a younger alternative to the two frontrunners,
After watching Stephane Dion crash and burn in his first, and only, election as leader, and their party spiral further into debt, many Liberals are obviously looking at what U.S. president-elect Barack Obama did for his party and country.
"It's not enough to change the head, you have to renew the whole and that's done with a new generation of leadership that springs the party forward," LeBlanc told Â鶹´«Ã½ in an interview.
At just 40, LeBlanc claims deeper Liberal roots than his two rivals and just as much political experience. He certainly has the pedigree of a Liberal leader.
The New Brunswick MP is the son of former Governor-General Romeo LeBlanc, a friend and fishing partner of former prime minister Pierre Trudeau.
LeBlanc has a law degree from Harvard, the same school Obama got his and where rival Ignatieff completed a PhD and later taught.
LeBlanc is also fluently bilingual, and is considered a strong orator in the House of Commons. A MP since 2000, he has been elected four times since narrowly losing in his initial run in 1997.
He says that because of his time in office, he may be young, but he's not green.
"I don't think I'm too young. If I become prime minister in two of three years, I'm roughly the same age as Mr. Harper was," LeBlanc said.
Harper was 46 when he became prime minister. The youngest-ever Canadian prime minister was Progressive Conservative Joe Clark, who took office at 39. Trudeau, considering the youthful image he projected, was no spring chicken as he was 48 when he became prime minister.
LeBlanc is still considered a long-shot by most pundits, and some have speculated he's actually running for the next Liberal leadership convention.
After Dion's failure, the line of thinking is that many Liberals don't want to gamble on another compromise candidate. With just three candidates on the roster at the current time, the bottom choice is out on the first ballot, making it impossible to build support from other dropouts the way Dion did.
"There's no coming up the middle, the way Stephane Dion and Gerard Kennedy arranged it last time," Rob Silver, a spokesperson for Kennedy told Â鶹´«Ã½. "If you're Dominic LeBlanc, you have to be second place going into the convention."
With that considered, many are speculating it will be a two-horse race between Rae and Ignatieff going into May's Vancouver convention.
But LeBlanc thinks that Liberals are wary of a division between Rae and Ignatieff supporters such as what occurred between Jean Chr�tien and Paul Martin. He thinks a new face might be the solution to leaving the convention unified.
"My sense is Liberals are tired of that sort of clash of the titans," he said.
LeBlanc will officially start his campaign by the end of November and insists he is in the race to win it this time.
With a report from CTV's Roger Smith
