New blood needed to run the Liberal Party of Canada

The Mark has a video interview with Warren Kinsella and I think he raises a crucial point on "new blood", as key to any thoughts of a Liberal turnaround. Kinsella argues we need new people to run for the federal Liberals, if you want to appear fresh and able to contrast.

I’ve had intermittent rants on this topic, and frankly every time you address the need for turnover, on a series of fronts, everybody circles their particular fiefdom and it appears hopeless. God forbid somebody say Joe Volpe should pack it in and help revitalize a tired brand, that’s just blasphemy based on a narrow self interest. Heaven help you if you say anything about Ralph Goodale and his disproportionate influence, we should all thank our lucky stars that he holds a seat in hostile terrority. In other words, Liberals don’t seem capable of internally reforming themselves, only complete annihilation, brought about by outside events, will force what is SO PLAIN AS DAY.

Pecking orders, hierarchies, tenure, a bloated and stagnant machinery, all achieve a paralysis and the rest of us are left to sit here and hope that Harper implodes, because there is no proactive solution on the horizon. New faces, armed with fresh ideas, and most of all the passion and enthusiasm that tends to wane with tenure. The Liberals have some of these assets at our disposal, just not enough of them, and not used to maximium capacity.

It’s is logically impossible to position yourself as a vehicle for change, as something decidedly different from the current, when people see the same old institutional faces for an eternity. Would a concerted effort to recruit a new breed of Liberals lead to the promised land? In and of itself, absolutely not, but that focused effort would certainly help in addressing a key liability, that of a tired brand, that needs oxygen.