Paul Wells on Dryden

Paul Wells did a recap of the debate on Saturday. Here's his take on Dryden's performance...

Ken Dryden has been forced, by the sheer weight of his slab-like, builders-of-Stonehenge speaking style, to become pithy, because otherwise he just won't get anything said in 90 seconds. So he was very good on the limitations of Harper's ruthlessly pragmatic electoral strategies (if some group or segment of the population isn't needed for his majority, "write 'em off"). And he gives every issue a sort of epic significance that is, very often, hogwash (farmers offer "more than food and fibre"; equalization is more than numbers; everything is deeper than what you petty mortals believe it to be) — but which is still often quite moving. I'm not at all sure what kind of public administrator Ken Dryden would be ("Wait! Don't shut that abandoned government warehouse down! Don't you understand that it's more than a warehouse? Don't you see it has dreams inside?..."), but I have no doubt he sings at frequencies only Liberals can hear, and I expect him to grow his support after a very haphazard start.

I agree with a lot of that. For me - the question remains - who has the best chance to rebuild the Liberal Party from a pratical political perspective ? - funding, organization, attention.