Duncan Hood / McGill Tribune

The Honourable Bob Rae, the interim leader of the Liberal party, completed his five day tour of Quebec with a speech at Concordia University on Friday, Jan. 27. As he crosses the nation, Rae aims to remind Canadians of what the Liberal party represents, restructure the party, and open it up to regrowth after their defeat in the last federal election.  

In his speech, Rae encouraged students to speak up while the Liberal party is under renovation. 

“This is a generation that says ‘I don’t hear you talking about the things that matter to me … persuade me that [your opinion] was important,’ ” he said.   

Earlier this January, at the Liberal Biennial Convention, 3,300 delegates attended to vote on the Liberal Constitution. Among them were members of Liberal McGill such as Matthew Ballek, a U1 arts student who said he attended because of the possibilities the party has to offer. 

“The Liberal party lost so many votes that [they] have nothing to lose,” Ballek said. “They’re open to change … youth can have a huge impact.”

MP Mark Garneau, who fielded a question and answer period with MP Justin Trudeau after Rae’s speech, expressed the current state of the Liberal party best.  

“I like to compare the Liberal party to a body, and on the third of May, it was like a body being wheeled in on a gurney into an ER. They had to put the paddles to us,” Garneau said. “Today I’d say the Liberal Party has a heart beat … but we have a heck of a long way to go.”

Rae’s speech emphasized that the Liberal party is not having an “identity crisis,” as the other parties in the House of Commons would like to portray.  

“Governments and authority must explain and justify itself to people who have the means … to insist that the world must make sense to them. People today are dying for this idea … and it is the essential idea of the Liberal party,” Rae said.  

Some of the speakers questioned whether the current government is sufficiently accountable.  

“Our great concern [about Harper’s] process is … [how he’s] pushing meetings into closed doors … using the power of the majority to quash dissenting voices,” Trudeau said.  

Miranda Bradley, a U2 student in the faculty of arts, chose to attend the event though her family traditionally supports the NDP.  

“I have to respect that the Liberals aren’t afraid to leave [traditional] methods,” Bradley said. “They are trying to avoid doing things simply because that’s how it’s always been done.”

As the leadership election draws closer, there have been rumours that the Liberals need a younger leader to represent the rebirth of the Liberal party. Rae said that he has not decided whether he is going to run, but is hopeful for the future of the party.

“I always remind people, the one thing that is certain about public opinion is that it will change. And it changes in response to leadership …  in having an idea of where you want to go,” Rae said. “That is where our party has always been at its best … and that’s where we need to be again.”