McKenna set to join Martin team

By JEFFREY SIMPSON
From Tuesday's Globe and Mail

(Ottawa)  Frank McKenna, the former New Brunswick premier and sought-after
star candidate for the Paul Martin Liberals, has all but decided to run in
the next election, subject to finding an appropriate seat. No riding is
readily available for Mr. McKenna. Complications are attached to each one
in southern New Brunswick where he might run.

Having signalled his willingness to become the Liberal kingpin, not just in
New Brunswick but in the Maritimes, Mr. McKenna can expect Mr. Martin's
political operatives somehow to free up a seat. Mr. McKenna was tied up in
business meetings yesterday. But he dampened speculation about running by
sending a message that "such a conclusion is very premature and
presumptuous."

Sources in New Brunswick, however, relate that after months of
deliberation, Mr. McKenna has crossed the philosophical divide and will now
run, provided arrangements can be made. These include finding a proper seat
and tidying up his many business affairs so that he would not be in a
conflict of interest while in federal politics. Mr. McKenna has built a
successful legal and business career since leaving provincial politics in
1998. Giving all that up has been among the factors weighing heavily
against re-entering politics. It is believed Mr. McKenna has contacted
federal ethics counsellor Howard Wilson to discuss the rules of blending
private financial interests with federal service.

If Mr. McKenna is elected, and the Liberals form the government, he will
become one of the most senior ministers in Mr. Martin's cabinet, occupying
a portfolio such as Industry. He and Mr. Martin are good friends and see
public policy issues very much through the same prism. Mr. McKenna, who
turned 56 in mid-January, will be among the leading contenders for the
post-Martin party leadership. He knows that if he does not enter federal
politics now, his chances of ever reaching the party's top job will vanish.

Four seats potentially beckon Mr. McKenna  in theory. Each, however, is
fraught with complications. Moncton-Riverview-Dieppe would be a natural
riding in a city, Moncton, greatly helped by his policies as premier. Mr.
McKenna's law offices are there, although he also works and lives part-time
in Toronto.
The trouble is that Labour Minister Claudette Bradshaw is enormously
popular in Moncton. Martin political operatives had assumed that Ms.
Bradshaw would leave for a patronage post. But the feisty Ms. Bradshaw has
repeatedly insisted that she will run again and scoffed at the possibility
of a government appointment, including a Senate seat, one of which is
falling vacant in New Brunswick in April.

The last thing Mr. Martin's political operatives need is another nasty
fight with a left-wing female Liberal, given the donnybrook in Hamilton
over Sheila Copps's political fate. Mr. McKenna has a home in
Beausjour-Petitcodiac, near Moncton. Although an Acadian riding, Mr.
McKenna could win easily there, except that the incumbent MP, Dominic
LeBlanc, wants to run again.

Another riding, Miramichi, presents the same problem: incumbent Charles
Hubbard, a three-term MP, wants another term. Mr. McKenna's direct
connections with Miramichi are also weaker than with other ridings.

Then there's Fundy-Royal, where Mr. McKenna was born. That seat appeared to
be coming free when Tory MP John Herron decided to leave politics rather
than join the new Conservative Party. In recent weeks, however, the
Liberals wooed Mr. Herron to run for them. Mr. Herron is interested in
regional development and postsecondary education, and the Prime Minister
has promised him a role in both. Mr. Herron said yesterday he was
"definitely" going to run for the Liberals  unless Mr. McKenna
wanted the seat and pledged to work on several projects in or near the
riding. "I don't have a big ego on this," Mr. Herron said.

If the Martin operatives can't move Ms. Bradshaw, Mr. LeBlanc or Mr.
Hubbard, they might have to take up that signal from Mr. Herron that he
would make way for the former premier. But the preferred solution would be
to keep Mr. Herron as the Liberal candidate in Fundy-Royal, move one of the
three Liberals MPs and set up Mr. McKenna in the available seat.

At the same time, another member of Mr. Martin's inner circle, Dennis
Dawson, is leaning toward running for Parliament in a Quebec City-area
riding, Beauport. Mr. Dawson, who was an MP under Pierre Trudeau, has long
been the senior Quebec adviser in the inner circle of Martin advisers
dubbed "The Board." Sources said that last week he told his
colleagues at consulting giant Hill & Knowlton he would be running, but
Mr. Dawson said he merely told them that he is considering a bid, and they
should not deny that he plans to run if clients ask. "I'm thinking
about it," he said.


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