THE VERDICT ON STEPHEN LEDREW

Loser

I know Stephen Ledrew. I have observed the ups and mostly downs of his career.

His penchant for loud bow ties and narcissistic publicity seeking, his overbearing stature and his love for his deep rapturous voice, are turnoffs. He annoys me.

He did well by the Liberal Party of Canada. He was an Executive Assistant to a former Solicitor General of Canada. He worked in the Prime Minister’s Office. He was its President between 1998 and 2003. His party involvement helped launch his dubious public career as a loudmouth minor media personality on a couple of rarely listened to TV and radio channels in the Toronto area.

None of that helped in his personal life. He went bankrupt in 2005 owing $360 thousand or so to the taxman. His law firm also went belly up. With a splash he announced he was running for Mayor of Toronto in the November 06 election. He received 1.3% of the vote. People can be forgiven if they think he’s a loser. He has the earmarks.

But there are some who like his clownish persona. He is invited as a panelist from time to time on CBC Newsworld and CBC News.

Ledrew loves the limelight. His chosen tool to attain it is controversy. Given his failings he has earned little public credibility, if any. Yet, there he is, giving interviews, writing columns, opining on television – as if he were some kind of oracle. He’s a loser.

Last week in the Canwest Conservative tabloid the National Post, Ledrew wrote that it was likely “the Liberals are going to take a drubbing in this election — which is exactly what they need . .” In the rest of the piece, with obvious relish, he stuck it to the party leader and the platform, and made a banal call for party renewal.

After extracting the stiletto from between the party’s shoulder blades, thinking no doubt that he should lay the ground work for a possible return to party prominence, he tries to make nice:

"In this call for renewal, I do not mean to dishearten the hard-working people of all ages

who are pounding in signs, looking up addresses, sending e-mails and knocking on doors

under the Liberal banner. Keep it up, for you are vital to the political process. One must

fight on against all odds . . . "

Predictably Nigel Hannaford, a tiresome Harperite drumbeater for Calgary’s Canwest Rag The Calgary Herald, this morning called Ledrew “a Liberal Prophet.”

Ledrew is not a prophet. His opinions have no value whatsoever. He is just an annoying publicity seeker who will do or say anything for public attention.