London Free Press

How many people remember much about the Ontario Progressive Conservative leadership race in 2009? Tim Hudak won an interesting race.

And how many people can tell you where the eight NDP federal leadership candidates stand on key issues--or even what the key issues are--despite the party having held several debates?

Yet even a casual observer of events might be able to tell you something about Mitt

Romney (he established the equivalent of President Barack Obama's health care as governor of Massachusetts and is running for the Republican party leadership in the U.S.), or Rick Perry (more than 230 people have been executed since he became governor of Texas and the Iowa caucuses may have killed his leadership bid).

So, if you're federal Liberal Leader Bob Rae, and your party is in third place in the House of Commons and needs an inspired campaign, where do you look?

Next week, Liberal party members will consider a proposal to open the party's leadership race to a U.S.-style primary.

It's been called gimmicky and desperate, but Rae--rather than plowing ahead with business as usual when it clearly is not--is acknowledging the party needs to try something to broaden its base and to inject what he calls an edgy style into the race. More interest means more potential donors, which will be crucial when public funding is cut off and the main source of donations will be individuals.

American primaries are fluid and unpredictable, much more so than a Canadian leadership race. But it can make people pay attention with rolling votes throughout the country and it can get more people involved in the party, even if they're "instant" Liberals who don't have to pay a membership fee.

Primaries are expensive, but with just 10 provinces and three territories in Canada, candidates won't have to fund 50 campaigns as they would in the States.

Right now, any member of the Liberal party can vote for the leadership.

That, say some, is good politics because it makes the leader accountable to party members.

But there aren't many Liberal party members at the moment, and there's no saying the party will draw many more during a traditional leadership race.

But give, say, Saskatchewan, where there aren't many Liberals, its own race and place it first in a schedule of primaries, and voters might be inclined to get more involved because they have a better chance of influencing the outcome. They'd have to sign an unenforceable declaration of principles saying they're not a member of any other party. Some argue this leaves the process open to sabotage, because members of other parties can sign the declaration and vote. But that would take a lot of ill-motivated people.

Some argue a primary system won't translate well in Canada because we expect more party discipline. But how far does party discipline get you if you have only 34 seats?

Look at what's happened in the tiny state of Iowa--which has less than 1% of the U.S. population. Tuesday's vote forced religious right-winger Michelle Bachman out of the race, it promoted the chances of outsider Rick Santorum--just as it did with Obama--it possibly finished Perry and it drew a huge amount of political coverage.

If you're in Rae's shoes, you're intrigued. It will take a leap of faith for the Liberals to go

down this road, but Rae thinks it's worth it. This vote will be a test of his own undeclared leadership potential.

brian.macleod@sunmedia.ca