The Candidates are just soundbytes; the Leader won't be.

Gerard Kennedy is real.

All politicians have multiple sides or personas; a side for the public, a side for their policies, and a side for their personal business. A side for the public plays up to general sentiment, always using vague double-speak in an effort to persuade them that you and they are similar and want the same things. A Policy side reflects what is best for the country and the Party, looking at short-term and long-term and thus can differentiate between the short-sighted Public side. Personal sides are exposed in the situations where their gaurd is down; where they feel most comfortable. It is a side that is kept constant throughout a politician's life, and is truly who the politician is.

Gerard Kennedy has a public side; in it he speaks of proactive fairness, enterprise as the new liberal value, and wanting to have a engaged Liberal Party. His policy and personal side however are identical and do not diverge. Kennedy is a candidate that actually believes in what he is saying. He not only believes it, he lives it. He was the first to put forth a policy to promote a fair level of 50% women participation in the Liberal Caucus; an example of proactive fairness. A more detailed account is available in a recent release at: http://www.gerardkennedy.ca/news_e.aspx?id=82.

I'll share an uncandid moment with Kennedy to illustrate how real Gerard Kennedy is. After a metting with a constituency association and after most of the people had cleared out there was a photo opportunity with Gerard. Around 13 Young Liberals gathered together, from nurtured social influences or random chance, the line-up was organized so that the girls were on the much lower row with the guys in the upper row standing beside Kennedy. Gerard paused, looked at the situation and asked "Why are all the girls in the lower row?" He asked this because he cares. It may not seem like much, but this is an example of the candidate, of the leader Gerard Kennedy is. This shows his real proactive side towards fairness.

A new value of Enterprise is introduced and extensively discussed by Kennedy. The policy side Parallels his public side as well. In a speech he made to the economic club in Toronto Kennedy states that "One of the key challenges for this country is the undervaluing of people. We talk about productivity, or at least politicians' productivity yet say little about what needs to be done about it. An enterprising Canada would set targets for how we want to see ourselves improve. An enterprising Canada would also recognize where the weaknesses are, where the challenges are, who has been left out in our society. I put to you that whether is it is extreme poverty, undereducated youth, or whether it is immigrants who haven't had a chance to use their potential, we are all worse off. A Canada that is going to be confident enough to influence the rest of the world deals with those questions." For the entire speech click here http://www.gerardkennedy.ca/page_e.aspx?id=8

Finally and just as importantly, Gerard wants to return the Liberal Party back to being Liberal. He wants the Party to be engaged. At a recent event Gerard said that he wants party members to want to be a part of his leadership campaign. He could have said he just wanted members to be a part of his campaign, but he emphasized he wants them to want to be a part of his campaign. He wants more then to just be leader he wants to be leader of an active and participating Liberal Party.

Another example is during his leadership campaign a Young Liberal came up with a policy idea on a Tuesday. That Young Liberal put it forth to the Kennedy Policy committee. On that Friday Gerard included that policy into his platform and announced it in a speech he gave that day.

Gerard, like all politicians has a public, policy, and personal side. However unlike other politicians who have those divergent sides out of opportunistic natures Gerard has united views that encompass his public, policy, and personal spheres.

Gerard Kennedy is real.