The federal Liberal leadership race got a big boost in star power Friday as Ken Dryden squeezed his name onto a crowded roster of candidates.
But the hockey legend insists it’s actions, not his name, that will give him the best shot at winning the contest.
“Name recognition can come and go,” the former Montreal Canadiens goaltender said after officially declaring his candidacy just two years after winning his first political race.
“It’s up to people to decide whether what they have experienced, over time, is something that works for them,” he added.
Dryden doesn’t deny the fact that his status as a household name among legions of Canadian hockey fans gives him a platform to promote his ideas alongside nine other declared candidates before the buzzer sounds on the Liberal race at a December convention.
Dryden will faceoff against — among others — former Ontario cabinet minister Gerard Kennedy, former Ontario NDP premier Bob Rae and acclaimed Toronto scholar and Liberal MP Michael Ignatieff.
But rather than rely on past athletic accomplishments, the five-time Stanley Cup champion positioned himself as the champion of day care and education in a speech that pledged a “bigger vision of Canada” beyond what he called the “small imagination” of Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper. (source)
