Leadership Quote by Peter MacKay

A sentence built to deny what everyone can already see. MacKay’s line, delivered with a shrugging “not as if,” doesn’t just reject the premise of a leadership contest; it tries to make the very suggestion feel a little silly, even impolite. It’s the rhetorical equivalent of closing the curtains while insisting the lights are off.

The specific intent is containment. In party politics, the mere whiff of a leadership campaign turns every policy announcement into a proxy battle and every caucus meeting into an audition. By framing the idea as hypothetical and exaggerated, MacKay attempts to preserve the appearance of unity and keep journalists from writing the story that drives the story: who’s up, who’s down, who’s plotting.

The subtext is that leadership questions are already in the room. Politicians don’t deny a leadership race unless there’s oxygen feeding it. The line is calibrated to reassure multiple audiences at once: party members who fear open civil war, donors who hate instability, and rivals who benefit from public chaos. It also buys time. Even if a campaign is “not underway,” ambition can be quietly underway: calls returned, supporters counted, loyalties tested.

Context matters here because Canadian party leadership drama often unfolds in the open-caucus/closed-door tension: a public insistence on discipline paired with private maneuvering. MacKay’s phrasing keeps the door unlatched. It denies the formal process while leaving room for the informal reality that defines leadership politics: campaigns begin long before anyone admits they’ve started.