Howard Dean to give keynote address at Liberal convention

Last Updated: Friday, November 10, 2006 | 6:15 PM ET

CBC News

Former U.S. presidential contender Howard Dean will be a keynote speaker at the Liberal party convention next month in Montreal, the Liberals announced Friday.

Dean's grassroots, internet-based fundraising appeal in 2004 changed the way U.S. political parties finance campaigns.

Howard Dean, chair of the Democratic National Committee.
(CP)

Liberal party national director Steven MacKinnon said the Liberals have a strong affinity with the Democrats, who are savouring a victory this week after the U.S. mid-term elections.

"I think it's excellent timing for us to have Governor Dean address us," MacKinnon said. "Unlike the Conservatives who bring their American allies in under the cover of darkness, we're happy to put our American allies out front and on the stage."

Sure to be a howler

Perhaps best known in Canada — if not everywhere else in the world — for his bizarre on-stage primal howl during the Democratic primary races in 2004, the former Vermont governor played a key role in this week's U.S. mid-term elections that gave his party control of the both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

As current chair of the Democratic National Committee, Dean overhauled the party's structure with his "50-state strategy," which sent vital DNC funds to boost the party's local organizations in states such as Alaska and Mississippi, which are not traditionally viewed as viable states for Democratic candidates.

"It's akin to the strategy we've been following," MacKinnon told CBC News Friday.

The strategy came under fire from high-profile Democrats who said the money would be better spent in critical swing races that determined the balance of power in the election.

Some 5,000 Liberal delegates will gather at the convention on Dec. 3 to select the new leader of the party.