Ralph Goodale Plans to Keep In Touch

For most, summer vacation means long days on the beach or yard work at home, but for Members of Parliament it means a chance to catch up on some work in their home ridings.

Saskatchewan Liberal MP Ralph Goodale is planning on doing just that as Parliament has ended for the summer in Ottawa. "I'll be in Saskatchewan for a good portion of my time trying to meet and visit with Saskatchewan people and I'm looking forward to that. The summer is a good time in our province and it looks like we've got a pretty reasonable crop coming on in most places, markets are improving at least a little bit, so the atmosphere in some parts of rural Saskatchewan is getting a little bit better so that's good."

But one Ottawa topic that will remain on Goodale's mind is the Liberal leadership race. "We're dealing with a lot of new candidates here, 11 of them and some of them have not been as exposed to the public as others so its giving people an ample opportunity to get out there to be heard, to meet people, to express their new points of view and the summer is a great time to do that. I'm sure we're going to see a lot of the candidates passing through Saskatchewan virtually every week."

Goodale says he will take the summer to make a decision on his pick for the future leader of the party before the official vote this December.