Despite a crushing defeat during last week's federal election, Liberal Leader Stephane Dion emerged from Thursday's caucus meeting vowing his "very united" party will continue to fight the Conservatives.
"We will fight - it's very clear we are the alternative to the Conservatives," said Dion.
However, with only 76 seats compared to the Conservatives' 143, the party is in no position to bring down the government in Parliament.
Meanwhile, party insiders have said the Grits won't challenge the Tories until after Dion is replaced as leader.
But that doesn't mean some leadership hopefuls within the party aren't already laying the groundwork for their campaigns -- even though many aren't saying so publicly.
Michael Ignatieff, who ran for leader in 2006, said Thursday that he's still talking to his supporters about a potential bid.
"I need to listen to them, consult with them ... I'm not going to keep anyone waiting."
Other contenders, who are still saddled with debt from the 2006 race, are still wavering on whether to run for leader this time around.
"We have not decided," said re-elected MP Martha Hall Findlay. "There are many factors to consider."
The names of other potential candidates include:
- Toronto MP Bob Rae
- Former New Brunswick premier Frank McKenna
- Former cabinet minister Martin Cauchon
- Former deputy prime minister John Manley
- New Brunswick MP Dominic LeBlanc
- Montreal MP Denis Coderre
- Toronto MP Gerard Kennedy
However, former MP Robert Thibault said that only candidates with a real chance of winning should enter the race.
"If you don't have 20 per cent, support someone," he told CTV's Roger Smith.
"It's not the time for resume building."
Earlier this week, Dion announced he will stay on as head of his party only until the next party convention.
'Positive' mood during caucus meeting
Ajax-Pickering MP Mark Holland described Thursday's caucus meeting as "incredibly positive.
"There's fundamentally a lot of things that we need to do to restructure our party and I
heard a lot of commitment to that today," Holland told CTV's Rosemary Thompson.
He added that there were no attacks on Dion during the meeting.
"Every single person who spoke was positive and optimistic and forward looking," he said.
Paul Zed, who lost his seat to the Tories in Saint John, said Thursday the whole party must share the blame for the election defeat.
He said Dion's replacement needs to be able to express a vision for the whole of Canada.
"Canada's voice is being lost on the world stage, its voice is being lost even in North America," he said.
"The reality is it costs a lot of money to run a race and several of the leadership candidates from the last time are still in debt... so the likelihood of many, many people jumping in is hard to say," said Thompson.
Negative ads powerful, says Dion
Dion admitted he was disappointed about the election result and said he "underestimated" the effect of the negative campaign ads the Tories used to target him.
The Liberals suffered one of their biggest election defeats in party history on Oct. 14, winning only 76 seats, a 27-seat decline from 2006.
Looking forward, Dion said it was not about him, but about Canada.
"I will do everything in the coming years and months to prepare the ground for my successor so that next time we'll be better equipped to win," he told reporters after the caucus meeting.
