Politicians closely identified with a province find it difficult to get to the top in federal

politics, and this will be a problem for Gerard Kennedy and Bob Rae.

Kennedy was Ontario's education minister until he resigned to run for the federal Liberal party's vacant leadership and Rae is a former Ontario New Democrat premier who has left that party to run.

Party members and later voters in an election will choose particularly on grounds which in the case of Kennedy will include his freshness and brightness.

Rae's biggest strengths will be his intellect, oratory and record of non-partisanship since governing, although he will have to live down having been a big spender in government and a lack of loyalty to a party he once led.

But parties and voters also tend be wary of choosing someone tied to a specific province with a record of putting its interests first and still more apprehensive over candidates from Ontario, the biggest province and always suspected of wanting to dominate.

The concern that provincially oriented leaders will favour their home areas is one reason they have not had much success in federal politics.

The last member of the Ontario legislature to go on to lead a major federal party was Conservative George Drew nearly 60 years ago.

As premier 1943-48, Drew promoted Ontario interests and particularly those of big business. He lost his seat in an election, but when the federal Conservative leadership suddenly became vacant he beat future prime minister John Diefenbaker to win it. He could not, however, oust the entrenched Liberals.

Drew had succeeded John Bracken, a former Manitoba premier who was just as unsuccessful in the transition.

When former Nova Scotia premier Robert Stanfield became the third ex-premier to head the federal Tories and also failed to dislodge the Liberals, it was routinely said that those who have led a province cannot win in federal politics.

This influenced William Davis, who had won four elections as Conservative premier in Ontario and toyed with running for federal leader in the early 1980s, but stayed out.

One deterrent was that he had fought to keep down Alberta oil prices to help Ontario industry and that province's Conservative government felt he denied it a fair price and let it be known it would do everything it could to block a Davis candidacy.

Sheila Copps, once an Ontario MPP, left to run federally and years later was appointed Liberal deputy prime minister, but she did not switch expressly to run for leader and had only limited power that a prime minister gave her.

Contrast this to the procession of federal politicians who have descended on Ontario hoping to lead its parties. They include Rae, who was the NDP's admired finance critic in the Commons and was snapped up as a messiah when he left to seek his Ontario party's leadership in 1982.

Rae, after switching from federal to provincial politics, is now trying to make the journey back and change parties in the same breath and may be accused of not knowing his own mind.

Mark MacGuigan, a former law professor and up-andcomer in the federal Liberal caucus, lost for Ontario party leader in the mid-1970s to Stuart Smith, whom the party viewed over-optimistically as a clone of Pierre Trudeau. MacGuigan later showed he had merit in roles as federal justice minister and external affairs secretary.

Norman Cafik, a federal Liberal backbencher and lively speaker, earlier made a strong challenge to take the Ontario party leadership from Bob Nixon, but the durable Nixon held on and led for the third time unsuccessfully in an election.

Other federal luminaries who challenged for leader of the Ontario Liberal party included Walter Harris, a former finance minister, and Joe Greene, who made the most rousing speech at the convention he lost.

Greene also went on to become a senior federal minister, so Ontario Liberals may have missed out again on possible leadership material.

The statistics show that parties and voters usually prefer leaders who stick to their own levels of politics - but there is a smaller opening for outsiders.