NDP Saints?

Today on the Soloman Show, Evan referred to former NDP Premier Roy Romanow as a "patron saint", an increasingly common media reference to former NDP Premiers and leaders. I'm kind of curious to know who started nicknaming Dippers like Broadbrent and Romanow as "patron saints", because you never hear this terminology used to describe retired Conservatives. God knows nobody at the CBC has ever described Brian Mulroney as a "patron saint". Sure Broadbent is a respected politician, but should he be canonized as a special envoy for heaven on Earth? I'd say that's a bit of a stretch.

I'm interested to know where this specific terminology originated. The first place I noticed it was in June 2010 when Chretien, Romanow, and Broadbrent held meetings to negotiate a plausible merger deal between the Liberals and the NDP. Several news outlets referenced Broadbrent and Romanow as the NDP saints. I suspect that the "NDP saints" references did not start until post coalition merger speculation, and that it might have been coined by Liberal President Alfred Apps. The Liberals like Apps and Chretien who were trying to push a merger used that terminology to try and sell the possibility of a merger to other Liberals and it stuck. Now Soloman calls Broadbrent and Romanow saints every time they are mentioned on his show. It's almost Pavolvian at this point.

What's interesting is that both Broadbrent and Romanow have endorsed Brian Topp. Ed and Roy held merger meetings with Chretien last summer, and Topp was Jack's point man for the attempted coalition coup in December of 2008. Can you see where we're going with this?