Sliding Support

As though Stephane Dion's feeble performance as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada didn't demonstrate adequately how best not to position the party in a favourable light with the voting public, along came the party's saviour, Michael Ignatieff - the intellectual-celebrity, the self-assured and suave man-about-town who wowed Britain with his brilliant dispatches, and taught ivory-tower human rights in the United States - to match Stephane Dion's mis-steps, one after the other.

Unerringly, blissfully certain of himself, he too, like his predecessor, took great delight in playing the schoolmaster, berating their nemesis, the prime minister of the country, for not living up to their exalted expectations. Warning him, time and again, that he had precious little time left to see the error of his directions, and warm to theirs. Else, they would have little option but to call him out, and inform the electorate that in their elevated opinion, there was little cause to have confidence in the government.

Amazingly, this approach - stated with supreme confidence each time it was expressed, as though they and they alone held the key to successful governance - did not result in the collapse of the government, giving the Liberals the opportunity to resume their rightful place in the hierarchy of Canadian politics, astride the PMO. What ingrates Canadians are, for recalling the contemptuous display of prime ministerly regard awarded them through the auspices of the 'little guy' from Shawinigan.

Who unabashedly took pork barrelling to new heights, and saw no reason to stand down from those heights, nor to defend them beyond the odd quip here and there. Little jokes that, instead of appearing effusively disarming and charming, in the end led his party to oblivion. A much-deserved distance from resuming power. And the electorate has finally come to the realization that the Conservative leader, now prime minister of yet another minority government, has done them proud.

Nothing is perfect, and certainly no government comes even close to that ideal. But the governing Conservatives have done very well for Canada, restoring some level of pride to the country and those who care about how we perceive ourselves, let alone how others perceive us. Now the confidence of the Liberals, in the Liberals, has been sapped by yet another leading failure, and the view in which they are held by the voting public is ever-ebbing.

The hysterical efforts of the Liberals to attempt to blacken the reputation of the governing Conservatives, through finger-pointing, expressions of dismay at unethical behaviour reflective of Liberal governing history, has worn rather thin. As the CEO of Ipsos Reid commented, "The Liberal brand is suffering a bit...", in Ontario no less, the traditional heartland of Liberal support.

Oh, woe!