Regrets, There Are Some....

"It came as a thunderclap, especially to me. Although I was the party's deputy leader, I had been excluded from the secret negotiations with the other parties. What I saw was a desperate leader clinging to power by any means, resorting to a coup de theatre to survive.
"The problem was not a coalition itself. You can make coalitions among winners.
"In our case, it was a coalition of losers. The government had just increased its seats in the House of Commons, while we had lost seats. How were we to explain to the people that we were throwing out a government duly elected two months before?"
"There were times when I felt I was shaping and moulding events, other times when I watched helplessly as events slipped out of my control.
"I knew moments of exaltation when I thought I might be able to do great things for the people, and now I live with the regret that I will never be able to do anything at all. In short, I lived the life. I paid for what I learned. I pursued the flame of power and saw hope dwindle to ashes."
Michael Ignatieff, Journalist, Academic, Politician, Academic

Michael Ignatieff and wife Zsuzsanna Zsohar

Exaltation? Which was it, the achievement of rank, power, character? All? Plus extreme happiness. Sounds like something beyond responding to an appeal for public service. Sounds downright and profoundly egotistic. Poetically histrionic prose. A messiah come to rescue Canadians from their forty years of drifting. Not 40 years? However long it is that Mr. Ignatieff felt that much had to be changed to alter the course of the country we call Canada -- and for him to achieve his manifest destiny.

He's written another book. Fire and Ashes, detailing his five years in purgatory imposed upon his innocence when he felt justified in leaving Harvard believing he was headed toward heaven. His sainted father would be proud. Looking back, he deplored the opportunistic fumbling of the Liberal Party's then-leader, Stephane Dion, when the party foolishly chose him instead of Mr. Ignatieff. The desperation to remove the just-elected Conservatives back to another minority government.

And to do it with the combined strength of the opposition; Liberals, NDP ... and er, the separatist Quebec-centric Bloc Quebecois. Bad enough Canadian taxpayers were paying the salaries of sovereigntist MPs agitating for the sundering of the country as it was; hinge the removal of a democratically elected government on their wild disaffection for Canada? The former Harvard professor may not have been political material, but he did have a profound sense of democracy.

Coming head to head with Prime Minister Stephen Harper who he belatedly saw as a disciplined and ruthless politician harbouring "no fixed compass other than the pursuit of power", he guilelessly describes the prime minister as such, apparently not recognizing himself in the description. As for Bob Rae, old university chum and long-time stalwart, that relationship "exploded" into nothingness on the revelation that Ignatieff now hungered for the same position Rae felt entitled to, himself.

"He was an able politician, a lifer longing for redemption. As far as he was concerned, he had earned his chance and I hadn't earned mine. Seen from his point of view, he'd been the premier of a province. He'd been in federal politics for years. He'd been in politics for years and he thought, 'Who the hell is this guy? Who does he think he is?' I understand that humanly. But in an honest account of what politics is like, you have to tell stories like that because you want to tell it like it was."

Much appreciated, and thank you. Whose tone is the petulant one here? And, by and large, who was correct in his assumption and who was not? Perspective aids perception. As for the Conservative attack ads portraying Mr. Ignatieff as a privileged intellectual prevailed upon to "visit" Canada to try his hand at governance, that portrayal initiative was apt enough.

Another contender who weighed in was also found wanting. Stephane Dion who had "burst" the coalition plan to the Liberal caucus, failing to impress Canadians sufficiently to award the medal of survivor to Mr. Dion. "Here was a principled political leader with a fine reputation for standing up to separatist rhetoric in Quebec, now making a secret deal with the leader of a separatist party", wrote Mr. Ignatieff. One can only disparage in despair.

Yes, yes, yes most certainly; quite disgraceful. But who co-signed that document in support of the proposed coalition? Yes, most certainly; Mr. Ignatieff. With caveats, yes, we know; you were honourable, they were somewhat lacking, alas. Michael Ignatieff, the great scholar who might have done so much for the country, foiled by mean spirits, ranging from those in the Liberal party who failed to elevate him until others had failed, to the Prime Minister who "...attacked my right to say anything at all...".

Life, sigh, is just so unfair. Especially when the candidate went to such lengths to prepare himself, to shed himself of unacceptable baggage; becoming humble and common, to suit the electorate as one of them. "I had to unlearn being clever, being rhetorical, being fluent, and start appreciating how much depends on making a connection, any connection, with the people listening to you."

Not his fault; they just weren't listening closely enough.

Peter McCabe/Postmedia News     Yes. St. Viateur's bagels ARE that good