FITTING END?

I put this down only minutes after reading that Mr. Ignatieff has resigned. By the time it reaches you that will be old news. Is it right that one man take the blame for the ignominious defeat of his party? Unfortunately, someone has to take the fall.

I’ll try not to make this too politically partisan. He blamed the negative ads for the disaster. Ignatieff was gracious in defeat, as most politicians are. I remember one exception: an American congressman was defeated. In his concession speech he said: “The people have spoken. And they are wrong.”

The blame may be Mr. Ignatieff’s. But for me the blame lies with the Liberal “stalwarts” – the ones who, when they say that Ignatieff was going down in flames, switched to the Conservatives and elected the very man their fallen leader had promised to unseat. I find it duplicitous and downright wrong. As they say – "you leave with the guy what brung you.”

It was a strange twist on strategic voting – where you abandon your favourite because the biggest challenge is to defeat someone else. In this case it is obvious. The centre-right Liberals could not bring themselves, if they were going to move their votes, to do everything they could to keep Harper from winning absolute power, and to take their votes to the N.D.P. The question is: do the entrenched of this country really want the change they keep claimed they do? Or do they simply want to re-arrange things so their party can have its legitimate place in the sun? Like dogs in the manger, they said: “If we can’t win, we’re not going to let them (the N.D.P. ) win. They have sold themselves out. They have revealed themselves to be what Ignatieff would not call them. I won’t bother with the language I thing would be appropriate.

I am sorry that we will be saying goodbye to the likes of Ken Dryden, an honest, stalwart man. I am sorry that the Liberals could not find the kind of leader with the charisma to attract the voters. Iggy is, if I am to believe people who know him, an honest, sincere, caring person. Apparently he is no politician. Because to be a politician, you have to know how to win. He simply did not.

But the saddest part of it is that the people, who stood behind him while he campaigned, deserted him the minute the shadows started appearing. I also feel a little sorry for Jack Layton. Yes, he raised the N.D.P. to a level never seen before, but he will spend the next four years in frustrated impotence as the majority government does what it must do.

My belief is however, that in our traditionally liberal democracy, no one party can upset the country. I don’t Mr. Harper will try to. I’m waiting to see if his in-power budget will be the same as his minority-government budget – conciliatory and socially conscious.