the next Prime Minister?

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Voters don't cast a ballot based exclusively, or even primarily, on the platforms of competing parties. They vote for the guy they trust most, or distrust least. It is probably fair to say that Stephen Harper is winning this election because he is less distrusted than Paul Martin. But the question still hangs out there: Who is Stephen Harper? What is he like? Is he really that cold and remote? How would he react in a crisis? What kind of a prime minister would Stephen Harper make?

-- JOHN IBBITSON, Globe and Mail (2006/01/14)

with the Globe and Mail's endorsement of Stephen Harper and the Conservatives being all but the final nail in the coffin, and despite Michael Ignatieff's retort that ballots shouldn't be counted before they're casted, i'm certainly not the first liberal bracing for the worst... that's no typo -- i'm simply a l-iberal, but definitely not a Paul Martin L-iberal (nor have i ever claimed to be one -- since being involved in this campaign, i've eschewed that tagline)... despite my previous criticism and lampooning of Harper, i've never been a big fan of Martin either... it will be a sad and ignominious fate that history will resign him to: a mere footnote in the long line of would-be great leaders that became a victim to political expediencies...

and so now we face the very real -- and rather, surreal -- likelihood of Harper becoming Canada's 22nd Prime Minister in a week's time... as everyone else has apparently mused, perhaps this will be good for the country in the long term: it will be time to clear the air, rethink and rebuild, but perhaps more importantly, to give the "Devil" his due... if he has indeed matured (as he and his supporters claim), then it'll be interesting to give him a chance to follow through with his commitments and ideas, if only so we can finally have a record by which to judge him... Harper will make or break his legacy: if he veers too far to the right, if he reverts to the social conservativism of the Canadian Alliance Party, if he diverts from the mainstream, if we see a repeat of the Harris-era nonsense, he will pay and pay dearly (as the Conservative Party did post-Mulroney)...

regretable as it may be, i'm tentatively prepared to accept this likely turn of events, not merely out of simple resignation (i've already cast my ballot), but because -- as disagreeable as his ideas may be (and make no mistake: i fundamentally disagree with the kind of society envisioned by Harper) -- at least we can say he has a vision for Canada...

and that, more than anything, is what we need in a leader...

in the meanwhile, we should also consider who may be the next next Prime Minister... fortunately or unfortunately, change is in the air, and it will most likely be within the Liberal party as it is without...

and that, truth be told, is why i'm volunteering for Michael Ignatieff...

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