EclecticLip

Like many Canadians, I regard the current Conservative government with a suspicious distrust; enough that after the 2008 election, I began donating money to the Liberal Party of Canada.  While my thinking leans leftwards of theirs, they remain the most viable less-conservative alternative in the near term — hence my “remittances of convenience”, to borrow from the marital phrase.

But the Liberals are stuck in a catastrophic polling funk – and their misery is continuing in respiteless fashion.  Furthermore, on a variety of issues, Liberal Party leader Michael Ignatieff seems about as conservative as Stephen Harper.  Born into the elite, Ignatieff doesn’t seem to connect with voters.  In contrast, the Prime Minister, hardly a man of charisma himself, seems to manage adequately, despite also being born into privilege (his dad became an oil executive).

As such, I wonder whether Michael Ignatieff is the John Kerry to Stephen Harper’s George W. Bush — a challenger indistinct enough from the incumbent, without the rapport / messaging advantage to pull out a victory.

Time will tell.