Slow but certain

Today's Globe has an interesting piece on the Leader's quiet strategy. The piece is (mildly) critical but misses what is a key point -- we are in a marathon and not a sprint.

Regardless of what happens with the budget at the end of the month we are in for a long battle. And long battles are best not rushed into blindly.

There is rebuilding to be done and that will take months, perhaps years. Even if we were to become the Government in February -- which seems unlikely -- the rebuilding would need to continue.

And so the Leader is right to take the time to prepare and move on with deliberation and not haste.

The Liberal leader is a man of magnitude. So where is he?

LAWRENCE MARTIN

January 5, 2009
Globe and Mail

Michael Ignatieff has been completing a book over the holidays, the last chapter in a family saga. That's fine and well, but there are Liberals who wish he'd chosen another time - a better moment than the immediate aftermath of becoming party leader.

With the departure of Stéphane Dion, it was thought there would be a rush of momentum for the Grits, heady sensations of relief and revival. With the eloquent Mr. Ignatieff as the new regent, hopes were further heightened.

By comparison to his predecessor, he is a man of magnitude. But where is the new dynamism? And where is he? At a volatile political juncture when the moment needs be seized, Iggy's off to a quiet and rather unremarkable beginning.

It's not so much his own doing. Circumstances have not been kind. There was no leadership race. That meant no high-profile campaign, no media-saturated convention, no hallmark speech. His overnight enthronement served the good purpose of quickly terminating the Dion stewardship. But coronations cannot be said to be democratically edifying. Rather than bolstering credibility, they can bleach it.

Iggy's investiture had the added disadvantage of coming just before the Christmas break. It meant that, with all the holiday distractions, he couldn't showcase himself. Instead, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has maintained the higher profile with his year-end interviews and hockey tournament photo-ops.

James Morton