Liberals in Need of a Hug

Perhaps you've seen them, weeping into their morning papers, red-eyed and frazzled. They're the forlorn, the lost, the ones buying up all the tissues from the local drugstore. People who have given up all hope in their future are walking the streets as we speak, no one to inspire them, no one to believe in.

Their past haunts them, a past few will let them forget. If they aren't taunted at work, they're laughed at on the nightly news. They're Liberals, and they could all use a hug right now.

For your average card-carrying Grit, this last week must have been as punishing to their hopes as a few rounds with Lennox Lewis can be punishing to one's cranium.

There was hope of a sort when Paul Martin hung up his gloves and walked away from the ring, if for no other reason than the electoral pummelling that Liberals expected turned out to be rather light, 102 seats in the bank (well 103 actually, but who really cares about Vancouver-Kingsway voters, eh?) and a shaky Conservative minority at hand.

Dreams of Liberal red finding its way back into 24 Sussex could have only grown with one Harper misstep after another; broken campaign promises, an autocratic style making Ottawans think they're in the Forbidden City and not the capital of Canada, and a "we will answer no question before its time" stance with the media many assumed would lead to public vivisection of all things Conservative by disgruntled scribes from sea to shining sea.

Except it isn't quite working out that way. If anything, much of the mainstream media coverage has been downright flattering to Harper, with the major news networks falling over themselves to put a positive spin on everything from his foray into Kandahar to his fashion-challenged tour of Cancun, proving you can kick the media and still have it fetch your slippers.

And any hope that the coming year would turn the tide for the good ship Liberal lasted about as long as Bill Graham's opening address to parliament. With almost thirteen years of sordid, pork-barrel antics to use as ammunition, any criticism by Graham or his party, no matter how rational, was met with accusations of Liberal hypocrisy. Even Jack Layton, showing what voters get for sending more New Democrats to Ottawa, seemed more intent on kicking his ideological cousins in the nethers than taking the Conservative government to task.

So who will lead your despondent Grit out of this quagmire of past Liberal baggage and a parliament that's collective opposition is so castrated by the fear of a Conservative landslide that no one will wield the threat of going to the polls? Well, perhaps it's time for another hug, because the leadership line-up is enough to bring even the most hardened Conservative to shed a tear in sympathy.

While there are so many pretenders to the throne that the next convention may need more seats for candidates than members, it boils down to two main contenders and a wild card. I, of course, do not speak of Scott Brison, financial advisor extraordinaire, or hockey puck Ken Dryden, who would make even Paul Martin seem decisive. You can also forget about Gerard Kennedy, a man who has put much on the line to get his ideas heard on the federal scene, but who will probably still seem like a grad student when he's eighty.

No, Liberals have to depend on one of either declared candidate Michael Ignatieff or all-but-so Bob Rae, with Stéphane Dion to keep them honest and thinking. All three have much in the way of baggage. There's Ignatieff's stance on Iraq, ever-adjusting opinions on torture, and lack of experience in knowing how Canadian soil might feel beneath his feet. In the other corner is Bob Rae and his at best questionable tenure as Premier of Ontario, a lamentable era that relegated the provincial NDP to nothing more than a footnote as the party that paved the way for Mike Harris's Common Sense Revolution. And Stéphane Dion, best known for trying to stamp out Quebec sovereignty with the Clarity Act (always helpful when Liberals need to restore their footing there), has a penchant for words over substance -- mostly ably demonstrated by the Liberal record on environmental issues of which he's so fond.

All the candidates are in favour of a good-natured debate on values and ideas, and setting a new tone for the Liberal party of the future. Problem is, such navel-gazing doesn't work. Anyone studying the revived Conservatives will tell you that it was not Reformer grass roots ideas but Harper pragmatism and obsession with strategy that got them where they are, and will keep them there, assuming he can continue muzzling his ideologically minded Conservative MPs.

Put simply, the Liberals need a leader, not an academic. They need inspiration, not introspection. A party that believes in itself would not be turning to the finger-wagging condescension of Ignatieff, nor the gosh golly speeches of Rae. These are the best candidates the Liberals can muster because the party sees itself as licked, and all the natural candidates recognize it.

So if you know a Liberal or two, give them a hug. They have a long road ahead, and no one to lead them down it.