‘He never did desire an election’

Glen Pearson mounts an explanation of the Liberal leader.

Mr. Ignatieff took something of a drubbing in the media this week and it shows. He never did desire an election, yet there were many advisors around him constantly explaining the key strategic advantage for bringing the Harper government down. He has aged years in a week. He is not like many here, never having fed on meals of political machinations. The media accused him of “electioneering,” but there isn’t an opposition MP in the House who honestly believed anything could be negotiated out of Stephen Harper.  The PM’s way is hardball, 24-7, and he would crush you if you flinched. And so Michael Ignatieff attempted to stay in the game, believing he had the cards in his hand to finally make Harper himself back down. It seems to me he did, and that he got concessions that no one thought he would. Many question the substance of those concessions, but the truth is that at the beginning of the week nobody gave him much chance.  Now he is older, wiser and, I fear, wearied for his efforts. But he has always said to me that Canadian citizens didn’t want an election. Judging from the emails coming in, they did right by him and he can take some comfort in that.