Michael Ignatieff has come off his summer book and ego preening tour feeling the need to shake the impression that he is just another Dion, talking a good line but always backing down when the chance comes to defeat the Conservatives in a vote of confidence.  Up until this point his claim not to be another Dion rested largely on his self asserted claim to be different.  He is smarter, more strategic and has a better sense of timing than Dion, he claimed.  Thus we got a series of stunts like calling Harper to account with regular reports on the implementation of the stimulus, lectures to Harper on this or that failing, and the EI review panel.  As always, if Harper failed to perform up the Ignatieff standard, it would be the end for him.  In each case the Conservatives exposed these Ignatieff gambits for the shallow adolescent stunts that they were.   They were all just part of a Liberal game to avoid an election which the Liberals knew they could not win, the very game that Dion had played and that the Martin faction, supporting Ignatieff, claimed to despise.  So none of this has worked as well as planned for the Liberals.  The other parties successfully painted these tactics as being exactly the same as Dion’s.

So now Ignatieff has come back with a new tactic to avoid any longer looking like Dion.  Now he will do something Dion definitely never did and that is vote against the Conservatives and force an election.  That will for sure prove he is not just like Dion.

The problem with this is that people don’t care about that and don’t want an election.  They want the party leaders to deal with matters of real substance and to make Parliament work.

So poor Ignatieff remains pathetically pre-occupied with looking in the rear view mirror to be sure he doesn’t look like Dion.  But Dion is gone. People don’t any longer care whether he looks like Dion or not.  That is not even on their radar any longer.  People want a leader looking out the front windshield, not the rear view mirror.  They want a leader who shows maturity, substance and an understanding of their concerns.  And one who will wait until the people are ready for an election rather than manipulating election timing for his own selfish purposes.

What is on voter’s radar is that Harper has done a pretty good job since his disastrous post election stumbles.  He has avoided ideological stunts, focused on the economy and US-Canada relations, and capitalized on those wonderful summer photo ops that Canada makes available to politicians willing to go out to visit people in their home communities on seemingly non-party related business.

Under any reasonable scenario eight months ago, the Liberals should be far ahead in the polls and waiting patiently for their moment to return to government.  The timing of an election would be of little consequence since Harper would be so badly crippled as to never be able to win another election.  That was the plan.

Alas, the Liberals picked the wrong leader the wrong way, and now must go into the fall as the under dog in danger of another humiliating defeat.  Their leader has trapped them into forcing a fall election that they cannot win, just to avoid looking like that previous leader in the mirror (who as I said did not force them into an election they could not win) about whom no one now cares.

No wonder Stephen Harper looks so Prime Ministerial and happy.  Anyone would be happy to have his chief opponent bail him out of trouble.  Especially such a patronizing and dismissive chief opponent.

Oddly enough, Ignatieff’s only hope lies in one of his other arch opponents, Jack Layton.  Layton is hinting that he may listen to the people and focus on making Parliament work.  If he does that, there will be no fall election.  The Liberals will then berate him for looking just like Dion.  Layton too appears to fear such a label.  That is the one thing that would stop him from doing what the people want.  It is amazing how big an influence Dion still has in Parliament.  Or how out of touch politicians can become.  Go figure.