On reason for optimism

Not that it matters all that much now that the Harper Cons have a majority government. But perhaps the most interesting part of Linda Diebel's campaign followup is the fact that Michael Ignatieff had apparently come to the right answer to the open question as to what the Libs would do if faced with the choice between supporting Harper or Jack Layton's NDP in a minority Parliament:

(O)n election night, addressing the Sheraton Centre crowd before the vote, Ignatieff promised: “I will play whatever part that the party wishes me to play as we go forward to rebuild, to renew, to reform.”

The senior adviser says Ignatieff meant he would stay. That coincides with scuttlebutt among Liberals that Ignatieff was still reasonably upbeat because he’d been told they’d win 65 seats and still believed a minority Conservative government and a coalition with the NDP were possible when he hit the stage on election night.

Mind you, we might well have reached the result Ignatieff apparently wanted if he and his party hadn't spent virtually the entire campaign reinforcing the Cons' spin as to why it was unacceptable.

But at the very least, we now have direct evidence that even the Libs' leader who destroyed the previous coalition eventually came around to the idea that an NDP-led government was the best outcome for Canada. And hopefully that recognition will spread to enough historical Lib supporters to ensure that an NDP government comes to pass in 2015.