If there is the slightest question, the only answer is to see what happens.

I think he would stick around. I don't think the Libs would let him though.

Derek

That concern still comes down to the issue of what do voters believe he will do if given the chance. If you suspect that he will be doing the bidding of his Harvard colleagues and you support what these Harvard colleagues are pushing you should be inclined to support Ignatieff. Of course if you don't like the Harvard ideas then you should oppose Ignatieff.

Personally, I try to assess both process and outcomes; often process matter, but outcomes always matter. If Ignatieff proposes doing what I believe to be the 'right things', but for the wrong reasons, he would still get my support.

I expect any time a potential leader is courted from outside the ranks of politicians, those individuals do a little bit of 'safety netting' in whatever field they happen to work in. If Iggy manages to drive the Liberals over a cliff, he may well be shoved out of leadership, and may well leave politics. As many others would possibly do in similar circumstances.

But if the results are even mildly better than that, it's hard to say what will happen. And so making assumptions that he'd for sure leave, back to AMERICA, smacks more of Conservative talking/battering point (not in your case CR, but more generally) than a relevant line of discussion.

It matters a little bit more why he wants to be PM (ie would it really be untenable if Ignatieff's entire reason for trying to become PM was so that he could impress his Harvard friends?).

What matters most is what (voters believe) he will do if given the chance to be PM. If you like what he stands for (granted that list of beliefs is not at all clear right now) why would you hold back your vote, even if you knew that he was going back to Harvard or wherever after his term was done? You'd get what you voted for and no one is harmed in the process.

"Begging the question", is simply a poetic expression for "raises the question" with more earnest.

Return to the regularly scheduled programming …..

Then Iffy puts forward a non confidence vote which would put the country into an election when Canadians are overwhelmingly saying they do not want an election.

Iffy tries to convince Canadians in Parliament yesterday why the Libs lack confidence. A laundry list is simply a laundry list. Many of the issues raised do not fit into what Canadians see as the realities of the day. More importantly Iffy offers no solution. Anybody can criticize. Its another thing to offer positive solutions.

In the meantime the government continues to make announcements each day and you can criticize them for being too partisan but that's politics in Canada. Harper learned from the master Jean Chretien.

So now we will see if Iggy is prepared to follow Hebert's suggestions or continue on his path to self destruction

Then he arrogantly stands up in Sudbury and says Mr. Harper, your time is up. Is it? He forgot the small part that he needs the other two opposition parties to support him to make the government's time expire.
The he says the Liberal party will not support any legislation put forward by the government. Hello, how does that fit into the theme he had been saying when he did speak in the summer of trying to make parliament work. Canadians look at this and say what the hell.
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