More on the May/Dion love fest

Good analysis from Susan Riley and Far & Wide. Quite frankly, anyone who thinks making decisions based on your deeply held convictions is a sign of weak leadership needs to go back to school.

Steve's Sunday Compendium of Stuff

Having been too busy to comment on these issues as they arose, I'll hit a few key points today.

• Scott Bradley is one of the classiest acts I've seen in politics. His concession of the Ottawa Centre federal nomination to Penny Collenette was as instantaneously gracious and supportive as anyone could want. And having spent some time talking with him afterwards, he seems to be completely without bitterness. Thankfully, he's not going anywhere and he's got youth on his side. Ottawa Liberals will remember how he's handled himself the next time around.
  


• This is a great move, one that I've been advocating since May first announced she'd run in Central Nova. And despite the chorus of criticism from Liberal bloggers and other commentators, I'm inclined to think it will resonate with Canadians who care more about results than they do about partisanship.
  


• The fact that Jack can't come up with anything better than this is more proof that it's a good idea, and that he's justifiably scared. Jack's the one who's got a lot to answer for, having sold out his party's values for a few extra seats and the misguided view that the NDP can or should form government federally. The NDP has served this country best by being the centre's conscience. It's lost sight of that under Jack, but it's traditional supporters haven't, and I think they may be fighting to hang onto official party status when the counting's all done on Election night.
  


• I don't imagine Buzz Hargrove will be offering any smooches to Mr. Dion any time soon, which can only be a good thing. The biggest single threat to the Canadian/American auto industry is the CAW and adversarial relationship it perpetuates between the industry's corporate leadership and its labour force. With any luck, Buzz will get kiss and make up with Jack, and help remind Canadians just how weak the NDP's environmental bona fides really are.
  

The Care and Feeding of Leaders

Having worked on Stéphane Dion's Liberal leadership bid, last night's Quebec election has me thinking a lot about the expectations we have of our leaders, and their fates if/when they disappoint. It's being widely speculated that the knives are already out for André Boisclair, PQ leader for less than a year. Mr. Dion could face an election as early as next month – his fifth month as Liberal leader. If he loses, will he face the same fate? Should he?

Boisclair has always struck me as a bit of a hair-do. Mostly charm, not a lot of substance. And it's not unreasonable to say he underperformed in this campaign. But in all fairness, it's too soon for him to be shown the door.

We say we want our leaders to be visionaries, and we ask them to take us down a road we can't see in its entirety. But then we look to punish them if they don't deliver immediate results. We forget (or ignore) that wars are combinations of battles and that winning strategies include contingency plans that take setbacks into account.

Last night's result is a setback for the sovereignty movement (let's hope for many more), but that setback is as much about the movement itself, and the shifting values of Quebeckers as it is about the guy at the helm. And the war's not over yet. If Boisclair is forced out at this stage of the game, it will be the movement's failing, not the leader's.

Given everything we put into choosing our leaders, and everything they put on the line for us, we owe them better than that. Something I hope the federal Liberals keep in mind if we're still in opposition after the next E-Day.