Reality dawns in Liberal-land

National Post ^ | 2009-08-29 | Kelly McParland

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The Liberals have finally acknowledged what has been self-evident for some time: This is not the time for an election, and constantly threatening one isn't a good idea.

The admission, curiously enough, comes not from Michael Ignatieff, the Liberal leader, but from Sen David Smith, the campaign co-chairman.

“We’re not having an election on EI,” Smith said Thursday, as reported by Canadian Press. “I don’t hear Canadians clamouring for an election on this issue.”

He added:

“I don’t think there’s a presumption that every time there’s an opportunity to have an election that you have to do it. We still want to see Parliament work,” he said.

“You can’t push the election button every time . . . I think that is irresponsible.”

Well, no kidding.

The Liberals have been pretending they might force an election since before the summer, when Ignatieff assured everyone he was willing to push the country into a needless campaign to get a few extra weeks of unemployment insurance for Canadians who had lost their jobs. That was never a strong position: 90% of the country is still at work, and adding a few billion dollars to the deficit to extend jobless benefits a few weeks was never near the top of their agenda.

Ignatieff keep beating at it anyway, boxing himself into a corner. When he finally had to back down in June he was left looking inexperienced, indecisive, badly advised ... take your choice. The smart thing would have been to clam up about the issue at that point, but Ignatieff kept it up over the summer, obligingly suggesting to reporters that he was still concerned enough about the issue to use it as an election trigger.

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