was visiting, pt. 2

We've been considering Conservative Prime Ministers who, by the standards recently established by the Conservative Party, were merely visiting our country.

Exhibit #1 was Kim Campbell, who now lives in France and has not lived in Canada since 1993.

Exhibit #2 is Conservative R.B. Bennett, who retired from politics after losing the election of 1935. He stayed on as Leader of the Opposition until 1938, when he resigned and moved to England, where he was appointed to the House of Lords. Bennett died in 1947 and was buried in Mickleham, Surrey, becoming our only ex-PM not buried in Canada.

Again we must ask whether the fact that Bennett's actually left the country forever within months of leaving politics means that Conservative PM Bennett was "just visiting".

And again we see how vacuous the Conservative accusation is.

What is important is not what politicians do after they leave political office. What is important is what they will do while actually serving. And on this front they are failing miserably.

was visiting?

As everyone knows, the Conservatives have recently been attacking Michael Ignatieff. "Just visiting", they say, implying that he might leave the country if and when he retires from politics.

One wonders what they think about the post-political life of former Conservative Prime Minister, Kim Campbell, who since stepping down as leader of their party in 1993 has hardly been in Canada at all. Here is what can be pulled together from a visit to wikipedia (link):

• she lectured at Harvard from 1993-1996;
• she was consul general in Los Angelos from 1996-2000;
• she again lectured at Harvard from 2001-2004;
• she became president of the Internation Women's Forum and was based in Washington, D.C. from 2003-2005;
• she currently lives in France.

Now, I think all fair-minded individuals would acknowledge that these are significant achievements of a successful woman. A credit both to her and to us.

But if the theoretical possibility of Ignatieff's future departure is enough to dismiss him as "just visiting", surely Kim Campbell's actual departure should make them conclude that she "was just visiting".

Which just goes to show how shallow and insipid the Conservative ad really is.  The question is not what Ignatieff (or Harper or Layton or anyone else) will do after they leave political office.  The question is what they will do in political office.  And this is a question the Conservatives want to avoid for obvious reasons.