Number Eight

Today was the day Bob Rae threw his hat into the ring for leader of the Liberal party, along side old college roommate Michael Ignatieff and half-a-dozen others. The commentary, predictably, has wavered back and forth between vitriol ("Look what he did to Ontario when he was Premier!") and grudging respect for the elder stateman role he's played in recent years (Air India Commission, Ontario Post-Secondary Education Commission, etc.).

The Nine Inch Column is not quite ready to back one horse over the others yet, faithful readers, but I suppose in Mr. Rae's defence I'll offer what Winston Churchill (or Bernard Shaw, or Benjamin Disraeli, or somebody else entirely) said: "If a man's not a socialist when he's 25, he's got no heart. If he's still a socialist when he's 35, he's got no head."

What I do like about what he's said is that the Liberal Party is and should be one free of ideological extremes. Deep down, we're a nation of centrists. I like it in the middle. It's cozy.