Oh, good. I think.

On the fourth ballot, the Liberal delegates in Montreal decided that a Chrètien-era cabinet minister whose English bears a thick French accent, was preferable to a Harvard professor who grew up in Toronto but has only lived there for a little over a year.

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against Americans - until they try to run for office in my country. Um, no. If Boston is home, Mr. Ignatief, feel free to return there.

Anyway, it's quite likely that Stèphane Dion will be the next Prime Minister, though I doubt he'll hold the party for long. My expectation is that he'll be the placeholder, they guy who rebuilds the party and gets some rookies into Parliament, until three or four years from now (and a possible minority government) when he'll cede the floor to someone else. I'm still hoping that someone else will be Frank McKenna. I still think the reason he didn't run for this leadership was, quite simply, he didn't think the party was ready to win. He doesn't want to be a placeholder PM, so he's waiting. At least, that's what I hope.

I'm not thrilled with Dion - I've had enough of Chrètien-era Liberals to last me a long, long time - but he's better than Iggy. The Liberals (rightly) concluded that the neo-con, pro-torture, holier-than-thou academic who nevertheless lacks common sense, was not electable as a PM.