30 Days Of Letters - Someone I Want To Give A Second Chance

When I read the first of Essin' Em's 30 Days Of Letters (Done before her by other bloggers whom I keep intending to read in length), I was intrigued. And now I'm giving it a go myself.

The one thing that’s been nagging at me with this one is that I don’t give second chances very often at all. When I decide that something’s over, it’s over. Done with. Finite. See ya in hell, and not a moment sooner. It takes a long time to get to that point usually if I do the ending, as I have apparently boundless patience for bullshit, but I’ve given second chances and regretted it. So I don’t. So who the fuck would I want to? Then I thought about it for a while longer, and then I realized - I don’t have to know whoever it is. It doesn’t even have to be a person, really, it could be a group of people. So here goes.

Dear Canadian Liberal Party,

When I was a youth with wild illusions of leftist politics, I swore that I would only vote NDP. Then I realized that I’m not terribly confident in Jack Layton. Mind you, until relatively recently your leaders didn’t inspire much confidence in me either. My only memories of Jean Chretien are of his last year or two, when I finally started to give a shit. Paul Martin didn’t appeal to me whatsoever, and besides, I knew he was just a placeholder until an election. So before I could vote I was ardently supporting the NDP, because I didn’t like your lot and I considered Stephen Harper to be a cretin. Still do.

The NDP platform rings true to me, this is true. If an election was called RIGHT NOW I’d probably still vote for them. I’m not overly fond of Layton still, but I like the party as a whole.

However, Michael Ignatieff - I think you’ve grown on me. You were held back by your straightlaced speeches and stiff, formal, academic wording last election. But you’ve loosened up. You’ve shown you can connect with Canadians. And I like that. I like a leader I could see inviting down for a barbecue. I do admittedly have little issue with the Liberal platform, some things I don’t see perfectly eye-to-eye on but the important stuff matches up.

The fact that frankly, you are quite bangable, does not hurt. It doesn’t affect my political opinions at all, but it sure as fuck doesn’t hurt.

I’m not sure exactly where I’ll stand when the next election rolls around, although there’s a definite possibility of one this fall. I may still vote NDP. But, Mr. Ignatieff, you and your party deserve a second chance.

Let’s knock the Tories out.