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There is grace under fire. And there is grace in defeat.

But Bob Rae showed grace of another kind when he bowed out of the Liberal leadership race on Tuesday.

He had grace when thwarted by fate.

The Prime Minister precipitated a parliamentary crisis. The Governor-General decided to grant his request to prorogue. Stéphane Dion recorded an ill-conceived, amateurish video address. The Liberal Party moved to oust and replace Mr. Dion as soon as possible. Mr. Rae was not the chosen one.

Generosity in political defeat is not uncommon, of course. When Mr. Rae said at his news conference that his rival and friend, Michael Ignatieff, would "make a great prime minister," he was doing what all politicians do when they go down.

But Mr. Rae didn't have the benefit of a good fight. He didn't concede with the knowledge that he had put every effort into winning. He didn't walk away with a grudging sense of admiration for his opponent and his superior campaign.

Events conspired against him.

Sometimes the universe aligns in your favour. You meet your soulmate when you weren't even looking. You get that job because you were in the right place at the right time. You escape a disaster owing to uncanny timing. An opportunity falls in your lap.

But when the universe seems to work against you, well, that's hard to take. You could easily feel bitter, not about your rival - he was just the passive recipient of favour, after all - but about the unfairness of life. Accepting your fate is always harder when you had the will, but not the chance, to change it.

Grace, in that circumstance, suggests equanimity about the forces beyond our control. And that, in turn, deserves the highest admiration.