When I was in grade 8 at St. Bon's, in St. John's, I was first exposed to the Japanese martial art of Aikido. The fellow who taught this special form of ass-kicking was a guy named MacDonald. He appeared to be more sober than John A. was rumoured to be but no less lethal with his opponents.
According to an internet source, "Aikido emphasizes the importance of achieving complete mental calm and control of one's own body to master an opponent's attack. There are no offensive moves."
Jane Taber's article this morning suggests Michael Ignatieff has shelved yoga and become a devotee of Aikido. Nearly 4 months after the PM used Iggy's silly election posturing to flip him on his butt Ignatieff, and to a certain degree Layton, are purporting to try to return the favour to the PM. Instead of wildly cheering for a national vote the Opposition leaders now don't mention the "e" word. They seem to recognize what the PM did months ago that the public was in, and likely still is in, no mood for an election - an offensive move.
Ignatieff and Layton now want to put the PM in a place where he pushes for an election. They make the assumption, as others have done, that Canada will be in a good mood after the Olympics and the economy will be on the up tick thus the PM will be unable to restrain his base partisan instincts to go out on the hustings to whip his opponents. Equally I am sure they calculate the more time in power the less appealing their opponent becomes to the people and this also affords them the opportunity to prepare. These are probably a logical calculations on their part but logic doesn't always play on this field.
Ignatieff in his interview with Jane mentions Canadians "want an alternative to the Harper government." An of-stated and undefined proposition. In recent days wise heads like Tom Axworthy and Chantal Hebert have offered definitions of difference. To date Iggy hasn't. The only historical example we can draw upon here is last year's Coalition debacle.
If that remains the working model of Ignatieff and Layton they will soon discover they are back on the mat out aikido-ed by the PM.