Goodbye Mr. Dion.

And farewell. Those who competed with you for leadership of the Liberal party were careful in their words about your post-election future. The pundits were not. Many will be sorry to see you leave your position as leader of the Liberal party of Canada. Many more will not. 

I, like many Canadians, wanted to like you. You are highly educated, thoughtful, tactful, without arrogance, or brash. You are calm, composed, and you come across as having an empathic and caring demeanor. These lend well to leadership. However, so do decisiveness, strength, and grit. 

'Grit' 

What an ironic trait to be lacking in a Liberal leader. 

I, like many Canadians, wanted to like your Green Shift. It was a plan so bold that it needed a bold sales pitch. And a bold seller. I needed to be pushed a little, in order to embrace it. Many others needed to be pushed a lot. Rather than a bold pitch, I got a completely underwhelming basic explanation of it. You seemed confused by it. Your environment minister fared no better. It started to look the way that your opponents spun it to look. Like a half-baked tax grab. Like a redistribution of cash from the economy-driving West to the industry-leveled East.  

I, like many Canadians, wanted an alternate option to Harper and the Conservatives. You didn't provide that option. Goodbye Mr. Dion.