The soon-to-be American First Family (along with VP designate Joe Biden and his wife) brought a little gravitas to the pre-inauguration festivities in the U.S. with their whistle-stop trip from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C., waving to the crowds from the back of an old vintage caboose that was supposed to echo the journey Abraham Lincoln made back in 1861.

He began with a speech in Philadelphia that challenged Americans to get behind a common purpose:

“What is required is a new declaration of independence, not just in our nation, but in our own lives — from ideology and small thinking, prejudice and bigotry — an appeal not to our easy instincts but to our better angels.

Further in his speech he did what many politicians do – he cited examples of individuals who embody the challenges or issues of the day. But then he took it that one step further, illustrating the now trademark Obama rhetoric that takes ordinary stories, weaves them together and elevates them to nation-defining myths.

“[N]o matter who we are or what we look like, no matter where we come from or what faith we practice, we are a people of common hopes and common dreams, who ask only for what was promised us as Americans — that we might make of our lives what we will and see our children climb higher than we did…

“…But we should never forget that we are the heirs of that first band of patriots, ordinary men and women who refused to give up when it all seemed so improbable; and who somehow believed that they had the power to make the world anew. That is the spirit that we must reclaim today.”

This is the second major address Obama has given in Philadelphia. In March 2008 Obama gave his now-famous speech on race, A More Perfect Union.

While Americans were watching the pageantry of the inauguration Canadians were watching it too.

Of course we were.

The alternative was to tune in to yet another meeting of the Prime Minister and the Premiers and Territorial Leaders. (side note: why the heck can’t we call the leaders of the territories premiers? It would save typing out that cumbersome phrase.)

They were meeting in Ottawa to talk about the economic downturn, depression, recession, crisis (pick your own cataclysmic noun) and to debate how to solve it (heaps of public money into infrastructure and capital projects; bricks and mortar are back in style) and, in the case of the provincial and territorial premiers (see, isn’t that easier?), to tell Prime Minister Stephen Harper and federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty to spend the bulk of the money because it will be so much easier for the federal government to recover from a deficit.

Okay I just guessed that, based on a couple of GlobeandMail.com headlines and half-listening to the CBC radio news while cleaning the kitchen a couple of days ago.

These guys are so predictable.

If you want to actually find out what they did, try here or here or here.

Years ago during Bernard Lord’s first term as premier of New Brunswick, I was talking to one of his advisers about Lord’s rather low-key approach to governing. There were no grand statements or grand plans in the Lord years, it was just a regular day at The Office.

When I suggested that Lord was kind of boring, the adviser laughed and told me that New Brunswickers don’t want to see their government at work; they just want to know it’s working.

Now, that is true when it comes to stuff such as getting a driver’s license or paying property tax – I want ease of service – but where that adviser missed the point, and where so many politicians stumble, is in understanding that great politicians are not civil servants.

They are symbols.

We have bureaucracies to make sure the trains run on time.

We can only hope for politicians who know what to do when it pulls into their station.

After a weekend of anxious phone calls and velvet-gloved cajolling, the Liberals are almost certain to name Ignatieff their interim leader this week.

In a country of 30 million + people, just over 100 (the MPs plus the Liberal senators) will crown him their king, pushing aside Bob Rae and what’s-his-name, otherwise known as Dominic LeBlanc, New Brunswick MP.

Poor old Stephane Dion is being unceremoniously dumped by his party. His greatest mistake, and there were many, was to forget the cardinal rule of Liberals: they play to win and so you better too.

I didn’t warm to Ignatieff during the last leadership race and in the last few weeks, he hasn’t done or said anything to give me any indication that he represents a new style of leadership.

How can a scion of the old order be repackaged as the the leader for a new era?

The evidence laid out by Michael Valpy in his excellent 2006 Globe and Mail profile suggests it can’t be done.

Ignatieff’s most recent behaviour provides further evidence of his inability to understand what the country wants and needs. As Macleans national editor Andrew Coyne points out in a recent blog post, Ignatieff chose to remain silent in the lead-up to the coalition’s creation and then, once it was launched, freed his minions, otherwise known as supporters, to whisper in journalists’ ears that Ignatieff was decidedly cool to the idea.

When I wrote a political column, I reserved my greatest contempt for those politicians who let their backers speak for them, preferring to pull strings off-stage rather than grab the spotlight and let their true opinions be known.

If you can’t speak up for yourself, how can you possibly speak up for Canadians?

We deserve better.

Margaret Wente’s on the money when she writes that there’s something not right about Stephen Harper’s smile.

We’ve got a prime minister whose hubris sent the House of Commons into unnecessary turmoil, a trio of party leaders who can’t see past their own ambitions and a battered Liberal party closing ranks around a bilingual photogenic man with a famous last name.

As Ignatieff prepares to grab hold of the Liberal party, his greatest task will not be to defeat Stephen Harper, but rather, to win back the trust of Canadians weary of political games.

Instead, my path was blocked by the four horsemen of the Canadian political apocalypse.

Okay, so Harper, Dion, Layton and Duceppe weren’t literally in my local Canadian Tire store, but they might as well have been.

There, gathered around the Christmas lights aisle was a salesman and two customers yammering on about that mess up in Ottawa. They were mad. Raise your voice mad. I had to detour down another aisle to pick up my Noma outdoor lights and was still able to hear them going on about political party public financing, the role of the Governor-General and voter intent.

Retail politics on full display at a shopping mall near you.

Oh, the inanity of it all.

While partisan supporters have been quick to pick sides in this Harper vs the Coalition of the Willful, their numbers are dwindling as an increasing number of Canadians view the faux drama of this power play/constitutional drama as little more than a poorly constructed pantomime.

This amateur production has it all:

• A song and dance from the male lead Stephen Harper about the evils of separatist leader and former BFF (circa 2004) Gilles Duceppe. Although Harper was thrown off balance with the quickly formed coalition, he’s “back on my feet /Just a man and his will to survive“;
• There’s a second number performed by that slightly discordant duo of Stephane Dion and Jack Layton who believe they can live together in perfect harmony. “There is good and bad in evryone/ We learn to live, we learn to give/Each other what we need to survive together alive.”
• Audience participation via talk radio, quickly organized public opinion polls and my fellow shoppers; and,
• A traditional story line defined by a set of performance conventions. Welcome back to Canada Michaëlle Jean. A few short days ago she left for Europe a mere figure head and now return as a constitutional head of state.

We spent $200 million on a federal election and we end up with a House of Commons that appears to be held together with little more than a few pieces of hockey tape.

Someone owes us an apology.

We’re not likely to get it from a cast of characters that have displayed little character over the past two weeks.

Too strong to tell us they’re sorry. Too proud to tell us they were wrong.

Is it any wonder that Canadians don’t love politics that way we use to do?

And of course, our office assistant has been deeply involved in this project, to mixed results.