A new year, and one last dance.
Ontario Liberals will eventually look back on these as glory days, and names will take their place in party lore. Dalton McGuinty, the Liberals' most successful leader since the Second World War. Don Guy, the campaign manager who directed him toward consecutive majority governments. Others who served in cabinet, or ran the Premier's office, or manage to convince future generations they played a bigger role than they really did.
But the 2011 election, set for Oct. 6, will likely mark the final time these Liberals go into battle together. The big question, going in, is just how much fight they have left in them.
The Premier, who wears his 55 years well and is a much more assured politician than he was when he started, seems game. But however much he dominates his party's image, it's not just about him. And there was a tired feel about his Liberals through much of 2010, in marked contrast to the energy of their opponents.
Government is an exhausting experience, which burns through staff [not to mention cabinet ministers]and wears down those who remain. It's a constant juggle of issues and minor crises, most of which pass unnoticed by the broader public.
After more than 14 years with the same leader, and more than seven years in power, it's hard to stay hungry. Backroom politics is a young person's game, and those who've been around Mr. McGuinty for the long haul aren't so young any more; neither are there any greater provincial heights to which they can climb.
For Tim Hudak, hunger is not a problem. The Progressive Conservative Leader has his own personnel challenges, with a caucus noticeably short on cabinet prospects. But the team that fills his office and will run his campaign has a single-minded focus on winning power that many Liberals concede is not unlike what their party had back in 2003.
If anything, the current crop of Tories almost seems too energetic, running the risk of burnout before the official campaign even starts. Staff in the leader's office work slightly insane hours, some starting their workday well before dawn, and take few vacations. Under chief of staff Lynette Corbett, who honed her craft in Stephen Harper's Ottawa, the discipline can appear a little draconian.
But while it's evidently not for everyone [Mr. Hudak has had particular trouble holding onto communications staff] there's a sense of camaraderie and common purpose that seems to keep the fire burning. The leader himself plays a big part in that - his affability encouraging those around him to slave away on his behalf, and his relative youth affording the prospect of generational change.
Much of the campaign team, including campaign manager Mark Spiro, cut its teeth with the federal Conservatives. In Mr. Hudak, they have a candidate all their own and a chance to really make their mark. In every speech to supporters, Mr. Hudak mentions the number of days until the next election; it's obvious many Conservative lives have been revolving around that date for a long time already.
Liberals know they somehow need to crank themselves, and their party apparatus, up to the same energy level. That's largely why they keep likening Mr. Hudak to former premier Mike Harris, hoping to rally against the enemy who once brought them together.
If their 2011 campaign proves uninspired and inadequate, many Liberals will suggest Mr. McGuinty should have given way to a fresh face. In reality, it's doubtful a last-minute substitute would fare much better; any of the prospective leadership candidates would need more time to grow into the job. Nor would they have the chance to develop the next generation of backroom leadership.
For Mr. McGuinty, exiting would have been the safer option.
The sporting world is littered with athletes, from Muhammad Ali to Brett Favre, who couldn't bring themselves to leave on top of their game and paid a price for it. Although there are notable exceptions, long-serving prime ministers and premiers have recently tended to get out while the going is good, and let someone else carry the baggage.
But the Premier has nothing if not an inexhaustible sense of personal responsibility, and an unshakable [and perhaps slightly arrogant]conviction that he's the best person for the job. He has to know that, win or lose, this will be the final chapter. But the McGuinty Liberals are hungry enough, at least, that they're not ready to slip into the history books just yet.