Preserving The Best In Us

He was good, real good. Spending this past weekend in Toronto with Michael Ignatieff and his wife Zsuszanna was a lesson to me in grace. They had been through a tumultuous few years and the kind of federal politics we have in Canada right now can take a severe toll. But as he and I conversed while touring through the ROM museum, he talked of how he loves teaching, of some of the writings he's doing for various journals, and how he worries over some of the hot spots around the world.But it was more. He taught my kids how to use chopsticks at a lovely Chinese restaurant that he frequents to help it stay in business in a struggling economy. He worked his way easily through the controls of his new iPhone, much to the delight of all of us. He looked at girl's shoes with my daughters, discussed his future hopes with my wife, and spent some time with me acknowledging that our friendship had become easier since our political lives had ended.He wasn't a man on the rebound from a devastating experience, but rather an intuitive human being who was on top of his game. Still feted around the world, he and Zsuzsanna found time to give us hours of their time. They asked delightful questions, expressed emotion easily, fawned over one another as husband and wife, and made their world large enough to not only include some of the globe's biggest problems but also a family from London.When he hugged me goodbye, I felt a deeper emotion than that for which I was prepared. Here was a man whom I defended in defeat but who no longer required such support. In so many real ways he had personally prevailed over some of the very demons that have ruined politics in the modern era. Gone are those days when his shoulders slumped following the election defeat. The politics of indignities and boorishness no longer can claim his mind or his spirit. I watched as people stopped him on the street, sometimes talking politics, most times just saying how much they respected him. He appreciated it, but I acknowledged to my wife Jane that he had reached that stage which former Secretary of the UN Dag Hammarskjold wrote of: "The only kind of dignity which is genuine is that which is not diminished by the indifference of others." He is part of the flotsam and jetsam of demeaning politics and is liberated - free to talk with his neighbours as a neighbour.You can surely tell that I have a lot of respect for this man, though we are radically different in temperament and I can't even register on the "intelligence" scale when compared with him. I knew him well in the highs and lows of politics and I watched him bear up under the indignity of being assailed each week by negative ads. But after this weekend, I see them as a husband and wife whose very refinement of nature spelled their recovery. They are human again - unlike the worst of politics. But they yet wish to reach out to a troubled world - just like the best kind of politics. We both wished the best for those who still battle for this kind of respectful politics in Ottawa.At one point Michael and I watched as the others looked in a shop window, faces pressed against the glass. He suddenly turned, faced the street, and said, "God, Glen, you're children are just beautiful." He was right, of course - every parent thinks that. But at that moment I was conscious of looking at the beautiful minds and characters of a husband and wife team who have permitted their internal strengths to bring them back to the place of unfettered service to the world. Look at their faces in the picture above and tell me they aren't content - as am I. Politics has not heard the last of us as external advocates, but it will never get the best of us as human beings.