After October 14 there was hope, albeit naive in its formulation, the next session would be more dignified and productive. So convinced of this, MPs saw fit not to replace Peter Milliken. Perhaps the mice knew they still wanted to play.

Now that Liberals have a leader who they feel they can stand up for himself, where to next?

Newly minted Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff in his first day press conference predictably and wisely took a step back and conditionally volleyed the ball into 24 Sussex.

Nobody knows for sure what Mr. Harper’s strategy will be. That includes Conservative rank-and-file.

Usually, conservative.ca is a pretty good barometer for where things are headed. The adjacent screenshot was taken about an hour ago. Expect that by this time tomorrow the site will tone it down a notch and will remain that way until the new year.

Truth is Canadians can’t stomach, on an ongoing basis, the political pace we have been operating at for the past few weeks. Folks just want to gear-up – or gear-down depending on individual circumstances – for the holiday season, and will be happy just to come-out the other side intact.

I believe Mr. Harper will do the same for at least a few weeks. The think-time he pleaded for wasn’t just a tactic. He needed it and he will use it. How effectively remains to be seen.

The same is true, I believe, of Mr. Ignatieff. He may have won the prize but with it comes the harsh reality that a lot of “taking stock” and establishing his own game plan – not the one he had a hand in dealing himself – will be the order of the day, if not the order of the month.

Personally, I think Mr. Ignatieff wants the coalition monkey off his back. Granted, it’s a sword that gets Mr. Harper’s attention, but surely if the Liberal Party of Canada wasn’t ready to have as its leader former NDP Premier Bob Rae, then how can it consider cozying up to current Federal NDP leader Jack Layton as say, Minister of Finance or the Environment. If they are going to do that, then merge fully, and take back the Center from an encroaching Mr. Harper.

Similarly, Mr. Harper has to decide if he is going to immediately launch another series of attack-ads, this time against what, Mr. Ignatieff’s brow?  Or hang-back and wait for something more meaningful and significant to try and pin on Mr. Ignatieff. Again, my hunch is Mr. Harper will call-off the attack dogs until he has a better idea of how participatory Mr. Ignatieff will or won’t be both prior to and immediately after January 26, 2009.

The “you’ve been out of the country” card is turning out to be not a card the Conservatives can play. In fact, Mr. Ignatieff’s international aura plays to his advantage in these times of global economic uncertainty.

If one was to split hairs and prematurely look for something to chew on based solely on Day 1, then perhaps Mr. Ignatieff has some image issues of his own he will need to temper and refine. I get it that today it was essential for Mr. Ignatieff to put as much distance as possible between himself and the imagery Conservatives successfully painted of Mr. Dion.

However, I cringed when Mr. Ignatieff uttered these words “I speak for the Liberal party, nobody speaks for the party but me.”

While it’s important to consider the context – Mr. Ignatieff was answering Keith Boag’s question about an apparent contradiction between Mr. Ignatieff’s and Mr. Layton’s view of what a coalition might achieve - it nevertheless didn’t take long for Conservative sympathizers to pick-up on the faux-pas, with references to “His Iggyness“ and “Iggy’s closed-door coronation.”

There were a few other minor gaffes, like repeatedly begging for a French question just to show-off his more accomplished bilingualism than Mr. Harper, or the mere existence of communications skills over Mr. Dion. Mr. Ignatieff also gave somewhat robotic and stern-looking Q&A type answers to reporters questions, instead of engaging in a warmer, more human, conversational approach.

All this can be forgiven as first-day jitters. But a word of advice to Mr. Ignatieff might be; they’ll find something soon enough even if it has to be manufactured, caricaturized, shrink-wrapped, and shipped. No need to feed it to them on Day 1.