Joe Clark could have been PM.

It is election day in Canada. I am sitting on a British Airways Boeing 777 slurping a little Glen Fiddich, precariously balanced on my neighbour's pull-out table waiting to fall. One false move by the captain or my new friend and we will all be wearing it. As I type, I watch him out of the corner of my eye feverishly attacking his BlackBerry. He is a consultant from Newcastle England who is doing some training for RIM in Waterloo. He will be in Canada in exactly 32 hours. He is living at an unsustainable speed.

We both seem a little out of place amongst the babies throwing toys and pillows about to most everyone's amusement.

I am returning from my annual sojourn abroad, where I meet with the European managers of companies associated with the International Data Group, which publishes information technology magazines around the world.

There hasn't been one whisper about Canada or the Canadian election for a week.

The drama has been European soccer. Each night another international manager has cried in his beer as his country goes down to defeat to some sniveling soccer upstart. Spain, Germany, France, Denmark and England have all taken their turn.

This has involved far too much drinking and consoling.

It seems worse than being a Toronto Maple Leafs fan. We are talking national humiliation.

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I haven't seen or heard from Stephen, Paul or Jack since the day after the big debate.

I haven't missed them either, but today is the day and I have just enough time to get to the poling station. I've decided to hold my nose, and I mean purchase a robust, aggressive clothes pin, and support the Liberals. I'm not happy about it. The closer I get the more agitated I get. The truth, however, is I don't buy Stephen Harper. I don't believe in his priorities. We can't afford to cut taxes, we must repay the debt if we don't want to cripple our children, we must get on the Kyoto accord, we must support our city states or they will crumble and in Northern Ontario there needs to be regional support. There is no common ground.

That said, I want those Liberals to have the scare of their life.

It is one o'clock in the morning on June 29. I made it to the poling booth with minutes to spare and, as promised, held my nose. I wasn't alone. In fact it seems we have a nation of nose holders. Clearly something has been going on since I left.

We have, more or less, what we wanted; a chastened Liberal party, a reinvigorated New Democratic Party safely out of power's way, a chastened Tory party who need to rethink their priorities, and the birth of the Green party. Ah the Bloc you say, well, as much as I dislike their mission it was the only safe way to punish the Liberals without electing the Conservatives.

There isn't much justice in love, war or politics. If the Conservative Party had taken over the Alliance party, instead of the other way around, and if Joe Clark were still their leader, he would be prime minister today with a huge majority government. The nose holders would have voted for Joe because he did not represent such a stark departure from current Canadian values, and the Liberals could have been safely punted to the future they so richly deserved.

That said, I was astonished at the vigor of this 65-year-old man named Paul Martin who was written off the last time I looked.

He wasn't the same guy I left behind. He spoke well. He seemed comfortable in his own skin and appeared rejuvenated by his near-death experience.

I think the election has been good for him. He spent so much time fighting Jean Chretien he forgot he was applying for work with us.

When we told him in the early going that we'd had enough of him, it seemed to set him free.

Reminds me of David Peterson who was brilliant during his minority accord with the NDP in Ontario and then faded to arrogance when he won a majority and lost an election he should have won. At the time I remarked that Peterson seemed to enjoy (in hockey terms) playing a man short. He liked the risk of minority governing.

We'll see how Mr Martin plays hockey. Good for us.

Store your clothespins in a safe place. The next election is not that far away.

Michael Atkins is president of Northern Ontario Business Ltd. [e-mail].