Despite Michael Ignatieff’s best efforts—and at times he was unexpectedly impressive—when the 2011 election was called, the Grits were already dying.   This book has two purposes. The first is to reconstruct the Liberal party’s Ferris-wheel experience under the stewardship of Michael Ignatieff, who was on watch for the brief revival of its hopes and its stunning crash to earth. His reign was compelling in its Wagnerian symmetry. His genuine dedication to the party’s rebirth was offset by its state of disrepair, and the self-satisfied hibernation of its previous leaders. His failure was more a symptom of their careless stewardship than his doing—but try as he might, he could not halt the party’s disintegration.   My second purpose is to reconstruct the nation-building significance of the Grits in Canadian history, starting with their founding saint, Sir Wilfrid Laurier. He picked up the torch originally lit by reformers such as the shy and introspective Toronto lawyer Robert Baldwin, who sat in the Assembly of Upper Canada for only one year but became an ardent crusader for responsible government. Baldwin influenced the visiting Lord Durham, eventually became co-premier of the newly united province of Canada (today’s Ontario and Quebec), founded the University of Toronto and reformed the judiciary. The alliance he established with Canada East’s liberal reformer Louis-Hippolyte LaFontaine made them, in effect if no