The Liberal leadership race is now shaping up as a contest between Chrystia Freeland and Mark Carney. Freeland represents the tradition of the senior colleague of the outgoing leader seeking the succession: Louis St. Laurent, Lester Pearson, John Turner, Jean Chrétien, Paul Martin. Mark Carney is in the tradition of comparative newcomers: the Trudeaus, Stéphane Dion, Michael Ignatieff. But they are seeking the leadership of a government that will be trying for a fourth consecutive election. Only Macdonald, Laurier and King- St. Laurent managed that and they were much more distinguished governments. (The case could be made that Lester Pearson and Pierre Trudeau won five consecutive elections between 1963 and 1974, but they were short terms, three were minorities and one was effectively a draw.) The vital signs of the present government are flickering and the flight of potentially presentable leaders away from this contest is surely indicative of the government’s poor reelection prospects rather than of any sudden evaporation of career ambition by other potential contenders.