Lawrence Martin in the Globe this morning has it exactly on point:

... if he’s to be credible, Mr. Ignatieff needs more than rhetoric. He needs a comprehensive Bring Back Democracy plan. He needs it, and so do we. Someone’s got to get serious about this country’s drift from what was once a respectable democracy into today’s sham version. Ever since Pierre Trudeau started overcentralizing the power structure four decades ago, we’ve been regressing into what former Quebec Superior Court justice John Gomery, who headed up the federal sponsorship inquiry, described as “one-man government.”

Why don't Canadians do one-man government well? Frankly, it is because we create leaders who are either dull like Martin or dreamers like Trudeau or both like Harper. Chretien was the only one to do anything effectively with all that power when he beat back the deficit. The trouble is, of course, that Iggy is of the same sort. He's a good fellow how has plenty more in the coconut than I do but is also dreadfully dull as a public personality. It's not his fault - it's Canada's. Remember, this is the nation that spawned the great populist revivalist by name of Preston Manning.

What to do? Maybe ask the Belgians or the Finns how to make our leaders more lively.