OTTAWA–He's no Stéphane Dion. But he's no Bob Rae either.

Michael Ignatieff took the stage yesterday as Liberal interim leader, a more experienced politician than he was two years ago after losing to Dion.

Still, in a 36-minute news conference, the academic showed he so far lacks the folksy political charm that Rae has honed over his decades in politics and put on full display Tuesday when he pulled out of the leadership race.

Instead, Ignatieff was at times chippy, introspective, blunt, and given to a few flights of rhetoric, demonstrating that he remains an enigma who will take some time for voters to decode.

For example, the Harvard lecturer, author and world traveller revealed that he likes the smell of a dairy barn, thanks to a childhood spent on family farms.

"I know where I am – I like the smell," he said to laughter.

As one journalist quipped, he seemed to be shovelling a bit of that smelly stuff yesterday during his lofty appeal to rural voters.

But Ignatieff also made plain there's a new dynamic in play atop the Liberal party – a firm leader who is perhaps Prime Minister Stephen Harper's match in the heated debates to come.

Unlike Dion, who often mangled key messages in both official languages, Ignatieff left no doubt about the signal he's sending Harper in the run-up to the Jan. 27 budget and a key vote that could see the Conservative government defeated.

Staring down from the podium with a hawk-like glare, Ignatieff wasted no time putting the boots to Harper over the Conservatives' widely panned fall economic statement and the Prime Minister's decision to prorogue Parliament rather than face defeat at the hands of a united opposition.

"Mr. Harper has a choice. He can continue with his divisive politics or he can attempt to collaborate with Parliament in a constructive fashion," Ignatieff said.

"I'm prepared to vote non-confidence in this government if the government does not present a budget that is in the national interest."

He warned Harper not to "miscalculate" the opposition's determination.

Ignatieff spoke of the "justified and righteous anger" of the opposition parties, charging that Harper misunderstands parliamentary government.

"He better start understanding quickly," he said.

Ignatieff's deliberate flashes of political backbone show he's not likely to be a pushover. For example, asked whether he fears a Conservative ad blitz like the one that painted Dion as a waffling leader, Ignatieff said simply it would be a "very, very serious mistake to engage in partisan attacks against a party leader at this moment.

"I hope I make myself clear," Ignatieff said.

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"We're in the middle of a parliamentary crisis. It's not conducive to engage in partisan political attacks against me or any other member of the House of Commons."

Such bravado was directed as much at the Prime Minister as his own party's MPs, who under Dion had grown frustrated at the missed opportunities to topple the minority Conservatives, giving them a reputation as an ineffectual opposition.

He also gave a clear-eyed assessment of the challenges facing the Liberals as he noted the electoral black holes that exist for the party: Quebec, the West and rural Canada.

He insisted his party is the "credible" federalist option in Quebec and vowed to take the Liberal message to town halls and churches in Quebec towns and cities.

In a comment that might raise eyebrows in Ontario, he referred to the West as the "beating economic heart of our country's future.

"This is where the destiny of our country's economy will be played out," he said, offering a mea culpa for the past party policies, such as the national energy policy that made Liberals personae non gratae west of Manitoba for many years.

"I hope that Western Canadians forgive and forget, to be very blunt, some of the errors that the party has made in the past," he said.

"The way for the party to rebuild is to be everywhere."

While he still can come across as aloof and uninterested, Ignatieff at least struck the right notes yesterday, saying he "wants to connect.

"That's what you have a leader for, to reach out, to learn where he doesn't know, to be smart enough to know what he doesn't know, to be smart enough to listen," he said.

All that, and with a possible election in the offing early next year, not much time to do it.

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