Serendipity
is a condition understood to be a "fortunate happenstance"; a
"pleasant surprise". In the
context of the Tory Leadership Race that means the likelihood the Province will
get a suitable Premier, from one of the three contenders, depends essentially on
dumb luck.
Horace Walpole, an English politician and man of Letters who coined the word
‘serendipity’, in 1754, used it to explain an unexpected discovery by
referencing a Persian fairy tale ‘The Three Princes of Serendip’. The Princes,
he noted, were “always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things
which they were not in quest of”.
The requirement
of a second leadership process is serendipitous by any measure. Given
the weak line-up of new contenders, sensible decisions from the winner might be an unwarranted expectation.
There was a
time when one thought serious candidates for high office possessed ‘extraordinary’
talents rather just those of the ’ordinary’ kind. Serendipitous hope seems an odd substitute for a more certain skill set.
