How Peter McKay's NATO chief campaign will end

According to the Toronto Star, Peter MacKay is now actively, if haphazardly, running for head of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Or NATO to its friends.

His chance of becoming the next head of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has been described as a long shot; he would be the first Canadian to hold the post of secretary general in the alliance.

But sources close to the deliberations have another word to describe the young Tory's campaign: clumsy.

"There are some elements that are a little bit strange. He's lobbying for it, but he keeps it to himself for the time being," one western diplomatic source told the Star.

"MacKay is trying to have quite intensive consultations with a number of his counterparts. Apparently he has tried to meet our minister of defence recently. ... He wanted to meet him without giving a particular reason."

Don't write Peter off. He's got moxie, and leadership campaign experience. Here's how I see this playing out.

Peter's campaign builds a lot of support, but not enough to get him over the top. To get the last boost he needs, he promises Poland (on a napkin) he'll take a tough stand against Russian expansionism in its former satellite states. Poland brings enough support to McKay to give him the NATO job.

Then, a few months later, MacKay begins secret merger talks with Vladimir Putin. The end result? NATO merges with a secretly-revived Warsaw Pact, headed by Putin. McKay gets a minor job, and many of the moderate former NATO members (and his girlfriend) go join a newly-revived SEATO instead.

Remember, you heard it here first.

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