Â鶹ӰÊÓ

It goes without saying that every party leader has a lot riding on the results of this election, but perhaps none quite so much as Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff.

With only a little more than two years under his belt as leader, Ignatieff is the only first-timer on this campaign. And while he might be still growing into his role, if Ignatieff doesn't win at least a minority in this election, he will be faced with some serious questions afterward about whether he should step aside, say political observers.

That kind of pressure on the other party leaders is not as intense, notes Neil Thomlinson, chair of the Department of Politics and Public Administration at Ryerson University. If the NDP, for example, wins a few more seats and Jack Layton performs well on the campaign trail, that will likely be enough for him to hold onto his leadership a few more years.

"When you're a perennial third-place party, there's less at stake," Thomlinson says.

But for the Liberals, only a win will do, says Antonia Maioni, a professor of political science at McGill University in Montreal. And the pressure to secure that win is squarely on the shoulders of Ignatieff.

"[Liberal] leaders are expected to perform, and the performance criteria is to win the election," she says.

Maioni says the Liberal Party has a tendency to look to its leader as a "white knight," a leader who will guide the party to victory. "And when that white knight doesn't materialize or deliver the gold, there's not much room for that person anymore in the party," she says.

Thomlinson agrees that the Liberals have a case of what used to be called "great man syndrome."

"They always seem to have the idea that their electoral success or failure is a function of who their leader is. And if the leader is popular enough, they will win the majority," he says.

But is there really no room for Ignatieff to get his "sea legs" and find his place as leader? What if he doesn't win but still manages to lead the Liberals to more seats in the Commons? What if he makes no missteps throughout this campaign and sees a big boost in his leadership rating -- will that be enough for the powers-that-be within the party to allow him to stay on at the helm?

Thomlinson says one would think that a national party would understand that leaders don't just land in the leadership and perform flawlessly, that there has to be a bit of a learning curve. They must also realize that changing leaders every time they lose an election in search for that elusive "white knight" isn't helpful to a party either, he says.

"If the average Liberal is thinking to themselves, ‘My goodness, this guy has really improved,' they would have to be nuts to replace him. But that doesn't mean they won't," Thomlinson says.

But Maioni is not so sure that a good campaign performance will be enough for Ignatieff to hold onto power. Even if the Liberals win more seats, or more of the popular vote, Maioni says, these would just be "changes on the margin."

"We're not talking about the NDP or the Greens here; we're talking about a party that wants power. So changes on the margin are helpful, but they don't get at the primary purpose why this party is in business. It's in business to govern. And if Ignatieff can't deliver, his star will lose most of its lustre," she says.

Of course, these is still one other key factor in deciding whether Ignatieff should stay on as leader if he fails to win this election, both observers say, and that's Ignatieff himself.

The 64-year-old may do his own soul-searching after the campaign if he doesn't bring his party a win, and he may ask himself whether he wants to continue to wait in the wings until the next election rolls around.

"Ignatieff is not a career politician. This is not the only thing he can do with his life," says Maioni. "He's given politics five very intensive years. So I suppose the question for him is whether it would be worth it to stay on in the political game if there were no real hope of making it to the top job."