OTTAWA - Michael Ignatieff is returning to his first love -- academia -- after leading the federal Liberals to their worst electoral showing in history.
Ignatieff, who lost his own seat in Monday's bloodbath, has been appointed as senior resident at the University of Toronto's Massey College.
He will be teaching at university's faculty of law and the political science department, as well as at the Munk School of Global Affairs and the School of Public Policy and Governance.
Ignatieff is a graduate of the university and an internationally acclaimed academic and author.
He was lured into politics five years ago from a prestigious position at Harvard and has also taught at Oxford and Cambridge.
Massey College master John Fraser says the college's senior resident position has traditionally been offered to leaders making the transition from politics.
The position has been held in the past by former prime minister Pierre Trudeau, former Reform party leader Preston Manning and Bob Rae, now a Toronto Liberal MP but once NDP premier of Ontario.
Liberal party president Alf Apps said Ignatieff's decision to take a position at the U of T demonstrates he's not "just visiting" Canada.
The Tories pummelled Ignatieff throughout his two years at the helm of the Liberal party over the fact that he had worked in the United States and Britain for three decades before returning to Canada in 2005.
A steady barrage of Tory attack ads repeatedly asserted that Ignatieff was "just visiting" and that he "didn't come back for you." Many Liberals blame the ads, at least in part, for Ignatieff's inability to connect with voters.
