The New York Times this week profiled Michael Ignatieff, the new leader of Canada’s Liberal Party. He may not have the charisma of Barack Obama, but he does have a Facebook group. And besides,

Although the clauses “for a Canadian” or, now, “for a politician” are often attached, people almost always describe Mr. Ignatieff as glamorous. Maclean’s magazine once named him Canada’s “Sexiest Cerebral Man.”

Ignatieff, who was born in Toronto, has taught at Harvard, hosted programs for the BBC, penned essays for the New Yorker, and written 16 books. And for the past several years, he’s been back in Canada.

Mr. Ignatieff shocked friends and colleagues three years ago by chucking the life of the mind for the hurly-burly of politics and returning, after a long exile, to his native country to win a seat in Parliament. And if he was bored, it wasn’t for long. Last December, after a tumultuous fortnight of machinations in parliament, Mr. Ignatieff, 61, became the leader of the opposition Liberal Party, which has been called Canada’s “natural ruling party” and has been in power for much of the last century.

Should his party win control of the government, something it came close to doing last week and still hopes to in the coming months, he would become the next prime minister of Canada.

Interestingly, MacClean’s writer John Geddes questioned the source of the “Sexiest Cerebral Man” quote, blogging in “Who called Ignatieff our ‘Sexiest Cerebral Man’?” that the magazine “…can’t find any electronic record of having described him in those three words.” It sounds clever, though…

And for a much more detailed take on the man who would be prime minister, check out this Globe and Mail feature.