Michael Ignatieff wants to be the next prime minister of Canada. Yeah! He also wants to be the next conservative prime minister of Canada. Boo!
As Chantal Hebert put it in the Toronto Star:
Since he has become leader, he has talked a good game about building bridges to a host of natural conservative constituencies but said very little about maintaining those that link the Liberal party to more progressive ones.
Ignatieff talks about the need to make up for years of Liberal neglect, but it is really his party's stance on some of the very issues that have distinguished the Liberals from Conservatives over the past decade – like Iraq, climate change and same-sex marriage – that have kept away many of the voters he is so determined to court.
This guy has to make a choice - start acting like a Liberal or come out of the neo-conservative closet.
h/t 1 Anxious Liberal
http://www.thestar.com/Canada/Columnist/article/593859
So like Iggy was to Bush in relationship to being one of the Liberal "useful idiots" on the "war on terror, will Justin and Kennedy (and Rae for the matter) become "Iggy's useful idiots" in his neocon liberalism?
ReplyDeleteRuin a guy's weekend. Thanks, Jan.
ReplyDeleteIgnatieff appeals to the center right. He was chosen for this reason. A "strong leader", as we saw in the last election, does not need a vision (or a platform).
ReplyDeleteYou only need "strong leader" media buzz to be seen as a viable alternative to Harper.
There's the rub Joyce. Right now Canada is in dire need of vision and instead we're getting a choice of cold gruel - Harper or Ignatieff. This seems to appeal to some Libs whose quest isn't liberalism but reclaiming power.
ReplyDeleteI think Ignatieff probably can win over Harper - and I think Canada will be the worse off regardless.
Too bad. My first loyalty is to Canada, the LPC was second. I've never had to choose between them before. That's changed.
BTW - Harper wasn't a "strong leader" in the last election. He was an extremely shrewd politician. He timed that election perfectly. It was the end of summer, the Tory scandals had died down as much as they ever would, he was able to make the election all about Dion and his Green Shift which allowed him to run the Libs into the ground and grow his majority without even offering any meaningful platform. That's shrewd, not strong.
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ReplyDeleteI agree with your assessment, that's why "strong" is in quotes. I, also, greatly lament the lack of vision.
ReplyDelete