Open letter: Michael Ignatieff urges Stephen Harper to revisit one-on-one debate

Liberal Party of Canada leader Michael Ignatieff issued today (April 1) the following open letter to Conservative Leader Stephen Harper:

Dear Mr. Harper:

I am writing about the one-on-one debate that you challenged me to two days ago.

You will recall that when you issued your challenge, I immediately responded, accepting it with enthusiasm.

As you stated, there are only two people who can be Prime Minister after May 2nd: you or me. Canadians truly deserve to see us go face to face in a contest of ideas, values and very different visions for our country. That is what democracy is all about.

Like many Canadians, I was disappointed and puzzled when you reversed your commitment, and tried to back out yesterday. I don't understand why you have gone back on your word, or why you would wish to disappoint Canadians.

However, it is not too late for you to rectify the situation. Since our original exchange on Wednesday, many invitations to host the debate have come in from prestigious organizations across Canada. So there are any number of venues and times to choose from.

Perhaps I can make this easier for you. I will meet you at the time and place of your choosing. There is no need for complicated or convoluted debate formats. Just two podiums – and you and me. A true, honest-to-goodness battle of ideas and visions.

This is the kind of contest that Canadians are yearning for. I know because I have been meeting ordinary Canadians of all ages, backgrounds and political allegiances at events across Canada. It’s absolutely exhilarating. In fact, I would recommend that you try it.

In closing, I urge you to reconsider your reversal and stick to your word. I strongly believe our fellow Canadians deserve this chance to see the different visions of leadership between the only two people who can become prime minister of this country at the end of this election.

Sincerely,

Michael Ignatieff
Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada

Comments

6 Comments

seth

Apr 1, 2011 at 10:17am

Harper is chicken but I don't blame him for quivering in fear!!!!

What can he say when he has against him his arrogant and out of control regime.

Never in British Parliamentary history has a government been convicting or "Contempt of Parliament" a crime akin to treason.

Major transgressions include turning personal religious and fascist views into government policy, blackballing folks who criticize Israel, misleading/lying to Parliament, the attempted destruction of AECL at the beginning of a nuclear renaissance with a 100K jobs already lost and $tens of billions in sales gone, $35B for worthless military shipbuilding, top to the bottom of the G7 in economic recovery, budget costs hidden from Parliament, $50B in total corporate tax cuts, $10B's in HST bribes to ON and BC and now Quebec, $40B trade deficits after 10 years of Liberal $15B trade surpluses, massive election fraud, theocon religious based hatred of China costing hundreds of thousands of Canadian jobs and $hundreds of billions in revenue, top rated to tenth in the Conference Board of Canada's ranking of the top economies, $1B for Brimstone's G20 weekend party, slowest and most expensive broadband and cell phone network in the OECD, falsifying documents, $10B for prisons, locking up taxpayers for growing 6 ganga plants, using government departments to troll for ethnic votes and funding, useless jets costing $30B, changing the "Government of Canada" to the "The Harper Government" on official correspondence.

Even a minority Harper regime will replace all 5 retiring Supreme court Justices with 30 year old theo fascist law school graduate's from school's like Pat Robertsons's Regent University.It will also appoint a bunch of thirty year old fascists to the Senate so he can override any elected Parliament legislation at will.
seth

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tim.

Apr 1, 2011 at 11:48am

this one-on-one debate would be stupid. it'd be like two people with relatively same ideas debating who is less corrupt.

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Stephen

Apr 1, 2011 at 12:20pm

"As you stated, there are only two people who can be Prime Minister after May 2nd: you or me."

What arrogance. It's up to the voters to decide which party elects enough MPs to have a crack at forming a government. As provincial electoral history demonstrates, sometimes the party that ended up forming government was in third place at dissolution (e.g., Ontario, 1990; Manitoba, 1969). In some cases the winning party had no seats prior to the election (e.g., Alberta, 1935, BC, 1952). Ignatieff shouldn't be so quick to presume that either his party or Harper's will come out on top on polling day.

Besides, while Ignatieff may wish we had a two-party system at the federal level, the fact is we don't--at least, not since 1921. Moreover, all televised federal leaders' debates since 1968 have involved at least three party leaders and sometimes four. So Iggy's proposal would also fly in the face of well-established practice--in Canada, that is, not the US--as well as being profoundly disrespectful to at least one-third of the electorate who habitually vote for for "third parties."

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Argulion

Apr 1, 2011 at 12:51pm

I recall a line somewhere that went something thing like this;

I would rather be known as a waffler than be known as a fool.

Harper wouldn't have a chance if he went one-on-one with Ignatieff.

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Dan Clay

Apr 1, 2011 at 1:54pm

Already these two, and now the media, are discounting the contribution of Jack Layton. The myth reinstated,(he will never make PM) pushed by Cons and Libs, and reinforced, with this debate, planned without The NDP Leader further reinforcing the myth.They both actively seek to denigrate Jack Layton, as if he is an inconvenient truth.

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Rolf_Auer

Apr 3, 2011 at 1:59am

Harper's got too many skeletons in his closet
to be able to debate Ig. For example, Harper
was the first to think of a coalitioin gov in 1997:

"[In 1997], [Tom] Flanagan and [Stephen] Harper launched a four-year writing partnership while they were repositioning Harper for his return to party politics. Their first effort was an article titled 'Our Benign Dictatorship,' which was published in the Donner Foundation-financed magazine the Next City. They argue that a coalition between Reform and the Bloc Quebecois was one way for conservatives to seize power."--Not A Conspiracy Theory, Donald Gutstein, 2009, p. 159.

"Why The Harper Govenment Mismanages The Economy" (article) and more..

My federal politics blog: clearpolitics.wordpress dot com
(Click "About" re reading posts, or on my picture.)
@Rolf_Auer

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