Login / Register2 things. Yesterday an old man called me over, i thought i knew him and gave him a big hug. Then too slowly it dawned on me i didnt know him at all.
Triumph of business Liberals: Michael Ignatieff will lead the party
“I believe I have the judgement, the character, the values and the experience to lead at a very difficult time in the life of our country.”
This is what Bob Rae says on the front page of his Web site for his now-defunct Liberal leadership campaign.
I’m left wondering if Michael Ignatieff, the Liberals’ chosen successor to Stephane Dion, has the judgement, character, values, and experience to lead Canada at a particularly difficult time in its history.
Let’s look at the record.
When it comes to judgement, Ignatieff supported the Bush administration’s attack on Iraq even though there was no United Nations approval.
As far as his character goes, some Canadians were no doubt very troubled by a lengthy profile of Ignatieff written in 2006 by the Globe and Mail’s Michael Valpy. There were shocking revelations about how Ignatieff treated his younger brother while both attended the elite Upper Canada College as teenagers.
Ignatieff's ruthlessness, which was on display in the Valpy profile, suggests that Prime Minister Stephen Harper finally has some competition in this department.
As for Ignatieff’s values, I’ve been bothered by his rather one-sided view of the war in the Balkans in 1999. It’s a viewpoint he seems to share with the CBC’s Carole Off but which has been challenged by retired Canadian Major-General Lewis MacKenzie, former B.C. NDP candidate Rollie Keith, University of Pennsylvania professor emeritus Edward Herman, and Osgoode Hall law professor Michael Mandel.
Honest commentators who can look back with the benefit of hindsight know that the Serbs slaughtered Bosnian Muslims at Srebernica in 1995.
But they also know that the creation of Kosovo was based on fraudulent claims of genocide perpetrated by the Kosovo Liberation Army four years later. Ignatieff helped build his reputation as a human-rights advocate in part on the basis of these now-discredited claims.
Unfortunately, the Canadian media are too ignorant about this issue to call him on this point.
As for experience, Ignatieff was out of the country for 29 years, which leaves me wondering if he’s ready to serve on the average city council in this country, let alone occupy 24 Sussex Drive as the prime minister.
This week’s coronation of Ignatieff is a triumph of business Liberals like John Manley who always wanted Canada to be on friendlier terms with the United States.
I'm guessing that those in Vancouver who will applaud Ignatieff’s rise to federal Liberal leader are likely some of same people who apologized to former U.S. ambassador Paul Celucci in writing for Canada’s refusal to join the coalition of the willing in Iraq.
Don't be surprised if some on the left wing of the Liberal party decide that now is the time to rip up their membership cards and join the NDP.
For another perspective on Michael Ignatieff, see Terry Glavin's Telling true lies about Michael Ignatieff.
strange way of admitting he was wrong to do so.
If that happened, we would be left with a weakened Conservative party, the Liberals the same, and the NDP strengthened.
Well at least Ignatieff's coronation by Liberal Party elite, will reveal to voters that the Lib's are and always have been a classic liberal party, and increase the electoral support for the left and, perhaps, help coalesce a national left-right coalescence. Recall that this current political/constitutional crisis is like the last, similar, major political/constitutional - the King/Byng affair - also saw the dissolution and re-assemblage of the two major Canadian parties into, then, a progressive/French Canadian/urban Anglo/liberal/pro-US block (the Liberal Party) and a conservative/Anglo/rural/pro-Brit bourgeois counterpart (the Conservative, later after grudgingly accepting Keynesianism, Progressive Conservatives).
Also, both of these crisis coincided with a global crisis: then war, now economic and increasinly apparent ecologic crises. We live in interesting times.
Sorry, a historical mistake in previous message. When referring to 'the last major, similar political/constitutional crisis, I meant the Conscription Crisis of WWI, when the two major parties re-organized. Although, the magnitude and temporal concentration of current crises is significant as it is seeming to combine WWI induced party re-con, the pol./const. crisis of mid-20s (King/Byng) and the stock market crash and subsequent economic depression of '29-'39.
However, If MI is smart enough to maintain the support of the Bloc and allow them to maintain a strong level of representation in Quebec along with sharing government with NDP and Greens.... he will wield the kind of power that comes from uniting 60 to (very likely) 70+% of the electorate. The diehard Cons will be too angry and consumed with fear and loathing to ever regain enough appeal to form government again...but at least we'll have clean air to breathe...safe water and food to consume. Canada can set an example that the rest of the world will envy and emulate.
However...if we see MI back away from toppling the Cons and utilizing a coalition merger in the next election we will know the fix is in. Until then I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.