- Reaction score
- 5,564
- Points
- 1,260
Petamocto said:New polls today show the Liberals and Cons are essentially tied, after the Cons starting the summer with a double digit lead.
Which means what, exactly?
See Dief the Chief on 1 Nov 71.
Petamocto said:New polls today show the Liberals and Cons are essentially tied, after the Cons starting the summer with a double digit lead.
Petamocto said:New polls today show the Liberals and Cons are essentially tied, after the Cons starting the summer with a double digit lead.
Nostix said:However, the interesting thing about the polls is that while the Cons are down nearly 4 points, the Liberals are up only 1. The recipients of the difference are the Green, the Bloc, and the NDP.
ModlrMike said:If the big red tent is anything like the big red book, then we're in for a lot of style and little substance.
E.R. Campbell said:But the Red Book worked - and worked well. As Kim Campbell correctly (but impoliticly) said, "Election campaigns are not a good time to discuss policy." In fact, when dealing with the overwhelming majority of Canadians there is never a good time for a substantive policy discussion. Canadians, by and large, don't like substance. Style works and the media knows how to report on style while substance just confuses most journalists.
Michael Ignatieff’s highly overrated summer vacation
Instead of reading Dostoevsky aloud to his bride, the Liberal Leader hit the BBQ circuit – yet his party still trails the unpalatable Tory hordes
Gerald Caplan
Published on Friday, Sep. 03, 2010
Michael Ignatieff’s interminable summer of small towns, small crowds and small media coverage is now over. Privately the man must be ecstatic. And yet all he has to look forward to is another session of parliament where he remains a lame duck to be constantly humiliated by new Government House Leader John Baird and Stephen Harper's other wild dogs.
He can say what he likes, but it's hard to believe that every day in every way, Mr. Ignatieff would not give the moon to regain his previous life. As a late-blooming politician, it's been a long, hard, often demeaning four years.
His fall from grace actually began shortly before his Great Canadian Adventure. While still a fashionable Harvard-based public intellectual who referred to Americans as “we,” Mr. Ignatieff had caused incredulity among many of his previous admirers – of whom I was among the fervent – by justifying both George Bush’s illegal invasion of Iraq and his approval of torture. These positions haunt Mr. Ignatieff still, as they should.
“After four years, it's hard to see why Mr. Ignatieff has bothered at all. He appears to stand for nothing except the centre, wherever and whatever that is. ”
Mr. Ignatieff’s plunge into partisan politics back home in Canada did not enhance his reputation. He was immediately complicit in violating the constitution of his chosen riding association when his backers unilaterally closed nominations well before the appointed time. This blatant attack on democracy, he insisted, was democracy in action.
Then came the insufferable unction. Every day, every event, every development, was the proudest of the new Michael’s existence. Never mind his previous lifetime of international celebrity and awards. Putting in his nomination papers (even unconstitutionally) was his proudest moment ever. So was the formal nomination meeting. So was being elected to Parliament. It was a wonder he could cope with the burden of so many firsts, poor chap. But the phony-baloney humility didn't work. He just wasn't a natural politician. For the life of him he couldn't fake sincerity.
Finally, though, destiny wove its predestined web. Mr. Ignatieff became Liberal Party Leader without a single vote being cast, very possibly a first in the long history of democracy. From there on up it's been downhill all the way. Soon the Ignatieff Liberals were being embraced by the same 25 per cent of the voters even Stéphane Dion couldn’t alienate. Facing the most dangerous Prime Minister in Canadian history yet sensibly terrified of forcing an election, Mr. Ignatieff allowed Mr. Harper to operate as if he had a majority government.
Come the dog days of summer 2010, the Liberals find themselves lower than a snake’s belly. Almost weekly Stephen Harper has tried everything possible to self-immolate, but Mr. Ignatieff has taken advantage of none of it. He wants nothing more than to spend the humid, sticky days of July and August reading Dostoevsky aloud to his bride, in the original Russian. But the optics would not be good. He must be seen to be doing something. He descends to the inner circle of Canadian political hell: the summer BBQ circuit, in every province and territory.
He emerges claiming victory. What else can he say? Some believe he can now even fake sincerity more convincingly. But look at the polls. Nobody pays attention to politics in the summer anyway, Liberal hucksters fervently spin, so polls don’t count. But then why campaign all summer, fellahs? After two dreadful months for the government, largely self-inflicted, the Conservatives can attract only about one in three Canadians. Yet Mr. Ignatieff's party is still stuck somewhere between 25 to 30 per cent. At best the Liberals might be tied with this unpalatable government.
“Almost weekly Stephen Harper has tried everything possible to self-immolate, but Mr. Ignatieff has taken advantage of none of it.”
And yet the Liberal Party is doing vastly better than the Liberal Leader. In terms of personal qualities and competence, Mr. Ignatieff has failed to impress his fellow citizens as much as Stephen Harper. This would be humiliating to anyone, let alone a Michael Ignatieff. It cannot bolster his self-confidence or the undying devotion of his followers.
But only fanatical Liberals – a dying breed, alas – can really be surprised. After four years, it's hard to see why Mr. Ignatieff has bothered at all. He appears to stand for nothing except the centre, wherever and whatever that is. There are no grand policy initiatives, and barely any modest ones. There are no insights on the economy, especially the unemployment crisis. There is no sense of how he will bring democracy and accountability back to a country that is watching it deteriorate before their eyes. If he's concerned about growing inequality within Canada he has impressively hidden it. Only on the issue of preserving the long-gun registry has Mr. Ignatieff shown real leadership and courage, and for that he indeed deserves to be saluted.
Otherwise, it appears that his only real motive for wanting to be Prime Minster is that it would be a nice addition to his extraordinary curriculum vitae while keeping Bob Rae out. Who knows? Maybe that's a good enough reason, along with not being Stephen Harper.
If anyone's NOT going to vote for Bob, it's those who hated "Rae Days".Good2Golf said:I'd like to see how the Dipper's go in Ontario...I think they're still profiting from the Liberals' mistaken belief that they'd pull Dipper votes away with Bob ("Don't check the history that I prorogued Ontario's provincial legislature three times while I was Premier") Rae.
UN chase shows that Grits got the wrong guy
Norman Spector
Posted on Friday, September 24, 2010
Michael Ignatieff, Monday, commenting on Canada’s bid for a Security Council seat:
“This is a government that for four years has basically ignored the United Nations and now is suddenly showing up saying, 'Hey, put us on the council … Don't mistake me. I know how important it is for Canada to get a seat on the Security Council but Canadians have to ask a tough question: Has this government earned that place? We're not convinced it has.”
In contrast to Mr. Ignatieff’s words – which unmistakably ooze with his hope for Canada to fail – here’s Bob Rae, on the high road that Mr. Ignatieff eschewed, after the Prime Minister’s speech yesterday:
“The key thing is this is a bid for Canada. This is not a bid about one government or another government. I think what I found in Mr. Harper’s speech was that he emphasized Canada’s 65-year commitment to the United Nations and I think that is the point. It is a 65-year commitment, it is not a one or two or three-year commitment. It is not about what a government has done this year or last year, it is about what Canada has done over a very long time in our history at the UN and on the world stage.
And that is why I think all Canadians would be very supportive of a place for Canada on the Security Council, not based on the record of the last year or two or three one way or the other, but based on what we as a country have done over 65 years, since the formation of the United Nations in San Francisco in 1945. I think that is the key point.
I think the case for Canada is very strong and I think the case was made effectively by the prime minister, but I think frankly it transcends partisanship and it transcends one political party or another, you know, when the prime minister is at the United Nations, speaking on behalf of Canada and talking of 65 years of Canadian experience, that is, I think, a story that everybody needs to hear and he wasn’t just talking about his own government, he was talking about the achievement sand the accomplishments of many different governments and I think that is the way we should approach it. I think we would be much better off in foreign policy if we looked much longer and harder at the things that we are doing together as a country and not see it as some partisan exercise. As far as I’m concerned, it is not a partisan exercise and I think that is the approach that we should be taking.”