All eyes on Ignatieff

[Acorn]

I liked the "herbivores/carnivores" quote so much I decided to use it as a sig.

Acorn

 

[Infanteer]

He is, in other words, not quite right or left, not quite American or Canadian, not a convert to unilateralism but neither a faithful worshipper in the house of orthodox United Nations multilateralism.

...who knows the places we'll go if we had this kind of leadership?

 

[Edward Campbell]

This is from today's Globe and Mail.

There are some interesting parallels with 40 years ago: a somewhat dithering crown prince succeeds a managerial PM - much is expected but little happens.  The ditherer is replaced by a charismatic newcomer - with philosopher king pretensions.

My, personal, take is that Ignatieff is no Trudeau - I think Ignatieff has brains and substance, but time will tell.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20050629.wxignatieff29/BNStory/National/

Ignatieff sets sights on Ottawa

BY MICHAEL VALPY

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 29, 2005 UPDATED AT 5:06 AM EDT
FROM WEDNESDAY'S GLOBE AND MAIL

Celebrity intellectual Michael Ignatieff is coming home to Canada with his eyes fixed on 24 Sussex Dr.

The 58-year-old author, broadcaster and director of Harvard University's prestigious Carr Center for Human Rights Policy is on the edge of announcing his decision to run for Parliament for the Liberals in the next election.

He has met regularly with an informal group of influential Liberals in Toronto and elsewhere over recent months to discuss his political future.

He has painstakingly - almost stealthily - laid the foundations for his return to Canada after an absence of more than three decades.

He has been negotiating with the CBC to produce a four-part TV documentary series and companion book, reportedly exploring an academic appointment at the University of Toronto, circulating word of his availability to address influential Canadian audiences and quietly looking for Toronto accommodation.

His greatest coup, according to a knowledgeable party source, was finessing an invitation from the Prime Minister's Office to give the keynote address at last March's Liberal Party policy convention, an occasion he used to deliver a bare-naked political speech that negatively compared aspects of Mr. Martin's prime-ministership to the glorious national vision of Pierre Trudeau.

"It's very close to the stage that he will do it [seek a Liberal nomination]," said a leading member of the group with whom Mr. Ignatieff has been consulting. "It's close, but it's not definitive."

To those Liberals urging him to enter political life, Mr. Ignatieff is seen as both a philosopher-king in Mr. Trudeau's iconic mould and someone who would generate excitement around progressive ideas in a party seen as having become lacklustre, drifting and visionless under Mr. Martin.

(He also will encounter uneasiness in the party, especially in its pink Trudeauesque wing, over his support for the U.S. invasion of Iraq - he argues that the Iraqis deserved freedom from Saddam Hussein - and there is no consensus on whether he sits on the left or the right of the party on social and fiscal issues.)

But because he - and those Liberals around him - inevitably will be seen as a threat to Mr. Martin's leadership, the work of greasing the path for Mr. Ignatieff's glide into Liberal politics is being done clandestinely and very, very nervously.

"Insurrection? It's not that, and it can't be that," said an Ignatieff supporter who, like others, agreed to speak only on condition of anonymity. "It's not about royal jelly. It's about focusing on the short term of getting him back to Canada and getting him into Parliament.

"And if people are being identified [with Mr. Ignatieff] in a covert way, it's because we don't want the thing to go off the rails. It's a difficult time for Liberals, Liberals like myself."

It's also evident that the Ignatieff crusade is one of the worst-kept secrets in national political circles. Mr. Ignatieff, reported yesterday to be in either France or Iran, could not be reached for comment.

He is said to have looked for a constituency in Nova Scotia - the home of his maternal family, among them great-grandfather George Monro Grant, principal of Queen's University, and his uncle, Lament for a Nation philosopher George Parkin Grant - and Toronto, where he was born and grew up and where his father George Ignatieff, one of Canada's outstanding Cold War diplomats, served as provost of the University of Toronto's Trinity College and university chancellor.

Rumours that he will run either in the U of T's Trinity-Spadina riding or in adjacent Toronto-Centre Rosedale are undermined by the fact that the two Liberals who now hold the constituencies - Trinity-Spadina's Tony Ianno, Minister of State for Families and Caregivers, and Rosedale's Bill Graham, Minister of Defence - have been renominated for the next election and intend to be candidates.

The Liberals indeed hold every seat in Toronto except one - New Democratic Party Leader Jack Layton's - and 90 per cent have been renominated.

Still, a senior Liberal with extensive election campaign experience did not rule out Mr. Ignatieff winning a nomination. "There could be two or three [sitting Toronto MPs] who have reached a maximum situation regarding their pensions and could be scratching their heads about running again."

The CBC documentary series and book Mr. Ignatieff plans to do is on George Monro Grant, who travelled across Canada in 1872 with the engineer-in-chief of the proposed transcontinental railway, Sir Sandford Fleming, and wrote a journal in the manner of Alexis de Tocqueville on the country's future.

"He is kind of keeping his options open on Harvard," a Liberal supporter said. But according to another source, Mr. Ignatieff already has arranged a leave of absence from Harvard's Carr Center to do the Grant project - a leave of absence that could conveniently envelope the next election campaign.

© Copyright 2005 Bell Globemedia Publishing Inc. All Rights Reserved.​

Poor Mr. Dithers is same sex marriage going to be his legacy?

 

[jmacleod]

Minority Government leader Martin is faced with a committment to undertake a Federal Election
30 days after the Gomery Report is filed (and accepted, which could cause a delay). Election has
been planned since Nov 2004; Liberals expect to form a Majority Government. Although no one
has said this, Party strategists prefer Harper to stay put; tactical problem if he leaves. There is
talk about Martin's replacement, but potential candidates are in short supply, so Ignatieff will be
a highly attractive leadership candidate, could probably easily win. But if Harper goes, it appears
Conservative Leader in Ontario, John Tory is the odds on favourite to replace him. Liberal Party
will be looking for an attractive candidate who can win, and maintain the Liberal hold on the
national government. Layton's days as a deal maker are over, the Liberals will drop him like
they did Lewis when Alan J. MacEachern of the Black Arts made a deal for support, and once a
majority was achieved, disposed of the NDP support. In those days, the NDP support was generated
by giving NDP MP's full control of patronage in their ridings. MacLeod

 

[I_am_John_Galt]

Minority Government leader Martin is faced with a committment to undertake a Federal Election
30 days after the Gomery Report is filed (and accepted, which could cause a delay).

Funny that Belinda Stronach is going to spearhead implementation of the recommendations of the Gomery Report: I suppose they'll be nothing 30 days of 'work' can't clear right up.

 

[Edward Campbell]

My, personal, sense is that Martin has blotted his copy book.   The dyed in the wool Chrétienistas will never accept him â “ they see him as a turncoat and back-stabber.   Some, (many?) of the Martinis are proving to be summer soldiers and, as the Ignatieff 'candidacy' demonstrates, are already casting about for a new leader.

(Bear in mind, please, that unlike MacLeod, I have no links to the Liberal Party of Canada.   I have a few somewhat distant professional (occasionally collegial) relationships with a handful of people, including John Manley, who happen to be Liberals.   My circle of acquaintances does include some retired (and a few serving) bureaucrats who had (have) good insights into the Party and who, as we all do at our age, love to gossip â “ often somewhat mischievously.)

Some Liberals, and their civil service minders, are driven near to distraction by Martin's chronic inability to make a decision.

Martin is a classic example of Isaiah Berlin's hedgehog in his Fox vs. Hedgehog analogy.   (Ignatieff is Berlin's biographer â “ and a fine one, at that.)

Berlin, you may recall, characterized people as either foxes â “ with many, many ideas and interests, or hedgehogs â “ with just one big idea.

Trudeau was the prototypical hedgehog.   He had a very, very limited range of interests and went from disinterested to downright inept when forced to deal with the vast array of problems or issues which face a national leader: economics, defence, social services, foreign policy/strategy, agriculture, security, and so on.   His one big idea was 'Québec/anti-nationalism' and, in my opinion, he was intellectually ill-equipped to deal with that and, consequently, he screwed it up, too.

Most good leaders, it seems to me, are foxes, but many not so good leaders are ill-disciplined foxes â “ they have a wide range of interests but they are unable (unwilling) to focus on the ones that matter.   In my time St. Laurent, Pearson, Mulroney, Chrétien and Martin were all foxes but only St. Laurent, Mulroney and Chrétien were well disciplined foxes.   Ignatieff is a fox, too, and, on the evidence to date â “ unlike Trudeau Ignatieff does have a resumé with real accomplishments in the real, wide world â “ he may be an interesting challenger.

Edit: fixed highlight and a stupid bloody auto correct spelling error - it's dyed in the wool, not died in the wool - I hate Bill Gates! :evil:

 

[Infanteer]

(He also will encounter uneasiness in the party, especially in its pink Trudeauesque wing, over his support for the U.S. invasion of Iraq â “ he argues that the Iraqis deserved freedom from Saddam Hussein â “ and there is no consensus on whether he sits on the left or the right of the party on social and fiscal issues.)

This is why Ignatieff would interest me in voting Red - I'm sure he would focus outward (a la St Laurent) rather than inward.

My, personal, sense is that Martin has blotted his copy book.   The died in the wool Chretienistas will never accept him - they see him as a turncoat and back-stabber.   Some, (many?) of the Martinis are proving to be summer soldiers and, as the Ignatieff "candidacy" demonstrates, are already casting about for a new leader.

Chretienistas and Martinis - we truly are a Banana Republic....

 

[I_am_John_Galt]

Chretienistas and Martinis - we truly are a Banana Republic....

"Oh, Bananada ..."  :'(

 

[jmacleod]

Dr. Ignatieff has family links in Nova Scotia with the distinguished academic Grant family. He will not seek
a Nova Scotia seat howver, will focus on Toronto, with many of it's Liberal constituency organizations
dominated by homosexuals (Ignatieff is considered an expert on Human Rights). If he runs in Toronto
he will be selected and elected, but there are other potential leadership candidates out there, including
former Toronto MP Alan Rock (UN), Canadian Ambassador to US Frank McKenna, and possibly a duo
from Quebec. It is safe to assume that the next Liberal leader will not be from Quebec in any event.
Martin's tenure in fact is virtually over, he has not exhibited a degree of leadership anticipated and
is detested by the Chretien loyalists (Chretien is greatly admired in the rank and file of the Party
despite what the Toronto dominated Canadian media think). Dr Ignatieff will be, if he offers for the
leadership of the Party, a very strong candidate, who will dominate the focus of the media, in
particular the CBC. The Conservatives I would think will seek an equally strong leader from Ontario
-odd's on favourite if he offers, Hon John Tory MLA, Toronto Government of Ontario. My personal
opinion  (stand to be corrected) is that Hon Frank McKenna will not seek Liberal leadership. From
the perspective of this site, who of the "contenders" for national political leadership would be best
for the future of the Canadian military?  Macleod

 

[jmacleod]

Canadian Ambassador Hon Frank McKenna was quoted in the National Canadian media today that
he would not seek leadership of the Federal Liberal Party, would not be a leadership contender
- the general feeling in the Atlantic Canada wing of the Party is that if Ignatieff runs, he will
easily win - the real power base of the Party nationally is in Toronto, and Ontario - no longer
in Quebec and probably never will be again. Ambassador McKenna is a smart guy, a shrewd politicain
well connected, and if he says he will not run, I would think, knowing him well, he means exactly
what he says. The Federal Liberals under Martin anticipate a Liberal majority next year - why not.
MacLeod

 

[a_majoor]

I'm a little curious as to what sort of power base the good Dr. Ignatieff has within the Liberal Party. Come to think of it, Ms Stronich is now supposed by some in the Media to be in position to contend as a leader of the Liberals should Mr Dithers jump (or be pushed) out the window.

There is also the matter of the "Creitianistas", who are waiting the day they can exact vengence against the "Martinites". This is starting to read a bit like some sort of medieval melodrama, with the Prime Minister and Anti-Prime Minister in alternate 24 Sussex Drives sepatated by the Ottawa river excommunicating each other's followers.

jmacleod, since you seem to have an inside scoop on these things, please enlighten us as to how the Liberal Party does not implode with all these presumptive stresses within?

 

[jmacleod]

A "power base" will be created for Ignatieff by the Liberal insiders who have encouraged and appraoched
him to run - most will be from the Chretien people - some disgruntled members throughout the
country, and practical Liberals who are always focused on the future in any event. My mother's family
came to Nova Scotia in 1819, and later were among the founder's of the Liberal Party. We have had
two Federal MP's and a Senator in the family. Grew up in the era of NS Liberal Premier Angus L.MacDonald and the long serving Liberal governmemt of the time. Our associates in Ottawa and
the Atlantic region have close links with the Federal Liberal Party - necessary to deal in government
because all decisions affecting National Defence for instance are politically driven. We are consultants
in the technology and aerospace sector (thirty years) and have worked on many Crown Projects -
for instance, the decision to buy the F18-A "Hornet" from McDonnell-Douglas/Northrop was a
political decision made by PM Trudeau himself, ultimately. Martin made an enormous error in creating
Gomery, which has caused great resentment in the Party - a Party in which forgiveness is an unknown
quantity. Finally, the Liberal Party has the national media on side, there is  actually no significant
opposition media, which is what Stephen Harper has to contend with every day - Harper too will
vanish. MacLeod

 

[Fishbone Jones]

Martin made an enormous error in creating Gomery, which has caused great resentment in the Party - a Party in which forgiveness is an unknown.
quantity.  MacLeod

So are you saying the establishment of the Gomery inquiry was wrong and not required? If your party eats it's own for doing what is right for Canada, they're not fit to govern, period. Typically, looking out for their own interest, power and pension, without thought to the people that trusted them and got burned.

 

[jmacleod]

What I said is that there is resentment in the Liberal Party over Gomery - not a question of right
or wrong, Liberal focus is on politics, and a carefully orchestrated attack on the former PM which
was politically driven - no one can say, until Gomery reports, who and what was right or wrong
- but the resentment will remain. The late Dr. John Savage MD Premier of NS annoyed the
Nova Scotia Liberal Party and was forced to go on to a better life, because of political patronage
which he attempted to change - he is gone, Party goes on. The Liberal friendly media are not
going to give Gomery much focus in any event, and the public, as usual do not care. My question
is: who is going to defeat the mighty Liberals?  Macleod

 

[I_am_John_Galt]

Liberal focus is on politics,

You've got my vote for the "understatement of the year" award.

 

[Acorn]

My question
is: who is going to defeat the mighty Liberals?   Macleod

Every Tyranny is brought down eventually. It may not even come to a vote.

Acorn

 

[the 48th regulator]

The revolution is not an apple that falls when it is ripe. You have to make it fall.
Ernesto Che Guevara


You never know....

hasta siempre

tess

 

[a_majoor]

Unless I see 10,000 people standing on Parliament hill chanting for the government to resign (a "Maple Leaf Revolution"), I will not be holding my breath. Contemplating any "other" solution is pretty scary in so many ways, Acorn.

If Ignatieff really has what it takes to be a true leader for this nation, let's hear what, if anything, he has to say about the London bombings and Canada's role in WW IV.

 

[Wayne Coady]

Unless I see 10,000 people standing on Parliament hill chanting for the government to resign (a "Maple Leaf Revolution"), I will not be holding my breath. Contemplating any "other" solution is pretty scary in so many ways, Acorn.

I disagree that contemplating any "other" solution is pretty scary.   We could have a quite "revolution", it is simple, clean and there would be no blood spilled. STOP GIVING THE POLITICAL PARTIES YOUR TIME, YOUR FINANCIAL SUPPORT , YOUR VOTE.

All parties are the same, they do what is best for the party, so do not support them, let the fools who enjoy being lied to and stolen from vote for them. Smarten up, if you really want to clean up the political sewers in Ottawa and in our provinces, push for an independent candidate who will truly represent your constituency who is free of the party shackles. Look into putting your own name on the ballot.

I tired of people pointing out that all parties are dirty and then refusing to do something about it, just do not support a party candidate , let them know when they come to your door looking for your approval to steal from you.

If you are not willing to   take to the streets, then keep it simple stupid, do not support a party, it is a pretty easy solution, maybe to easy.

 

[a_majoor]

I disagree that contemplating any "other" solution is pretty scary.  We could have a quite "revolution", it is simple, clean and there would be no blood spilled. STOP GIVING THE POLITICAL PARTIES YOUR TIME, YOUR FINANCIAL SUPPORT , YOUR VOTE.

That is what is happening today, and the politicians love it; we are IDIOTS in the ancient Greek sense of the word.

The "other" solution to having peaceful mass demonstrations is armed revolution, and I certainly don't want to be going there on either side of the barricades.