Michael Ignatieff: Yesterday’s Man, Today’s Fear-Monger
If there is one thing Canadians cannot accept, is being lied to. Or, at least it appearing that way.
When the Prime Minister of this land decided to recently prorogue Parliament, it wasn’t necessarily what he was doing that set our collective hair on fire, it was how he was actually doing it. “To reset the economic agenda” he claimed, over rubber chicken and wild rice, to one business group in Toronto.
Bollocks. At least, that’s the way he and les incompetents that surround him made it seem. To me, it was as if he was lifting strategy from the Liberal drawing board. After all, the Liberals spent decades raising the telling of lies to Canadians, from a science to an art.
Well, Michael Ignatieff apparently wants the playbook back.
In what can only be described as sheer fabrication, the Leader of the Official Opposition; ‘The Baron of Blithering Banality’, has concocted TWO separate stories that are intended to shamelessly play on the fears that Stephen Harper has some kind of diabolical, ultra-conservative social agenda, that will harm families without an intrusive national childcare policy on a front burner, permanently, and, by raising the mother of all social donnybrooks, returning women to alleyways with wire hangers, instead of maintaining ‘choice’.
What an incredible liar Mr. Ignatieff has become. Instead of showing Canadians that their inkling of faith in him and his party, of late, is well-placed, he embarks upon the cheapest smear campaign possible, without one scintilla of proof that what he is saying is even remotely close to the truth. Instead of showing Canadians why the polls should reflect a significant improvement in his party’s fortunes, rather than an indicator of displeasure with the government, Mr. Ignatieff showcases why he is indeed a Liberal leader in the mold of Dion and not Trudeau: When political expediency always trumps substance.
Stephen Harper and the Conservative government have been clear that they will not return the abortion issue, under any circumstances, and spent four years proving it. Additionally, an over-the-top national childcare policy has been rejected as a priority by Canadians, not once, but several times.
Just don’t tell Michael Ignatieff.
You can read about the pathetic nature of Liberal fear-mongering, here and here.
At this rate, the Prime Minster need not worry that the Liberal brain trust have any cogent, substantive plan on how to defeat him.
It’s still his government to lose.
Unfortunately, the lapdog liberal media (aka Kady O’Malley) decided that they would attempt to influence Canadians on the prorogue issue. By frontlining a small Facebook group and making it into something it wasn’t, the compliant media made that front and centre for days; all without history being presented in a non-biased manner.
I was disgusted by the manner in which this was presented, refused to continue to watch the local news, have taken most of them off of the remote, and even sent emails demanding the entire truth be told in their “reports”.
Had the Conservative spokespeople tackled this head on and framed it in different wording, the media would not have been able to run with it as they did.
This latest from Ignatieff is nothing more than divisive, he is waiting for the media to pick this up and make another mountain out of it.
I steeled myself and went in to read the comments at CTV.ca and was surprised to see that 90% called Ignatieff out – maybe there is a little hope yet!
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Hope, yes, I used to have some of that, but I’m not sure. This is definitely the Tory’s govt to lose. It’s up to them. The Grits have little money, no infrastructure to battle as necessary and their narrative consists of tired old canards about George W. Bush (over a year out of office and living in another country) and pretend alarms about abortion. Shame. If the Liberals want to be govt they’ll have to do better than this. Remarkable, too, how with all the consternation and hand-wringing by the electorate, they have punished the Tories without accepting the Grits. The polls are a sea-change in the sense that the Tories have fallen (by their own sword). The Liberals, on the other hand, have seen negligible growth.
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Same party, same crap.
Surely the polls must be wrong that these fools have pulled even with the best government this country has seen in 17 years.
Are my fellow Canadians that stupid to allow the Liberals back into the race.
Amazing.
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It wasn’t the people of this country that did it. It was the Tory backroom that just can’t seem to keep it straight for any longer than about six months. Then they have to hit the self-destruct button. It’s extraordinary.
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You are right on. All you have to do with iggy is wait till he opens his mouth.He always puts his foot in it EVERYTIME.
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No doubt about it. He, like his predecessor, is an out-of-touch elitist with delusions of adequacy.
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Meanwhile the provincial Liberals are talking about all-day Kindergarten which is just another form of national daycare, and we haven’t even been asked if we want it. From what I’ve read it is a go-ahead this coming year. People would be very unwise to hand their children over to strangers, and the NDP would merely expedite the whole mess, making sure that the care-givers are all highly paid socialist/feminists. On the matter of back alley/storefront, as I’ve said, the worm is turning.
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Of course. The all-day kindergarten makes no sense. It wasn’t that long-ago we had our two oldest go through (And the youngest goes to kindergarten next year). I can tell you. All day is for very few parents and even fewer kids. It’s very tiring for little ones at that age and their attention span is that of a hummingbird.
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I can not believe that the Liberals are still trying to flog abortions and child care. Have they never heard of the morning after pill that is very much available,They are embarrassing to most Canadians with their rant about a Taliban detainee while our guys are dying at their hands,If the Conservatives are wise when an election is called they can make these issues in the campaign .As a veteran along with 2 million others in Canada and their families the Liberals and NDP do not realize the animosity for their parties this has caused among us when Red Bob Rae and Dewar of the NDP say this is not about the troops their noses grow longer by the second. Just keep an eye on Dewar this could be dangerous
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I’m watching, believe me…
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At this point in time I have no use for any politician. They all seem to be graduates of the same training centre where the have perfected the ability to lie, deny and obfuscate.
I will take exception with one thing you state. One cannot assume that Stephen Harper will not do anything considered controversial that he has not done in the last four years. His lack of a majority has meant that he has been forced to temper any desires to bring forth any so-called radical ideas. The only true test would be if he had a majority, and the way things are developing, one must conclude that nothing much will change in the future.
Mr. Harper’s tenure as the leader of the Conservatives may well hang on the results of the next federal election. If he again fails to deliver a majority one has to assume that the natives will be getting very restless.
As a matter of fact, we may not see a majority for any party for a very long time considering the talent from which we must choose. To quote Rafe Mair “you only have to be a three if your opponents are all twos”, but I think many Canadians consider that the present talent pool cannot even rate a one.
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I disagree on the point of Harper needing a majority for his agenda to be fully tested…
I know many of the top-ranked Tories in this country. To a man (and woman) they know any tinkering with the social agenda as set by Canadians over the years, would spell a one term govt with the party being annihilated the following election.
As for this quote…
“At this point in time I have no use for any politician. They all seem to be graduates of the same training centre where they have perfected the ability to lie, deny and obfuscate”
I couldn’t have put it more beautifully… Kudos!
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The behavior of Harper in a minority government gives only a small indication of of what he would do in a majority.
Before the last election theocon Ken Epp’s private members bill c-484 Unborn Victims of Crime Act a thinly disguised anti abortion measure received second reading with 93% support from Harper’s social conservatives.
How many of Harper’s MP’s are religious fundamentalists – Alliance, Pentacostal etc. is it 90%, 50% 10%. If you ask they won’t tell? Why are they all muzzled? Put that to your massive research staff. I’d love to see the answer.
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I think they strategically let it pass to second reading just to keep Epp quiet. Guarantee: if the abortion issue arose again, it’s over–as well it should be. It should be left as is.
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seth asked ,How many of Harper’s MP’s are religious fundamentalists – Alliance, Pentacostal etc. is it 90%, 50% 10%. If you ask they won’t tell?
here is your answer 4.33% hope these #s keeps you moist for a while.
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That’s very funny!
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Compared to the government of that thug, Jean Cretien, these guy’s are of the highest order.
Try to remember that it was Cretien himself to put the mounties on a mission to intimidate a simple banker who refused a loan to a crony of Cretiens, who was to use the money to pay a bill to Cretien. All that even though it wasn’t a loan that the bank would be authorized to grant, under any circustances.
This was also the PM who cut of the investigation of phoney visa’s and passports coming out of the Hong Kong embassy because he didn’t want to raise any Communist hackles while his pal Demarais was cleaning up in the middle kingdom. Even though chinese criminals were coming into this country without any scrutiny.
At least the Harper government isn’t full of crooks like a few of the previous one’s.
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Actually, that’s a very good observation, mindlessness and hot girlfriends that dated bikers notwithstanding, this lot of Tories has kept quite away from the scandals of the ‘On the Take’ Liberal crowd, no question.
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The only difference between a Liberal and Tory is which one has which hand in your pocket.
It’s the nature of the game, lie to get elected…say whatever it takes. Then do whatever the hell you like. There are no political parties in this province or country, worth voting “for” any more. Now it’s just an exercise in plugging your nose and hoping for the least harm after election day.
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It certainly seems that way some days, but I must say the corruption of the Liberals, in particular, over the years is truly breathtaking.
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Alex, the only reason the Liberals shenanigans were more monumental is because they have been in power more and had a better opportunity to hone their skills.
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I would never argue against such an astute contention.
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Some interesting ramblings here. I couldn’t agree more with Leah’s post that there is currently little difference between the Liberals and Conservatives. As you imply, Alex, either Ignatieff has to resort to conspiracy and dissent theory or, as is more common place in my view, he operates on a party policy that says “let’s listen to what the Conservatives have to say and then say the opposite – even if we don’t really believe it”.
On the issue of proroguing Parliament, yes, you are correct that Harper’s justification was bullocks, but I for one think the current state of parliamentary debate is nothing more than sophomoric word play and one-upmanship; in effect, a total waste of time. We need to have parties that have clearly defined positions that they are willing to defend, even when times get tough. We also need opposition parties that are willing to admit they support and share some of the policies of the party in power. The “I’m going to challenge whatever you say” mentality of the opposition parties wears thin and only amplifies just how flaccid a so-called leader like Ignatieff is. There is just no credibility here. No matter what you thought of Trudeau, you always knew where he stood and you always got the sense that he was defending policies rather than challenging for the sake of challenging (other than Joe Clark’s, intellect, of course).
By the way, I don’t agree with you on all-day kindergarten. The Brits have had all-day kindergarten for decades. If it is offered properly with integrated nap times, it can be very effective and certainly provides a more consistent and nurturing environment than filling the other half of the day with likes of Sylvain learning Centres or Suzuki violin lessons. I say bring it on. It will tone down our kids, help parents who can’t look after their kids during the day, and prevent kids from being exposed to the hyper-parenting that causes kids to be shuttled back and forth to endless tutoring and mindless so-called extra-curricular classes that bilk parents and offer little substance in return.
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When you frame the all-day kindergarten issue like that, I’m not offside so much…I just think all-day for kids that young is tough. Don’t forget that most parents don’t need to leave them about for most the of the day and find the bonding experience better when they come home and spend time there.
As for the rest of your comment, I quite agree. I think we are in an era of pre-determined one-upmanship that does little to advance productive dialouge that leads to real answers to those issues which plague us.
Thx for stopping by, very thoughtful comments.
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