Michael "Clouseau" Ignatieff

 

LISTEN HERE:

Monologue - nov 16th

Criticism of Michael Ignatieff today and it's not coming from a Right of Centre Talk Show host or Right of Centre News site or Right of Centre Blogger. It's the Editorial Page of the Winnipeg Free Press, a newspaper whose columnist caucus is made up of nearly nothing but small "l" Liberals. And I should know because when I was writing columns for them years ago - I stuck out like an extremely sore thumb. Here's the editorial:

Does anyone know what Michael Ignatieff is talking about?

The Liberal leader was in Winnipeg on the weekend campaigning for Winnipeg North candidate Kevin Lamoureux when he accused the Conservatives of fighting dirty by running a Filipino candidate in the riding.

Voters, he said, deserved "a straight-up fight" and not "a bunch of games." He was apparently referring to speculation that the Tories were trying to weaken Mr. Lamoureux's support by running Filipino Julie Javier in a riding that traditionally supports the New Democratic Party and which has a high number of Filipino residents.

Once again, does anyone know what Mr. Ignatieff is talking about? Is he really suggesting that the Conservatives should have fielded a non-Filipino candidate to make it a fair fight for the Liberal contender? Is it his view that Ms. Javier is a fake candidate who has cynically offered her name to spoil Liberal ambitions and ensure an NDP victory?

Mr. Ignatieff's comments were an insult to voters in general and Filipinos in particular. To be fair, it doesn't look like he anticipated the question, but the leader of an institution like the Liberal Party of Canada should be smarter on his feet. In the big leagues, you're only allowed so many stupid mistakes.

Congratulations to the Winnipeg Free Press for stepping out of the Liberal comfort zone and risking the alienation of a substantial segment of its subscriber base by calling out the leader of the Party who has made many stupid mistakes - scolding him the way Chief Inspector Dreyfus used to scold Inspector Clouseau in the Return of the Pink Panther.

But playing games as Michael Ignatieff used to say, playing games with Race and Culture are games that a person who wants to be Prime Minister of this country should never play.

I have a hunch that if the shoes were on a pair of different ethnic feet Michael Ignatieff might have not fallen so easily into the swamp. Kevin Lamoureux is the candidate Ignatieff is supporting. A French name Lamoureux…What if the Liberals were running him in a riding with more Francophones, let's say St. Boniface? And what if the Tories were running a Francophone against him? Would Ignatieff accuse the Tories of playing games by running a Francophone? He might not even think of doing that because he knows how badly that would make him look in Quebec. They would say Ignatieff was questioning a Francophone's right to run for any political party outside of the Liberals. It would be said that once again Liberals see themselves as entitled to French language votes. The Francophone news sites and Francophone talk show hosts and his reputation in Quebec would be french fried.

However, the Liberal Party has a habit of hot dogging it on ethnicity and culture. They're still trying to make the claim, after all their stupid mistakes, that Cultural Diversity is a capital "L" Liberal value - still trying to claim that diversity doesn't find a home inside the Conservative tent. Liberals like to argue that their opinions are informed by facts as opposed to the other side which is purely ideological. Here are some facts for Mr Ignatieff. No games just the facts.

In the categories of visible minorities including Aboriginal representatives - the Conservatives have 9 in the House of Commons, and 5 in the Senate, giving them a visible minority caucus of 14. The Liberals have only 6 in the House of Commons and only 2 in the Senate, giving them a Caucus of only 8. Conservative Caucus of Visible Minorities nearly double the size of the Liberal caucus. That Big "L" Liberal Paper, the Toronto Star noted in the most recent general election campaign that the Conservatives had the largest contingent of candidates running for election who were born outside of Canada. 

Next time you hear Mr Ignatieff playing games with the facts, just remember that the facts have been decided by the voters and even Liberal newspapers are not impressed with the way Ignatieff plays the game. I hope in the next general election campaign, he's not planning to come to Manitoba to tell Tories to stop playing games by wanting to re-elect Shelly Glover and Rod Bruinooge - two Tories who are from the Metis community in a part of the world where Louis Riel is considered the Father of Manitoba and where Louis Riel Day is a statutory holiday. 

I will criticize the FreePress editorial for only one minor point. In their dressing down of Michael Ignatieff they say and I quote, "In the big leagues you're only allowed so many stupid mistakes." With all due respect to the editorial board, it would be the height of stupidity to think Michael Ignatieff thinks of Canada as a big league country. He has said as much in so many ways including recently when he said we didn't deserve to be on the United Nations Security Council. Why would that be Mr. Ignatieff - have our Canadian Forces shed less blood in the name of peace than Portugal? Just another stupid mistake I suppose made by a supposedly smart man who thinks he is marrying down by allowing himself to be in the Game of Retail Politics in a minor league country like Canada, as opposed to the USA where his ego is, or Britain where his heart is, or France where his villa is. 

If Michael Ignatieff, the has-been BBC interviewer, the has-been Harvard professor, and by next spring he could just be another has-been leader of a party that has gone from being the Natural National Governing party to a Party of Has-Beens. That's what happens to political outfits that play games instead of The Game. They get washed away like fishing boats in a Filipino Monsoon.

Comments

[bandit boy]

Come on Adler, at least place some context into your monologue: Michael Ignatieff was saying that Kevin Lamoureux depends heavily on the Filipino vote to get re-elected. By having a Filipino candidate run against Kevin Lamoureux means potentially splitting the Filipino vote. Splitting the Filipino vote means likely losing a liberal seat to either the conservative Julie Javier or to the NDP. So, when Ignatieff said "Let's have a straight-up fight," he meant the conservatives know the Filipino vote is key to any victory.

[Rick Thomson]

I am 50 something years old and have never written to a talk anything..
I listen to parts of your show every week night, entertainment at the least. However I am considering looking for the radio tuning knob, it's round here some place. Tonight you went too far.. Bad enough you drag St.Boniface into your "shtick" but then malign and demean Inspector Clouseau! Beware the shade of PSellers! Beware! Make your satirical points but leave some bovines sacred.

[Ray]

Awesome!

[Larry Bennett]

I was taught, and still believe that Louis Riel was a traitor and a murderer. Not gonna change my mind, after all it's the voice of my education. The belief will not die until I do. How many out there will wish that I die soon. Kinda like Louis, aren't they?

[Nicola Timmerman]

Iggy should get a "ruuumme" (room).

[A Guy]

CHECK YOUR FACTS CHUCKLES

It's sad to see that once again you're just regurgitating the same fictional stories you read on someone else's blog.

[john]

Charles:

I see you've added a number of comments after I pointed out the Winnipeg Free Press had retracted their story.

Funny that all the comments you have added support you. I'll bear that in mind next time I hear you rant on your show about how open minded you are and what a great believer in free speech.

[david henman]

...it's an interesting time. conservatives actually have a strong leader, and liberals don't.
still, i'll take liberal hope over conservative hate, thank you.