POSTED RESPONSES TO A COLUMN BY JOHN IBBITSON IN TORONTO'S GLOBE AND MAIL
I do have a problem with "visions" generally, but, when someone has no legitimate right to be called a liberal, talks of the "liberal vision," I can only laugh.
I cannot think of one evidence of Ignatieff’s having a genuinely liberal spirit.
Here are just some of the facts:
He does not speak out on any of the great issues of our day.
He didn't subject himself to a democratic contest to gain his leadership job.
He provided the ammunition - his own foolish words at his first convention - for Harper attack ads against the extremely decent and thoughtful Mr Dion.
He came back to Canada rasping and blubbering on one occasion about how you cannot ever oppose America because they'll make you pay.
Presumably that absolutely amoral advice applies even when what America engages in is mass murder, as it was in Iraq.
He was published and broadcast in the United States defending the mass murder in Iraq and accepting "mild" torture.
He has distinguished himself in nothing, shown no political courage, since becoming leader.
He well deserves to fall on his face.
I will always hold his ambition and ego responsible if Harper gains a majority and proceeds to tear down the decent Canada we all love.
Intellectuals are supposed to "know themselves," and it couldn't be more clear that Ignatieff either has no idea of his own limited political capacities or has such an ego he believes himself capable of tasks for which he has no talent.
Good-bye, Mr Ignatieff, you won't be missed.
As the saying goes, don't forget to close the door on your way out.
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Again, so long as Quebec has been out of play for the Liberals and Conservatives - the very basis for the horrible minority freak show we've experienced for some years - the only way to defeat Harper is through a coalition.
Mr. Dion and Jack Layton both understood this basic truth, but the Don Quixote of Canadian Liberal politics, the one wearing the colors of the Pentagon on his sleeve, did not.
This silly man actually sneered at Dion's signing up to a coalition.
Ignatieff is so ineffective a politician, he countered Harper's appeal to ignorance with his dishonest "stab in the back" stuff about coalitions "stealing elections" only by the most insipid statements.
Well, Harper has been a prime minister with the support of only one-third of Canadians. The two-thirds against him all represent some degree or other of progressive vote.
That's not democracy.
A coalition of the two-thirds would have been.
And just try telling the dozens of governments in the world who have been or are ruled by coalitions that they stole elections.
Only the truly ignorant repeat this Hitler-like mantra.
Coaltions are everywhere and always a valid part of parliamentary government.
You blew it, Ignatieff, big time.
Unfortunately, we'll all have to pay for your blundering and meddling.
