A commentor responds to the Michael Ignatieff controversy;
Incredible irony is that the riding association secretary travelled to Ukraine (on her own dollar) as an election observer during the Orange Revolution.
A year later she experiences political machinations right here at home, courtesy the Canadian government that presumed to teach Ukrainians about democracy.
Maybe we should demand the government bring over election observers from Ukraine. Maybe conservatives should start wearing orange?
Speaking of Ignatieff, Herman Goodden appears stricken with a serious case of intellectualitis.
At a dinner party over the weekend with fellow fulminating reactionary types of the conservative persuasion, the subject of Michael Ignatieff came up. The son of a diplomat and a painter, this classically educated and unfailingly thoughtful writer, scholar and broadcaster is regarded as a great leadership hopeful for the Liberal party.
Possessing Trudeau-type levels of charm and erudition, Ignatieff would certainly be a change from such uninspiring leaders as the hopelessly dithery Paul Martin and the thuggish Jean Chretien. For a couple of years now, Liberal party canvassers had been seeking to persuade Ignatieff to run for office, and he has finally taken the bait.
It remains to be seen whether a man of such refinement and integrity can retain those qualities once he’s been thoroughly processed through the crude sausage-making machinery of party politics.
In other words, a man who’s never earned an honest dollar in his life.
Such strong-arm machinations are just business as usual in party politics, but they don’t fit so comfortably with a man whose writings have constantly expressed solidarity with the down trodden and those shoved aside.
Or an honest nomination.
Ideal “leadership” material – if you belong to (or long to be accepted by) the class-obsessed culture of ruling Ottawa elites.
Re: Never earned an honest dollar in his life?
How about:
“His first book, A Just Measure of Pain: Penitentiaries in the Industrial Revolution, 1780-1850, a study of the English penal system, was published in 1978. The Russian Album (1987) is a memoir of his family’s experience in nineteenth-century Russia and its subsequent exile to Europe and, eventually, Canada. It won the Governor General’s Award for Non-Fiction (Canada) and the Heinemann Award. His first novel, Asya, a love story about a Russian living in Paris and London during World War II, was published in 1991, and was followed by Scar Tissue (1993), a powerful examination of love and the acceptance of loss, which was shortlisted for both the Booker Prize for Fiction and the Whitbread Novel Award.
His acclaimed biography of Isaiah Berlin, the result of ten years’ research, was published in 1998. It was shortlisted for both the Jewish Quarterly Literary Prize for Non-Fiction and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize (for fiction). The Warrior’s Honour: Ethnic War and the Modern Conscience (1998) is an examination of modern warfare and its complex moral implications, and Virtual War: Kosovo and Beyond (2000), which won the George Orwell Prize, is a study of the NATO bombing of Kosovo, and Human Rights as Politics and Idolatry (2001) is an account of the successes, failures and prospects of advances in human rights. His most recent book on ethnic war and intervention, Empire Lite: Nation Building in Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, was published in 2003. Charlie Johnson in the Flames: A Novel, the story of a veteran war correspondent whose rash expedition into the war-torn Balkans has life-changing consequences, was published in the same year. His most recent book is The Lesser Evil: Political Ethics in an Age of Terror (2004).”
Reference for above:
http://www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=auth141
Yeah, that’s about what I meant.
Jean Augustine’s website:
” She is committed to social justice issues and continuously works to champion women’s rights and equality in Parliament.”
DUMPED by Mikhail Ignatieff & the Librano$$$$$$$$
Black women’s rights & equality shot down with her>> more
Initiatives
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Jean is involved in numerous parliamentary associations at the House of Commons. She is committed to social justice issues and continuously works to champion women’s rights and equality in Parliament.
Jean is founder of the Canadian Association of Parliamentarians on Population and Development and played an instrumental role in the establishment of the Canada-Africa Parliamentary Group. These groups are the first of their kind to be established at the House of Commons.
Jean initiated two important Motions in the Parliament of Canada which give recognition to the contributions of Canadian women and Blacks to Canadian society.
As a result of her commitment to equality February was declared nationally as Black History Month and the Famous Five Statue has a home on Parliament Hill.
Jean actively works to ensure that the people of Etobicoke-Lakeshore and other Canadians have access to credit to undertake micro-initiatives for self-sufficiency. To this end she introduced a Private Member’s Bill on the issue.
http://www.jeanaugustine.com/initiatives/
I don’t question whether Ignatieff is hard-working and honest. His position on Iraq is encouraging, as it is plainly not the simple anti-Bush politicking that infects the left. A problem with academics as leaders (e.g., Trudeau) is tendancy to be poor administrators and flakes on economic matters. There is just no indication Ignatieff would be any different.
agree with Kate.
in a world of publish or perish he should have starved to death by now.
10 years of research for that book? its not like the stuff had to translated out of Sumerian or found on a papyrus strip.
sounds like a “ditherer in waiting” or a victim of fibromyalisis— can someone see if he collected UI or EI in his long tenure of research?? gubmint grants.??? liberal kickbacks??
none of those sound like best sellers.more like best left in the cellar.
I commend Ignatieff for his position on Iraq as well, and I have no doubt he’s an intelligent man.
What popped the balloon for me was the manner in which he allowed himself to be placed in that riding.
He’s displaying the traits of a textbook intellectual, “think as I think, but ignore what I do”.
I guess even Massachusetts can have too many tenured lefty dorks.
You can’t swing a dead commie around that state without connecting with a fat socialist highly educated melon.
The funny part is all the lied to lakeshore liberal delegates and their election teams even Jean Agottascream and all her hangers-on will shrug and aid this Massachusetts reject.
Business as usual!
Nobody’s buying liberal socialist crap on the south side of the border so, Americans are sending back our lefty intelligencia exports.
Brain drain finds it’s reverse gear, for lieberals.
Hey come on now! I’ve read a couple of his books, and quite liked them, and like other commentators here, find his position on the Iraq war quite refreshing. I am just disappointed he’s going to wear the Red button and not the Blue.
Folks, make sure you read his stuff before ya come out swingin’! He’s definitely not a Commie and probably not even a socialist!
EPW
Kate,
Don’t go all wobbly on us now. The Claremont Review of Books reviewed Ignatieff books. I find it interesting that the *same* book can qualify for prizes in both the fiction and non-fiction world.
But literary ability and leadership? Ignatieff is no Winston Churchill and I still remember Churchill’s withering criticism of Henry James as an incorrigible windbag.
Ignatieff continues a fine tradition of establishment liberals (Alcock, Flloyd Axworthy, PET) going to US East Coast Ivy League schools (because Canada doesn’t have schools of that caliber — Heh. Why not? Ask Ken Dryden) and then parachuting back into Canada.
In the US, as PET admitted on a Charlie Rose interview, it would be difficult for them to compete. Canada is easy pickings for someone who in the States would have to fight twenty times the conservative intellectual firepower.
Something tells me this dude won’t be getting any cabbage rolls and coffee from Mrs. Vilvi Yachki.
Ignatieff has written both fiction and non-fiction (including a Booker-nominated novel). He’s a first-rate intellectual, a good writer, and a successful journalist. He has, in short, worked hard in his life.
Kate, I suppose it’s the dog grooming aspect of your life which you consider working, but not the journalistic end?
No Peter, its the Desmarais bootlicking that bothers Kate. Kate doesn’t lick her dogs when she grooms them.
Yes, I don’t recall Ignatieff licking any Demarais boots.
I suppose there’s a entry somewhere on the site criticising Harper for installing Culter in Ottawa South over Allan Riddell?
http://www.leadership2004.ca/2004/speech_igantieff.cfm
Peter,
You live in a cave. Coming from Plato, thats
not a compliment.
Wow! He appeared on the same stage as Demarais! Holy Shit!
Ignatieff went to Upper Canada College secondary school and then studied political science at Trinity College in the University of Toronto. There he met fellow student (and later Premier of Ontario) Bob Rae, who became a longtime close friend. After Toronto, Ignatieff and Rae both went to Oxford University where they studied under the liberal theorist Isaiah Berlin. He received his PhD in History from Harvard University in 1976.
….
Rae’s brother John is a Vice-President of Power Corporation, and is a prominent member of the Liberal Party.
A conspiracy under each rock. I am sorry I didn’t see the connection. His college roommate’s brother is vice-president of a company whose head he once shared a stage with. Imagine the plotting that went on in a dormitory room 30 years ago to hatch that plan! No doubt the planning also included a nefarious plot to screw local candidates by circumventing a nomination process 30 years on. I wonder, did the plot also include getting Harper to do the same in Ottawa South?
“I am sorry I didn’t see the connection.”
I am fresh out of frying pans to hit you over the head with. If you are a cave dweller a quick google through Wikipedia would show that Bob Rae’s family has always had strong ties to the Liberal party. Rae was initially rebuffed by the NDP because of them. He maintains his strong ties to the Liberals, including advising Anne McLelland, the beloved Liberal daughter of Edmonton.
Sorry I can’t draw it out on an Etcha Sketch for you.
And, of course, we know that Power Corp has no strong ties to Chretien, Martin, Mulroney, Peter MacKay, etc etc so we’re all imagining it.
Forget I said anything. Keep it between us tinfoil hat wearers. Mr. Kotter will be back in class any second and you can ask him.
Hey Bud, I am not denying that the Desmarais have influence and connections throughout Canadian politics. They’re a successful company and family in a small country. My point is that the connection to Ignatieff is very tenuous.
“My point is that the connection to Ignatieff is very tenuous.”
As is your perception. Enjoy your tax return. Many happy returns. Ignore the man behind the curtain. Ken Dryden is a genius. Stephen Harper is scary. Canada has the best healthcare system in the world.
Waiting lists are good for you.
Another cut on the Ignatieff affair is here:
http://www.thiscanada.com/2005/11/29/ignatieff-values/
Enjoy, Erik
Ignatieff earned his academic postions and income from this books. They wouldn’t have been published unless the publishers saw commercial potential in them.
Note also: “A regular broadcaster and critic on television and radio, Michael Ignatieff has hosted many programmes including Channel 4’s Voices, the BBC’s arts programme The Late Show, and the award-winning series Blood and Belonging: Journeys into the New Nationalism, first screened by the BBC in 1993, examining the issue of nationalism in the late twentieth century.”
http://www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=auth141
It was on the BBC that he made his reputation as a “public intellectual”. Given the depth and ability of the British chattering class (compared to Canada’s which is essentially non-existent in terms of talent–ten people at most) that is quite an achievement against very stiff competition.
Which not to say that the manner of his nomination is not downright slimey, and that one would have expected much better of Mr Ignatieff.
Mark
Ottawa
“It was on the BBC that he made his reputation”
Um, perhaps, just perhaps, because he went to Oxford that’s why he was on the BBC? Anyone think the Beeb is the best of the best?
Nope.
Mark:
You obviously have been blinded, like me, to the reality that the Demarais family controls the BBC.
I agree with you, too, that the Liberals could have done a better job on this nomination. For example, they could have strong-armed the candidates a la the Cons with Riddell in Ottawa South, rather than just locked them out of the party office.
A horse, a horse! My kingdom for a horse!
Harvard Man on Horseback by Colby Cosh. At fine cheese stores everywhere…..
“Of course, he’s been watching it all unfold from various perches like the BBC, the Soros Foundation, and his present posting at the Kennedy School of Government, which is nothing if not a self-conscious laboratory for the creation of a global �narque class. And, without doubt, a suitable distance can allow one to see the whole forest instead of just the neighbouring trees. Still, it’s a bit much to play the immigrant card on your own behalf. “Hey, believe me, I know all about what it’s like to flee a stagnant authoritarian country for greener pastures–my Russian grandparents did it, and so did I…”
http://colbycosh.com/old/april05.html#hmhi
“You obviously have been blinded, like me, to the reality that the Demarais family controls the BBC.”
You remind of the old joke — saying to the blind man:
“Don’t make a spectacle of yourself.”
Good post Kate!..right on the nail..the man should have know better.
Plato’s Stepchild: A certain J.R. Saul (perfect fluency in French) never had a regular gig on French television when he lived in Paris in the mid-80s with his partner, the Agent General of Ontario. Therein lies a difference. Thousands go to Oxford, including many Canadians. Only Ignatieff has of late made such a public impact.
Mark
Ottawa
“Thousands go to Oxford, including many Canadians.”
Read Cosh’s comment about George Grant, and remember the Trinity College/London England connection.
Plato’s Stepchild: A quote from the Cosh post, ravaging the Commies: something we have not had from leading Liberals in some time (hint: PET):
“It is a respect I am tempted to share. Last night, during a long evening power outage in my neighbourhood, I settled in with a flashlight and a recent book I venerate, Robert Conquest’s Reflections on a Ravaged Century. Lo and behold, who should turn up in its earliest pages but the 1992 incarnation of Ignatieff, in the guise of a BBC interviewer, giving E.J. Hobsbawm a most deserved what-for about his unapologetic Communism. On questions of geopolitics, Ignatieff is admirably uncringing, especially for a leader in the global human rights industry.”
And there’s more:
“For supporting the Iraq war, questioning the apostolic bona fides of the UN, and accepting the legitimacy of superpower intervention against rogue states, Ignatieff has already been permanently tarred on the Left as a late-life neoconvert.”
The dread “neo”. One saddens that Mickey Eye hasn’t had a good heart-to-heart with Stephen Aitch.
Oops: yet more:
“Like others I would feel a intellectual’s satisfaction at living in a country where Ignatieff and Stephen Harper were the leaders of the two main parties. But the truth is that political leadership has done much to de-intellectualize Stephen Harper; and when it comes to the state of Canada, I’m frankly not certain that Ignatieff wouldn’t already come pre-de-intellectualized.”
Of course Cosh also takes many good and justified shots at Ignatieff and his affaire with the liberaux.
But my eventual reaction to the piece is that sadly Canada, as is, sucks. And Harper seems more and more likely, in policy terms, to end up a warmed-over PC. Being slightly to the right of Joe Clark is being slightly to the left of Howard Dean.
Mark
Ottawa
Duffy had a couple of the disgruntled would-be candidates who have been usurped by Iggy-Not. They want the Libs to rethink the decision but conceded, no matter what the outcome, they’re still Liberals at heart. I’ve lost sympathy with them and they will get exactly what they deserve.
“The United Nations is a messy, wasteful, log-rolling organization.”
http://www.macleans.ca/culture/books/article.jsp?content=20030623_61383_61383
Despite all this, one thing is certain: Ignatieff cannot spell “Ottowa” — my blog boasts a screenshot of his CV
Plato’s Stepchild: Mickey Eye is quoted as saying:
“But to be a serious peacekeeper in a modern world of failed states and civil wars, you have to have tanks, helicopters, military lift. Expensive.”
Indeed. Canada will soon have no tanks, we have no heavy-lift helicopters (that was part of the $12.2 billion aircraft acquisition package the Liberals recently rejected), and our military lift is close to pushing up daisies (the $4.6 billion Hercules replacement just approved by the Liberals is unlikely to produce operational aircraft in less than three years).
Mark
Ottawa
Sheila Copps speaks on AdScam Martin’s “war” on democracy. White male replaces black woman by Librano$ fiat/command>>
Liberal democracy? Ha!
OTTAWA — The Orange revolution that brought democracy to Ukraine may have just met its match in the nomination machinations of the Liberal Party of Canada.
Having just sidelined longtime Quebec Liberal Nick Discepola in favour of astronaut Marc Garneau, party insiders this week had their sights set on landing another “star.” The abrupt resignation of Jean Augustine, Canada’s first black woman cabinet minister, paved the way for the entry of Harvard intellectual and putative Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff in the riding of Etobicoke-Lakeshore.
The loss of Augustine, a three-time chair of the woman’s caucus and one-time minister of multiculturalism and status of women, continues the erosion of strong women and minorities in Parliament. That she should step aside for another white male speaks to the absence of true equality that plagues the political process in general and the Liberal Party in particular.
A longtime party worker fired off an email which sums up the frustration of those in the trenches sideswiped by this clumsy manipulation: “What an outrage. She was the only black woman (representing) the GTA. Couldn’t they have found another riding for him? This culture of entitlement is quite tiresome.”
The Grits will lose more than a strong minority voice. The party that literally wrote the book on multiculturalism sends a clear message that when it comes to real role models in leadership, their money is still on white men. And they plan to use your money to make the “democratic deficit” in Etobicoke-Lakeshore disappear.
Several Liberal members, including the chair of the interim committee on national security, Derek Lee, confirmed Augustine will be offered a job by the provincial Liberal government in the near future. Sources say she will be working on a badly needed strategy for race relations for the education ministry. No one would contest her credentials, but the idea that a federal Grit seat should open at the 11th hour through a future provincial appointment just fuels cynicism. The deal was apparently sealed by Karl Littler, national Liberal campaign director and Laura Miller, who works in the Ontario premier’s appointments office.
Prime Minister Paul Martin says — with a straight face — that the Etobicoke-Lakeshore nomination was completely open. >>>
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1531073/posts
TURMOIL EMBROILS EGGHEAD LIB CANDIDACY
A candidacy in shambles. It wasn’t meant to be this way for the self-styled saviour of Canada. Michael Ignatieff, the 20-years-abroad egghead who’s Harvard-based perch was thought by acolytes to be the perfect springboard for a thinly-veiled assault on the Prime Minister’s Office, all conveniently dollied-up as the second coming of Pierre Elliott Trudeau. Now, however, his undemocratic drop-in “acclamation” is being rebuffed in Etobicoke-Lakeshore as determined local Liberals, including the president of the Toronto branch of the Ukrainian Congress, move forward with their own nomination meeting tonight. This growing nightmare can only find one logical outcome. Ignatieff will have to step aside. Worse, senior Liberals in Toronto, Bourque has learned, are readying a game plan that will allow the egghead to step aside in favour of devoting more time to his students. Developing >>>
via bourque.com
Maz2: Iggy-Not used that same line yesterday. Trial balloon, I guess. He was asked, no doubt by a Liberal plant, when it came to his candidacy or his students, which came first. His reply was, of course, his students. He owed it to them blah blah blah. Tuned out at that point. Too sickened by the b.s. and feigned stoicism to bear it. Who was it who said you can tell a man by the company he keeps? Paul Hellyer, Marc Garneau: Liberal space cadets, oui? But I’ve lost all respect for Garneau for falling in line with the Lib party line. I don’t care how many times he’s ingested Tang in space. Associating himself with a party tainted by kickbacks and intimidation tactics says a lot about the man. He apparently figures that soaring above the earth has put above mere mortals generally.
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
PRESS RELEASE � FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ETOBICOKE. The Executive of the Etobicoke-Lakeshore Federal Liberal Riding Association wishes to clarify the status of the nomination applications filed by two members of the riding association.
Although Liberal Party of Canada (Ontario) officials have yet to communicate their decision to nomination applicants Ron Chyczij and Marc Shwec personally, Michael Crawley, President of the LPC(O) has indicated in his press release that the Liberal Party of Canada (Ontario) and the Ontario Campaign Co-Chairs have rejected nominations of both applicants.
The nomination application of Marc Shwec was purportedly rejected on the grounds that he “was not and does not appear to have ever been, a member of the Liberal Party of Canada.” Myroslava Oleksiuk, Membership Secretary for the Etobicoke-Lakeshore Federal Liberal Riding Association, has confirmed that she accepted the application of Mr. Shwec on November 17, 2005 in the course of the association’s ongoing membership drive. “Normally, we wait until we have 25 or more memberships before we deliver them to Party headquarters downtown. We don’t drive down each individual application and I, as the Membership Secretary, have the authority under the Constitution, to accept membership applications,” Oleksiuk stated. “The Call for a Candidate Nomination Meeting was made before I could deliver the application of Mr. Shwec, and others, to LPC(O) offices. That has now been done and as far as the Constitution of the Party is concerned, Mr. Shwec is a member in good standing,” said Oleksiuk.
Ms. Oleksiuk confirmed that she has not received a membership application from Michael Ignatieff. “I don’t know what riding association Mr. Ignatieff belongs to. The Constitution of the Liberal Party of Canada requires that members be “ordinarily resident in Canada.” I understand that Mr. Ignatieff has spent the last 30 years living and working outside of Canada,” said Oleksiuk. “If I had been asked, as Membership Secretary, to accept a membership application from Mr. Ignatieff, I would have questioned his eligibility for membership, particularly if it was made at a point in time when he was still working outside of Canada.”
Ron Chyczij’s application was purportedly rejected because he had not resigned his position on the executive of the riding association. “Despite repeated calls to LPC(O) offices, none of which have been returned, I have yet to be personally notified of the reason that my application appears to have been rejected. One of the difficulties of this entire process has been the severely short time lines established by the Party. As you know, the time between the Call of the Meeting and the deadline for submission of nomination applications was less than 24 hours, and there is a tremendous amount of work involved in completing an application, including police and credit checks. Nevertheless, both applications were correctly completed and submitted in keeping with the constitution of the Liberal Party, ” said Mr. Chyczij. �I am prepared to submit my resignation as President of the riding association, if the constitution requires me to do so,� stated Ron Chyczij.
“I understand that Mr. Crawley, President of the LPC(O) stated to the press that he was satisfied that the Party followed the procedures and policies related to the nomination of candidates in an electoral emergency. I do not believe that was the case,” said Ron Chyczij. “The Rules require that in order to declare electoral urgency, the National Campaign Chair must provide written notice to the President or any member of the Executive of the riding association which is being affected. That was not done,” stated Chyczij. “Furthermore, the Rules require that they must communicate the nature of any abridged time limits or alterations to the procedures to the affected riding association. That was not done,” Ron Chyczij clarified. “There has never been a declaration of electoral urgency in Etobicoke-Lakeshore or any notification. The only communication I received from the Party was late Friday evening advising that they wished to call a Nomination Meeting on 5 days notice. I believe that Mr. Ignatieff received notice of the abridged time limits and procedures, but he is not a member of this riding assocation,” Ron Chyczij stated.
Nomination Meeting:
Wednesday November 30, 2005
6:00 pm
1 Valhalla Inn Road (on the left hand side)
(one block south of Burnhamthorpe turn west off The East Mall
or 2 block north of Bloor)
————————————————————————
Contact:
Myroslava Oleksiuk
Membership Secretary
Etobicoke-Lakeshore Federal Liberal Riding Association
416-259-3202
myroslava@rogers.com
Best not to get in this “Never earned an honest dollar in his life” bs.
What about Harper? Grad student to MP to president of a lobbying firm.
So I hear Peter McKay is going out with Sophie Desmarais. Does this add to the conspiracy theory of Canadian politics since 1968.
Seems a lot more going on in Etobicoke-Lakeshore than we’ve heard.
This story from last year shows a lot of discord there before.
http://www.thehilltimes.ca/html/index.php?display=story&full_path=/2004/october/4/abbas1/&c=1
..Four-term Liberal MP Jean Augustine, a former junior Cabinet minister in the last Parliament, says her riding was subject to a “hostile take-over” last Thursday night.
“There has been a hostile take-over of the riding association,” Ms. Augustine (Etobicoke–Lakeshore, Ont.) told The Hill Times in a telephone interview last week from her riding where she was first elected in 1993.
Ms. Augustine said her slate of 16 candidates lost control of the riding association election which may eventually lead to the loss of her Liberal nomination in the next election….
…They’ve decided that they want to make sure that the next Member of Parliament from Etobicoke Lakeshore is Ukranian,” said Ms. Augustine….
Ms. Augustine’s slate of candidates won about 85 votes while Mr. Chyczij along with 16 other Ukrainian-Canadian individuals won 106 votes.
Mr. Chyczij, the new riding association’s president, doesn’t live in the riding of Etobicoke-Lakershore, Ont., and was unavailable for an interview.
But Ms. Augustine told The Hill Times that all of the new executives of the riding association are of Ukranian-Canadian origin unlike her slate of candidates who were from a variety of cultural backgrounds.