Casually and, almost, with pride, Michael Ignatieff declared he owned no stocks. He never owned a single stock in his entire life. No mutual funds, nothing.
That’s right, the future would-be king has no personal experience of making a single decision around investing in companies. Not even with his banker to decide whether to put RRSP contributions into a dividend fund or index fund. He wouldn’t know the difference. Or, if at best, he understood the notional difference, he had no experience of the difference.
Well, he’s in the perfect party then. Its all about brown bags of other people’s money in Italian restaurants.
The second coming of trudeau, look out. Another silver tongued reality void academic with press in tow is about to smother us with their superior views of the world and how it should work.
No wonder he is seeking the highest post in the land. He wants the pention and perks at retirement. He has to start getting his financial house in order, medicare, benifits and all.(sarc- off)What a putts!
another entitled elitist only hours away from a defined benefits plan even if he loses.
“entitled to his entitlements” how much more liberal can you get with other peoples money. the only lieberal with a longer list of entitlements would be Bob Rae.
The first sign of a good leader is one who realizes they do not know everything, admit what they do not know and surrounds themselves with those who do.
Apparently Harper is not a leader.
I think it may have to do with his former employer making those decisions for him.
“we’ll take care of you, you don’t have to worry about your retirement” and on that note, his party affiliation makes perfect sense.
we’ll take care of you… that statism rules his thought process, worries me more than the cash in the italian restaurants.
Not that there’s anything wrong with italian restaurants… maybe they only need to be Liberal Free Zones?
Yeah. But how many does his wife own???
It’s not about demonstrating a lack of experience at making responsible financial decisions, it’s about a (purported) lack of exposure to, dependence on, or personal stake in what most Canadians now see as an inherently and irrevocably corrupt and unstable financial sector.
What Ignatieff meant by the comment is “My money is my own, I earned it all fairly, and it’s real, it’s not an illusion sustained by a numbers game which could vanish as easily as it was built. In other words, I’m just like most of you.”
The truth of this impression is debatable, but after all, if we are going to jump all over politicians for being too entangled with corrupt financial interests, we can’t blame them for trying to make a selling point out of not being so entangled.
So this is what is has come to.
This race is for the Liberal Party of Toronto, going through its final death throes and isolated from the rest of Canada.
Only one true national party remains.
If Iggy does not own stocks, that’s his own business.
The fact the two perceived front-runners for an alleged national party are former college roommates and both represent Toronto ridings is kinda frightening, yet at the same time laughable.
Yesss…. which one of “the tranna twins” are you going to vote for, roomates, oh boy next there will be touching stories of their “college days” you know a couple of wild and crazy guys drinking each others bathwater.I just love the Iggster pontifacating about “a higher moral tone” and then reviling the Conservatives for holding down and keeping the “huddled masses” from their chance to succeed, and of course “liar liar” couched in lib-speak, “the truth is not in them” what a silly talking-head this limo-liberano is of course he dosen’t own any stock! that is for commoners, grubby really, begs the question… how much does Zuzzzanna Zee own?
cheers Bubba
Stephen J:
Putting aside the question of whether or not the money that an “intellectual” professor-type makes is something that they actually earned…
Even if your read of what he meant is true, he is still exposed here.
You know darn well that if Iggy is asked (he has already probably been asked), “Is Stephen Harper handling the situation with the financial markets as well as can be expected?”, he must reply “No” and he must say what the Conservatives are doing wrong and present the alternative measures that he would take.
But, he has just hobbled himself. There is now no way that he can attack Harper or the Conservatives on the handling of the situation with the markets…because someone who has less experience with the markets than the average citizen can’t be taken seriously with regards to coming up with policies to help heal the markets.
This, of course, assumes that journalists will throw this back in his face when he presents his alternative positions. Since, we’re in Canada, it is unlikely that they will.
But, in any case, this is new ammunition for the Conservatives should Iggy become the next Liberal leader. If that happens, expect the Conservatives to air ads within days of the Lib convention that will use this angle.
Iggy has just handed the Conservatives a powerful “Not-A-Leader” style quote. Maybe losing Dion won’t be so bad for the Conservatives after all.
iggy (when I type in “iggy” into my iPhone it automatically spell corrects it to “iffy” hmmm) is the mirror image of Sarah palin. The knock on Sarah – at least partially deserved – is that she knows much about America and that she doesn’t know jack about the world outside of America. Iggy on the other hand knows lots about the world but has about as much knowledge of the lives of canadians as an immigrant from Eritrea stepping of a plane in Winnipeg for the first time.
I want to hear him explain why TPSAs are a bad thing or how CCAs work. I bet he hasn’t a clue. Do canadians want to put a guy who admits he is a babe in the woods on things financial in as PM at a time like this?
Maybe we will get to delight on a deer in the headlights moment akin to steffi’s ctv gaffe.
for the record I think TPSAs are a GREAT thing but I assume iggy and the live think they are bad.
Boob Rae & Iggy, both hoping to be
The next new Leader of the LPC
One’s an old commie, who ruined an economy
The other a dilettante who lived overseas
Two old white guys from Ontario-i-eeeee
Barrel scraping efforts by the Liberal Party
As a tory, I’m hoping they go with iggy. As one pundit said, he’s very egalitarian, he’s willing to talk down to anybody.
I’ve seen Leblanc on TV a few times, and i hope the lib establishent keeps ignoring him. He’s experienced, bilingual, not from toronto and seems the sort of person who could become very popular.
Whenever I see a picture of Iggy, why do I invariably think of that big tall guy on the “Munsters”?
Iggy is the grandson of Russian aristocrats. Iggy’s grandmother’s family owned massive estates and the serfs that lived on that land. The Ignatieff side of the family were less wealthy but certainly not beggars. The Ignatieff’s were Military/Government people. Iggy’s grandfather was the last education minister of the last Czar of Russia. The Ignatieff family fled Russia during the Revolution and were forced to adjust to life in England, with middle class people, without much money. The Ignatieff’s had some money and they bought a farm in England that became a refuge for Russian emigres (of the same aristocratic class as themselves). When the English farm failed, the Ignatieff’s moved to Canada. It was a BIG slide DOWN for such a powerful family and the members could not fail to dress themselves in their past in order to face the less enticing future that the lack of money dictated. Bitterness is a hall mark of such disenfranchised people. Cuban Plantation owners, the defeated wealthy Rebels (Confederates) in USA, the Landlords of Kenya, South Africa, etc. were in the same boat. People like this feel like ‘fish out of water’ in the world of enterprising middle class people, further they resent being ‘subjected’ to the petty (grubbing) business of making money to live…it is considered beneath them, in their own minds. This is probably Iggy’s mindset, he likely believes the ‘serfs’ (us) of Canada are no more capable of running our own lives than were the Russian serfs on his grandparent’s estates. He ‘suffers’ through discussions with the complaining ‘unwashed’ and gives a patronizing moment for their concerns but he never considers himself as a peer! Iggy, IMO is the epitome of a person who feels ‘entitled’, he does not consider Canadians competent to run this country, he considers himself and his ilk our natural betters and our natural leaders.
Any Totalitarian type of government appeals to such elitists:Communism/Czarism/Monarchy/Fascism, all systems that keep the ‘cream’ at the top and the milk watery. The last Czar of Russia (Nicolas II) put his family’s happiness above the importance of providing Russian soldiers with guns and ammo when they were sent into battle. The mindset of the ‘entitled’ is never about what they can do for their country, it is always about what a country can do for them.
I’m looking forward to seeing our first ever Romulan running for Prime Minister.
Dean:
I think it is fair to say that an overwhelming majority of cpc delegates at the convention this week would much prefer to see the LPc have Rae as leader – we have lots and lots of video to show cdns how things were in Ontario under rae. And if rae would hve no chAnce in winning the premiership of ontario again how could possibly win Canada?
Jema 54:
I like your analysis.
Both Boob Rae and Puffin poopin Iggy are equally arrogant,Liberal leadership,the gift that keeps on giving.With either of these two at the helm maybe the electorate can finally rid Canada of the natural governing party.
A few further thoughts on “the man who would be King” Like Dion he has been very removed from the world that most of us live and work in, Dion not even a drivers licence, Iggy no stocks , investments? Lived more of his life out of Canada then in. I wonder what coulor the sky is on that planet? Throwing Lizzy Mae into the mix as all three of them thought they were defined by P M Stephen Harper, this is almost as bizzare as the “debate” where it looked like four very spoiled childern howling around the feet of our P M for sprinkles on their ice cream. Lizzy says that “most pundits feel she won the debate” I guess there must be “bonus points” for rudeness and talkingveryfastovereverybodyelse and finger pointing. The Greens will keep running candidates it does help us, kind of balances out scrambling for the mute button when Lizzy speaks .I hope the Lieberano debate is caught on tape and blogged should be very enlightening.very interesting post from jema 54 may I ask where this info comes from? this next little while should be very interesting, who said canuck politics is dull. Better than hockey, really.
What Dominic LeBlanc is hoping is that with Rae and Ignatieff focused on each other, he can slip up the middle. Is this leadership race going to therefore follow the same path as the last one, which saw the polarization between Ignatieff and Rae enable Dion to slip up the middle.
LeBlanc, however, is no Dion; he’s not a sheltered academic lost in the words of the seminar room. He’s been elected several times; he’s part of the Canadian political establishment, closely linked to Chretien and Trudeau (son of Romeo LeBlanc, the GG appointed by Chretien who was accused of patronage in so doing).
I suspect that the Liberals will go for LeBlanc. However, even if they do this, their major problem is: policy. They have none. They have long, long ago lost even the idea of having policies, focusing their attention on ‘getting the vote’ by means of bribery, voter manipulation, massive subsidies – all of which they were able to do because they were in power and so, could readily access the taxpayers’ money.
Now that the Liberals don’t have their hand in the bank, so to speak, and can’t bribe and manipulate the electorate – they are stalled. They have no policies and don’t even understand the term. They only know two tactics: bribe and pride.
Bribery, via isolating the population into ‘special interest groups’ (multiculturalism, gender, sexual orientation, etc etc) and funding each group as dependent on the govt. Bribery via tactics such as Adscam. Bribery via promises that are never fulfilled.
Pride via manipulation of emotions, with lots of anti-Americanism, lots of ‘we Canadians are tolerant’ and other such emptiness.
How will the Liberals move on, without the money for bribery? I suspect they’ll try for ‘pride’ but Canadians are themselves, ‘moving on’ and into a different and more realistic view of themselves. Not an easy task for the Liberals.
Jema and et: good analysis both.
I just can’t see the lp nominating a second leader in a row from Quebec who has no base outside of it (dion arguably had no base inside ofit).
Hey friends, its all ok! Iggy’s a Liberal, and being a Liberal means you never have to say “I don’t know what I’m doing.” ‘Cause the CBC and CTV will make it look like you do, no matter what.
Iggy will just turn these finance questions over to those fellas with the bags fulla money, and everything will be fine. Leaving him free to concentrate on the really -important- things, like transgendered washroom access in churches. In Timmins.
Wish I was rich enough I did not have to worry about pensions, stock markets and my home value.
Does he know the price of gas or bread?
Does he care?
Toronto already has an American mayor , and we almost had an American MP for the Green Party
if Ms.May had ran her campaign with her mouth shut.
Has nobody wondered why Mayor Miller has sent several large Tax-payer funded contracts to his buddies in the USA , keep this in mind when you use a TTC token or the new Monster Grey-Bins for garbage or Blue bin for recycled items.
BTW
I love it that Obama is now hinting at a UAW Auto bail-out that might include a “Buy-American” clause to pull out of canada to save THEIR Union jobs as Buzz Hardgrove wanted for canada even though the CAW members filled their homes with products from Mexico and China.
Ohhhhhh the irony for the NDp and CAW.
So we can take from that bit, that he will not be ok’ing any interviews with Steve Murphy.
Thanks for the Russian background on Iggy, Jema54.
He’s also comes from aristocratic stock (Canadian variety) on his mother’s side: She was Alison Grant whose grandfather, George Monro Grant, was the principal of Queen’s University. Her younger brother was the political philosopher George Grant (1918-1988), author of “Lament for a Nation.”
‘Nothing wrong with being born with a silver spoon in your mouth–after all, you can’t help it. It’s your lot in life, a given that you have no control over.
My problem with what Iggy’s antecedents bequeathed him with has to do with what he’s doing with it. He’s aligned himself with a political party (allowing himself to be shamelessly parachuted into the riding he won) which happily takes the tax dollars of Canadians not endowed with silver spoons–in other words, us working chumps who have to work hard for a living, paying our own way, not playing the “victim” card–and hands them to the latest victim groups ordained to be at the top of the heap a la lib-left orthodoxy.
I have no problem with silver-spoon-mouthed Iggy being a Harvard prof. and internationally acclaimed author. That was on his own dime. I do, however, have a huge problem with his parachuting into Canadian politics largely because of the pull of his name and antecedents (father a Canadian diplomat and former provost of Trinity College, U. of T.). That he’s willing to become the leader of a morally and financially bankrupt political party makes you wonder where his moral compass is at.
At this point, Dominic LeBlanc looks like the most legitimate contender for the LPC leader’s mantel. He’s never been anything but a Liberal, unlike Iggy and BoBo, and hasn’t spent the last 30 years of his life living outside Canada. He has, however, as ET points out, plenty of political pull by “virtue” of Romeo LeBlanc being his father and Chretien’s pick for G-G.
Should be an interesting race …
Is it true that Chretien is also Dominic LeBlanc’s Godfather?
And, Dominic grew up playing with the little Trudeau boys at 24 Sussex while he was living in the GG mansion?
Do you not think that Dominic himself feels like he may be of the “pre-ordained Liberal elite” to bring his great Liberal self to save the unwashed masses from the evil conservatives?
If only Ted Morton had won here in Alberta. Frankly I don’t have a problem with an American if voted in. Of course I dispise the Liberal crooks. I suppose if Canadians can point to an American President with a canuck back ground, we can do the same here. Most of North America is related anyway.
Thing is that would stop the American bashing from the Libs. They won’t have a whipping boy anymore to blame for all the wrongs in the world.
“I’m looking forward to seeing our first ever Romulan running for Prime Minister.” posted by Hannibal Lectern
– Now that’s funny!
Seriously, when you have an elite like Iggy basically saying he’s “above” worrying about investments and the stock market, you have to wonder if he indeed does come from another planet. He will lecture us from on high, that Iggy. We don’t need another philosopher king for PM, thank you very much. He’s a guy like Dion (and Trudeau) who has nothing in common with the average Canadian.
Paul Palango’s newly released book “Dispersing the Fog” is a must read for anyone wanting to gain some rather new/up-to-date insights re Politics/Power/the state of policing in Canada. He even has some reflections on why our MSM is in the state that it is in.
He states rather casually in one of the later chapters (Page 528) that Iggy has been a long time member of both the Trilateral Commission as well as the Bilderberg Conference. These are reported to be highly secret and very powerful organizations (See Behold a Pale Horse and other such resources) that allegedly make up part of the New World Order which has as its goal a select ruling elite that will eventually control economics/politics on a global level. One has to wonder just how much of the New World Order is influencing the G20 reps right now.
It seems the Liberals are choosing between this guy and Bob Rae with his known and powerful connections to Power Corp (read Desmarais family). The same family with strong family ties to Chretien and to Mulroney and who is generally seen as the king maker in terms of most any prime minister.
Who becomes the next Liberal leader should be of concern to all Canadians.
To paraphrase Lyndon Baines Johnson,
Iggy’s full of this “noblesse oblige” shit.
He earned his money selling books, speaking, being a prof and part time journalist…yup he is just like you and me.
Deaf ear….if he is going to try to play Mr average he is going to lose against Harper, who s the epitome of middle class. Middle class upringing and prior to his decent salary as PM was pretty middle class…now he has a good salary and a pension plan he never has to worry about saving for retirement.
Anyway, Iggy shouldnt be ashamed for his success, but he clearly feels defensive. But I cannot believe he has never owned a stock, a bond or a mutual fund….he may not have chosen it, he likely handed over that to an investment advisor. But the claim may be incorrect, he just may not know it.
Problem is his investments were likely done in the US and the UK so you would never know….one wonders if someone in the UK does know.
A group of Liberals are trying the HRC strategy, Iggy is inevitable. This might work for him, but it carries big backfire potential.
We all know where “bare ass” Bob Rae stands with Power Corp. Could it be possible Mr Leblanc (because of his close relationship with Chretien” is in some way beholding to Power Corp. I trust none of them.
“Whenever I see a picture of Iggy, why do I invariably think of that big tall guy on the “Munsters”?”
Because there is a pretty strong resemblance to Fred Gwynne, aka Herman Munster.
http://www.imdb.com/media/rm2842859520/ch0028728
Let me see if I got this straight – Iggy was a professor at Harvard, presumably making a Harvard professor’s princely salary. Yet he never owned a mutual fund in his life. Strange. It’s not like the US doesn’t have retirement programs like RRSPs.
So are we to assume that Iggy’s a spendthrift who doesn’t save for retirement, or he’s an economically challenged, common-sense-dumb professor who never met with an investment advisor (who’d tell him to keep a good percentage of their retirement savings mutual funds as well as bonds – like most normal working people)? And Harvard even offers its employees classes on financial planning in connection with its RRSP-similar 403(b) plan, so he has no excuse.
These sorts of “revelations” usually can’t stand close scrutiny. I didn’t see the interview but if the discussion went immediately to stocks and mutual funds and stopped there, I would smell a rat.
Many on the left are miserly when it comes to spending their own funds. Art, property, trusts, advances, patrons, gifts, etc can be lucrative. More please.
He’s a guy like Dion (and Trudeau) who has nothing in common with the average Canadian.
Posted by: Soccermom at November 16, 2008 5:50 PM
Indeed. That won’t stop millions of lemming Canadians from voting for him though … those people who want the government to pay their mortgage and fill their gas tanks.
This is a man who hasn’t lived in Canada for the better part of 3 decades, and who now says he hasn’t invested a dime in stocks or mutual funds in his life. Could this man be any further removed from the experience of average Joe and Jane Canuck?
They should make Iggy and Rae drive out to Vancouver for the convention. I’d be willing to bet they would turn around and go home somewhere around Brandon, and get out of politics altogether.
Bubba Brown- I got my information from a book Iggy wrote called “The Russian Album”. You can find information about both sides of his paternal grandparants in Russian History documents.
Stephen at November 16, 2008 7:21 PM
“…..But I cannot believe he has never owned a stock, a bond or a mutual fund….he may not have chosen it, he likely handed over that to an investment advisor. But the claim may be incorrect, he just may not know it.”
Which in terms of finances is even scarier than the original statement!
Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t the Liberals pick a fricken nobody like Dion just so that they wouldn’t end up with either Rae Days or Iggy Tortures?
If the two of those clowns are so unappealing they make Dion look good, how do they think they’ll sell to the general public?
One’s a former Dipper, the other is a former pro-war, pro-torture American (not even the “evil Bushitler-mini-me” Harper publicly supported torturing prisoners.)
These carpet-bagger liberals have more baggage to handle than Air France.
“The first sign of a good leader is one who realizes they do not know everything, admit what they do not know and surrounds themselves with those who do.
Apparently Harper is not a leader.”
Lib4life – you have a bad case of Obamamania.
How would you like to be owned by the Chinese like the US is?? Is that your lifestyle preference in 10 years?
If not, you should thank your lucky stars that we have an economist running our country and not some beige schmuck who is about to hyper-inflate the US economy because he doesn’t understand economics and is relying on others to give him “good” advice.
In Alberta, we prefer our voters have some common sense before they tick the ballot box. That’s why we voted for the economist.
In Alberta, we prefer our voters have some common sense before they tick the ballot box. That’s why we voted for the economist.
Please, Albertans would vote for a sack of shit if it ran under the Conservative banner.
And buying a stock or allocating RRSP contributions gives one economic expertise in much the same way as being able to see Russia gives small dead hope Sarah Palin foreign policy expertise.
Stephen J:
I agree that many of the US institutions were filled with corrupt and twisted executives, including the GSE’s, like Fanny and Freddy, and the ratings firms, like S&P and Moody’s. But in Canada? I haven’t seen any evidence that any of the Big 6 banks indulged in the balls to wall shenanigans that went on the US. If you have evidence, please present it to us.
Manny – your 0 man thinks that USA has 57 states! Governor Palin says that a person can see Russia from certain areas in Alaska (that was Tina Fey’s line that you quoted) – did you know that? Listen and learn. I did look for the ‘missing’ states – maybe O thinks Chicago is a state – look on any map to confirm what Governor Palin said. Did you know that Alaska was once a Russian colony?
“I agree that many of the US institutions were filled with corrupt and twisted executives, including the GSE’s, like Fanny and Freddy, and the ratings firms, like S&P and Moody’s. But in Canada? I haven’t seen any evidence that any of the Big 6 banks indulged in the balls to wall shenanigans that went on the US. If you have evidence, please present it to us.”
Oh, I don’t have evidence of any actual shenanigans — although in all honesty, given that the Canadian/American economies are so intertwined and that basic capitalist high finance tends to work much the same in any Western nation, I would be unsurprised to find out that we have some instabilities of our own that simply haven’t collapsed yet, and I would certainly not bet on our high financiers being necessarily more moral or more competent than America’s. We may not be as badly off as America, but there is always corruption to be found.
What I think Ignatieff was trying to do was to cleverly exploit that momentary surge in public opinion, that wave of disgust and kneejerk “ah-God-hang-’em-all-they’re-all-corrupt” anti-business sentiment, by presenting himself at the opportune moment as being an exception to the political rule. “The public hates the stock market? I’ll be a politician who’s never owned a stock! They’ll LOVE me!”
Politics is all about looking as good as you can at any particular moment, and trusting in the short half-life of public memory to forget the contradictions.