Paul Wells revisits Ignatieff’s “pronoun problem”, saying in several paragraphs what I’ve been saying in a subject line over the past few months.
There’s been grumbling in Liberal ranks about what some call Ignatieff’s “pronoun problem” ever since he moved to Toronto in 2005. His pronoun problem is his tendency to use the first person plural — we, our — when discussing a country that isn’t Canada.
(Then again, I don’t get paid by the word).
Can you imagine somebody getting elected president of the United States whose 30-year stint outside the United States had ended less than three years earlier? Can you imagine a president of France who’d lived for 30 years in San Francisco or Seoul?
And even then, he pulls up just short of the finish line.
It’s not just that Ignatieff has lived more than 30 years out of Canada (though that alone should disqualify him), Mr. Wells. It’s that the only reason he’s back is to add another line to his resume. And therein lies Iggy’s real “pronoun problem”.
Canada – not worth living in unless they’ll make you Prime Minister.
“GETTIN JIGGY WIT IGGY”
what you wanna ball with the kid
watch your step you might fall
trying to do what I did
mama-unh mama-unh mama come closer
in the middle of the club with the rub-a-dub, unh
no love for the haters, the haters
mad cause I got floor seats at the Lakers
see me on the fifty yard line with the Raiders
met Ali he told me I’m the greatest
I got the fever for the flavor of a crowd pleaser
DJ play another
from the prince of this
your highness
only mad chicks ride in my whips
south to the west to the east to the north
bought my hits and watch ’em go off a go off
ah yes yes y’all ya don’t stop
in the winter or the (summertime)
I makes it hot
gettin jiggy wit IGGY
Cheers
Hans-Christian Georg Rupprecht, Commander in Chief
1st Saint Nicolaas Army
Army Group “True North”
shamrock – with regard to ‘narcissism’, Obama doesn’t have a ‘narcissist streak’; he has a pathological narcissism and the two are not comparable.
The former means an inflated ego and self-esteem and the individual is quite able to interact with other people and allow them to be ‘other’. The latter means that Obama cannot handle not controlling all interactions with him. It is a severe disorder where the individual cannot allow others in his ‘bubble’ to be more powerful, to be independent, and where he cannot even allow himself to be predictable…because being predicatble means that others can expect something from you. They are, in a sense, in power. So, the pathological narcissist must control all people in his ‘bubble’; must keep his options open, will change his mind without reason; will reject all criticism, will become enraged with those who seek independence from him, will blame others…Put such a pathology in a position of power, and you get a megalomaniac tendency.
Ignatieff is an egoistic sophist, a narcissist but not pathological, a supremely self-focused, arrogant person, indifferent to others except for their usefulness to his image. A latte elitist, confining himself to the socialite charity dinners and intellectual rhetoric of the continental dinner crowds. A bore.
Harper is not an egoist or narcissist; he’s extremely pragmatic, a chess-player. His focus is on Canada, not himself. He’s interested in the well-being of Canada as a modern nation – which is why he’s focused on its transportation, water and energy infrastructure, on its development of the North, on its role in foreign affairs.
Ignatieff isn’t interested in any of this; his focus is only on his own portrait hanging in the House of Commons.
Do you know how many time zones Canada has?
Michael Ignatieff dont, He states in his new book Canada has 4.
their was a recent article on how the MSM & liberals vilified Stockwell Day when he ran for PM & made a statement about which way the Niagra flows, This was in the heat of an election & someone got it wrong. Ignatieff wrote the time zone flub in a book with plenty of time to correct the error and nothing said, nothing whats so ever.
Maybe we should draft Wayne Gretzky for Prime Minister…after all his uncle Al was a Conservative candidate
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Gretzky#Albert_Gretzky_.28London_West.29
About Ignatieff’s time zone mistake – his wife is his ghost writer/editor. She doesn’t know much about Canada either.
In fact, what country is Ignatieff’s wife a citizen of?
And, do we allow non-citizens to have access to the kind of senstive documents and information that a leader of the opposition like her husband would have? Would any country allow that?
Hmmmmmmmm?
Exerp from CTV.ca article
“Ignatieff threatens election over EI reforms”
*Ignatieff also took aim at Harper, saying he dismisses those who live & work outside the country as “somehow less Canadian”
Ignatieff says while he spent many years abroad like many other citizens, he is still Canadian
*Canadians who chose to work outside the country don’t pretend that Canada is not their country said Dimitri Soudas a spokesman for Harper.
this is not about Mr. Ignatieff being out of the country for 34yrs, it has to do with the fact he only came back to become Prime Minister and openly says he will leave again if he doesn’t get his way.
I would be careful about the Wayne Gretzky comparison…
To quote Wayne on Feb 14th
“”For me, it’s Phoenix or bust,” Gretzky told the network on Feb. 14. “I’ve made that clear.”
So he is in the US. But Wayne also coached team Canada, ran charities in Canada visited Canada for weeks every year. He is stayiong in the US for the best of reasons, his family is in school and desnt want to uproot them.
Liberals may also want to remember that one of wayne’s uncles ran as a Conservative in the last election.
MI holds Canadian citizenship but yes he does have a Zelig quality about him.
Can’t the Liberals find a ‘normal’ individual to lead the party? Why does the party insist on annointing ‘saviours’ to lead the party? Can you say John Turner? Can you say Paul Martin?
What more can be said of the opportunistic, self absorbed, full of grandiosity, newly crowned without contest Grit Leader? His gall knows no bounds.
He’s full of delusions of grandeur when he has the gall to tell PM Stephen Harper,our PM, who came up through the ranks, his government is “on probation”. He continues to act as though he’s got the power alone to bring down the government with his 77 arses filling the Liberal ranks in the HOC.
I’ve had enough of his superior attitude, playing the Emperor when he has no clothes. Aside from name dropping and riding on the Harvard shtick, what’s left? True patriot love my butt.
Zsuzsanna M Zsohar is Ignatieff’s wife. She’s Hungarian born and now, I believe, has Canadian citizenship—only applied for since living here.
’Not nice to say, but, because the public is so into the superficial, she looks old enough to be his mother. All’s fair . . . so the Conservatives should seriously be promoting Laureen Harper.
Kate; “… saying in several paragraphs what I’ve been saying in a subject line over the past few months. ”
Their learning 🙂
Iggy thinks out-of-the-box. Instead of spending the majority of his adult life involved in “local” politics with the aim of becoming the PM, he leaves for an entire generation with the aim of becoming the PM. Brilliant!!!
Iggy – when not speaking the language of 80% of the population is not enough.
I left my two cents’ worth at the link. It’s the comment of 6:02 PM.
Aviator – 1:06am You are dreaming in technicolor. “The US would have intervened”. Funny how the further away we move beyond an event the more some folks want to add what their imaginations tell them would have happened had a certain action not been taken.
Keep dreaming.
Iggy has referred to America being his country. Does anyone know if he is in fact a citizen of America?
Just curious but I have a feeling that money had a lot to do with Ignatieff’s decision to return as King over the barbarians here in the colonies.
He has never had tenure as a professor anywhere – he was a visiting lecturer. He was on payroll at BBC for 15 years so that would be like Canada’s CBC- sort of a Don Newman light. Does he get a pension from the UK?
He was a director at a think tank based on the Harvard campus called the Carr Centre much like Presont Manning is for the Manning Centre or Harper was for the think tank at the National Citizens coalition. Probably not really big bucks there either.
His books are for the most part out of print and none were best sellers. Not much residual income there.
Anybody else think this gig is probably the best paycheque he has ever had and there is a nice fat pension to boot.
You know, when you’re 62 you have to start planning for those retirement years – especially if one wants to retire at the family home in Florence, Italy in style.
Here is a truth ad co-authored by “François Vaillancourt, Université de Montréal economics professor …”
Att. Iggy: this study was peer-reviewed. We await your comment, Iggy. RSVP.
Share.
…-
“Governments spending up to $1.8 billion every year to meet federal bilingualism requirements
Release Date: May 6, 2009
MONTREAL, QC—Canada’s federal government and other bodies subject to the Official Languages Act spend up to $1.8 billion annually providing French-language services, according to a new study released today by independent research organization the Fraser Institute.
The peer-reviewed report, Official Language Policies at the Federal Level in Canada, measures how much the federal government spent on implementing bilingualism policies in 2006 and estimates how much it would have cost the private sector to offer French translation of federal services instead.
“The annual cost of providing federal services in French as well as English was between $1.6 billion and $1.8 billion in 2006. While the cost is not very high in relation to the economy, it is still substantial and we should ensure that it is money well spent,” said François Vaillancourt, Université de Montréal economics professor and co-author of the study.
Under the current system, all Canadians pay for the provision of French-language services at an estimated cost of $55 per Canadian. But if the private sector were responsible for such translation services, only those requiring access to government in French would pay the associated costs.”
http://www.fraserinstitute.org/newsandevents/news/6670.aspx
Free download here:
http://www.fraserinstitute.org/researchandpublications/publications/6667.aspx
Did anyone catch Iggy on Michael Enright’s show a couple of weeks ago, what a biased load of crap. CBC needs to be burned to the ground,it is completely and unashamedly biased in favor of the left. Micheal himself was nauseating, I’m sure he gave Iggy a blowjob after the show.
I know that this is not apropos of anything, but I thought I mention that the guy is really odd looking – cunning predatory eyes and vulture-like features – even in the ‘good’ shots.
My mother has always said our personalities grow into our faces as we age. I’m beginning to think that she’s right.
Yes iggy has spent much of his life outside of cda and I think it is reasonable to assume that he would have remains outside of the country had the opportunity to be PM not materialized. It is a valid point of criticism as it is of Obama. How many years of BOs life have been spent outside of the lower 48?
But the real disqualifier – the point if weakness-
– of failure – of iggy for fitness as PM is that he is a signatory – a willing participant in the creation and furtherance of the separatist coalition. To this moment he has not rejected implementing this coalition as an option.
I hope that sometime in the near future that the CP publishes ads that make this back breaking point.
Another big difference in the comparison between Wayne Gretzky and Michael Ignatieff is that Wayne Gretzky isn’t running for Prime Minister.
Then, all of the other distinctions made by Lorraine.
All those years at Harvard… what a loser!
Desperate, mean Tories. Goin’ down!
This country is nothing more than a line on Count Iggula’s resmue. Period, and full stop. He’ll be gone the moment his political career ends and, God willing, that will be after he leads his party to an electoral defeat.
I don’t object to the thrust of the Tory ads, just with their execution. They are, to me, clumsy, annoying, and very poorly done. I think a much better approach would have been an ad showing a woman saying that she’s interested in Iggy, but she’s curious why he’s spent so much time away from Canada, why he referred to Britain as his “adopted country”, why he referred to America as “his country” (with video clips, of course). Then, get on his flip-flops – “I’m confused – he supports torture, and then he says it’s wrong. He was for the Liberal-Bloc Quebecois coalition and then he was against it. I don’t know what he stands for, and I don’t think he really understands Canadians.” I truly think a more low-key and less aggressive approach would be more effective in making Canadians aware of Iggy’s issues, and in galvanizing anti-Iggy support.
“”To defeat evil, we may have to traffic in evils : indefinite detention of suspects, coercive interrogations, targeted assassinations, even pre-emptive war.” – Michael Ignatieff, NY Times Mag, 2004″
Totally irrelevant.
That was then, now, as always, Iggy goes for what is best for him (which, by definition, is best for the country).
This is the same MO as O’Bama’s.
Integrity? Who cares!
iggy et al aside, it would be great if someone would run for office that has the best interest of the people in mind. someone who doesn’t have their head so far up their ideology they can’t see the damage they do when they reduce our individual freedom.
“Tories looking like narrow-minded bigots”
“Conservative attack ads on Ignatieff take us all for fools. Why not go after Gretzky, too?”
By Stephen Hume, Vancouver SunMay 16, 2009
http://www.vancouversun.com/opinion/Tories+looking+like+narrow+minded+bigots/1603731/story.html
This is such a nonsense, it is disturbing that sophists like Hume actually come up with a comparison that has nothing to do with anything and calls people that don’t care for the would be count as described by the title.
The guess is that now everyone that thinks different then the sophist should hang their head and tail between their legs, should just scatter away.
Never mind that Gretzky is a private citizen, running a business while the other one is someone that really, really, really wants to show the locals why he needs to be prime minister.
Follow the money, pays really good and a few more years in the Canadian Parliament will pay a handsome pension without putting your 30 years of work for this country.
The lefties and MSM lickspittle are railing against the Iggy ads by the conservatives.
Good!
The negative ads must be affective, the lefty squealing like stuck pigs confirms it.
It’s gonna be embarrassing when the liberals trounce your ass.
Nor could I imagine a President calling an unnecessary election and then hiding behind the GG’s skirts to prorogue parliament two months later
————————————————–
Dear Pboy;
After being elected by Canadians, the government was threatened by a previously arranged coalition bent on protecting their $1.95/vote income.
The same coalition that crumbled short weeks later.
By proroguing parliament for a few weeks, Harper kept our country economically and politically sane. Most weak governments around the world succumbed to the obamarism/socialism ‘quadruple their debt’ world order.
Now, in 2003 Chretien prorogued parliament just before the results of Adscam were to be released.
Oh, and also just before the Liberal leadership convention. Just coincidental I’m sure.
We never hear about that from leftoids or the media.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2003/11/12/liberals031112.html
P-boy, do common sense and facts have no effect on you at all?