Damn.
Here’s a man I could have voted for…
Following a 2005 lecture at the University of Dublin’s Trinity College, Ignatieff excoriated Canadians for trading on Canada’s “entirely bogus reputation as peacekeepers” for 40 years and for favouring “hospitals and schools and roads” over international citizenship. “If you are a human rights defender and you want something done to stop [a] massacre, you have to go to the Pentagon, because no one else is serious,” Ignatieff said.
“It’s disgusting in my own country, and I love my country, Canada, but they would rather bitch about their rich neighbour to the south than actually pay the note,” he said, in response to a question about peacekeeping. “To pay the bill to be an international citizen is not something that they want to do.”
Of course, that means he’d have been running for office in the US, and I’d be voting Republican.
Shocking! You mean when the lefties are in charge, they detest the Yanks,but love them when they are not in charge?
Fact is the guy’s got a point. Canada, and to a lesser extent Britain, has subjucated its security to the USA since forever.
Sorry. Meant to say subrogate!
Has Mclean’s magazine shifted to the right recently?
I posted on this story last night…
The Anti-Canada Ignatieff
http://thecanadiansentinel.blogspot.com/2009/07/anti-canada-ignatieff.html
I believe that “punch” landed with a loud, jarring *BAM!*. Poor Iggy’s glassy-eyed and slack-jawed now, staggering from that unexpected exposure of his own words come back to haunt him…
And on that post there’s a cool, albeit altered by myself, photo of Iggy which y’all can “steal” and spread far and wide if y’all wanna…
The only Canadians that I ever met that “bitched” about Americans were Liberals, now that the “O” is president they’ve done an about face thanks to the MSM. Liberalism truly is a mental disorder and the higher you progress up the ladder of academia the worse it becomes.
Ignatieff is right. It is just too bad that on this issue, as well as his cheerleading in favour of the Iraq war, that he sold his integrity down the river by flip flopping when he saw the chance to move into 24 Sussex.
“To pay the bill to be an international citizen is not something that they want to do.”
John Manley said something very similar about Canada not pulling its weight internationally “when the waiter brings the bill, Canada slips out to the washroom.”
“but they would rather bitch about their rich neighbour to the south than actually pay the note,” he said,
Exactly, and it’s the Liberal party of Canada that has capitalized on anti-Americanism from Trudeau to Martin.
It’s ironic you’d lead the party whose attitude to foreign affairs you apparently despise, Mr.Ignatieff.
Weird words to coming from the mouth of the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada.
But well said, nonetheless. Confronting the truth is always a first step to recovery. The Canadian peacekeeping delusion “sacred cow” is overdue for slaughter.
(No disrespect whatsovever to CF members who have actually served on real peacekeeping missions.)
It’s rather ironic that not too long ago Iggy had said that he could write the attack ads on himself for the CPC.
I doubt that he realized so many of his past writings, speeches, and videos would come back to haunt him.
Out of touch Iggy could never write good truth adds on himself after being away from Canada for so long, up in his Ivory tower, surrounded by people who agreed with every word that he said.
Iggy has always been more aligned to the conservative party in terms of ideals than the liberals. Unfortunately his power seeking side recognizes the Liberal name brand is almost key to being PM.
Its amazing how prior to becoming politicians both Iggy and Harper could speak the actual truth. However once becoming politicians they can no longer speak reality. The real question is why are Canadians so stupid that we cannot hear truth from politicans without it turning into a media circus?
For example the recent conservative arts cuts…
A conundrum for the libs – how to sell a super conservative leader to the masses while all the time saying he’s a super liberal. How do you square the circle? I’m sure we’ll be seeing all sorts of jaw dropping verbal gymnastics and rationalizations. Looks the libs that went to Harvard to make the pitch bought themselves a pig in a poke.
“Of course, that means he’d have been running for office in the US, and I’d be voting Republican.”
or in Canada voting reform. Or to use wks term reformatories. If wk didn’t screen his comments i would post a copy of this at his page.
Certainly is material for another “attack” fact ad.
Rural and Right: “I doubt that he realized so many of his past writings, speeches, and videos would come back to haunt him.”
—————————–
I suspect most Libs think the Cons and their supporters don’t read. Just another one of their cherished holier-than-thou self-adulating myths.
Well, Iffy certainly won’t be saying THAT anymore now, will he?
Poor guy. Came back and joined the wrong party. Talk about having an identity crisis! He must have a hard time sleeping at night, poor guy.
None taken Bart F. The vast majority of us who wear the Queen’s cloth never thought of ourselves as peacekeepers.
Turns out that the training for actual combat makes for someone easily qualified to stare down two groups of idiots.
Now THIS is what he should have said: “but the Canadian left – the Liberals and the NDP – would rather bitch about their rich neighbour to the south than actually pay the note,”
See, even four short years ago he had no idea about what was going on his “his” country.
wk – Chretien, he the man.
wk – Iggy, he the man.
Iggy – Chretien just a pretender. Liberals on the world stage, they suck.
Liberal Operatives:
Credibility ? None. Just beliefs.
Track record ? N/A. Just “progress” forward.
Goals ? Utopia.
Accountability ? That is passe.
Which is the real you ? That’s discrimination.
Moral Hazardness ? What could go wrong.
To anyone who thinks about it, this is clearly an inditement of the Liberal governments of the 90’s. Canadians clearly haven’t shrugged off our international responsibilities lately. We’ve been commended publically buy many international leaders. But then again, expecting people to “think” is asking a little too much.
“To pay the bill to be an international citizen is not something that they want to do.”
There is no such thing as an “international citizen”.
“It’s disgusting in my own country, and I love my country, Canada, but they would rather bitch about their rich neighbour to the south than actually pay the note,” he said,
Says the man whose party, the Liberal Party of Canada, is up to it’s eyeballs in red ink and has yet to pay back $40 million the Liberal Party stole from Canadian taxpayers when they had control of the public purse.
Canada’s “entirely bogus reputation as peacekeepers” for 40 years…
That peacekeeping concept was thrust upon Canada by LIBERAL Prime Mister Lester B. Pearson, and thanks to the Liberal Party of Canada forming so many governments the “bogus reputation” thing is a natural byproduct of Liberal Party rule.
Bogus=Liberal
Langmann
I don’t think it’s so much a matter of the intelligence of Canadians as it is about the state of our press.
As Marshall McLuhan stated…the medium is the message…and the medium has become an analogy of the Cirque de Soliel. Daily we are offered beautifully choreographed performances by contortionist, acrobats and assorted clowns, all of which only vaguely resemble reality and are really designed to thrill.
From the PPG’s “boycott” of PMSH, (high drama) to AGW, (higher drama) to the plight of Omar Kahdr, Brenda Martin and double murderer Ronald Allen Smith (tragedy) to anything Jane Taber says (comic relief) to the ascension of Barry O and Micheal I (Harvard daring do) to the horrors of “Wafergate” (melodrama) to the demise of MJ (sideshow freak) it would seem that this circus has it all.
Is it any wonder that the truth has no place?
Syncro
I’m surprised than no one has noted that Iggy referred to Canadians as “they”, not “we”. That is a rather telling use of pronouns.
BTW, I have a blue beret and a UN peacekeeping medal but I never considered myself other than a warrior (oops, politically incorrect noun).
Ignatieff managed to be both right and wrong. Yes, we would rather bitch about Americans while letting them do the military heavy lifting.
But, he is wrong about “bogus peacekeeping;” of course there have been some questionable missions. On balance, our military and international reputations have been enhanced by the professionalism of our Forces.
No, they haven’t been pussyfooting around on swans. If the media doesn’t report it, it still happened, Mr Ignatieff. We have distinguished ourselves in creating peace, and have fought tough combat missions, not just in Afghanistan.
We used to punch above our diplomatic weight because of “peacekeeping” and our special relationship with the United States. Chretien’s administrations squandered both mightily. Harper’s has improved the situation slightly,and we at least have a chance to make a difference again.
Maybe Ignatieff should talk about that. We should be proud of our peacekeepers’ performance, now and then, and not denigrate it.
oops, fixed
We’ve been commended publically by many international leaders.
First, I wholly agree with what he said. This whole “traditional role as peacekeepers” meme is simply so much BS and a completely Orwellian rewriting of Canadian military history. Canadian soldiers have traditionally been shock troops, snipers, excellent ambushers (viz Kapyong), and special ops types, not peacekeepers. The peacekeeping role is an anomaly and a feeble excuse for the lefties to wrap themselves in the flag while attempting to emasculate Canada’s defense and war fighting capability.
Second, we traded on the protection of Uncle Sam for far too long in exchange for a free ride in a harsh world.
What will be interesting now will be, as Agent Smith has pointed out, the verbal leger de main that will go on trying to make black equal white and up equal down. Frankly though, from the point of view of liberal support for Iggy, I don’t think much of that will matter. As someone else pointed out, for most lefties, history begins anew every morning when the alarm goes off. And as long as he creates the right feeeeeeeeelings . . . well, you know the rest.
The article brings back so many unpleasant memories.
After WWII there was a thrust to maintain and extend the
important position which Canada attained during the
war. This was evident in technical projects such as the
development of the Orenda Iroquois engine and its
associated airframe (a monograph on gas turbine
aeroengines notes with some amazement that in 15 years
Canadian engineers were able to equal the work of the US,
the UK, and the Russians, with a much smaller budget), the
nuclear research and nuclear development programs at Chalk
River (so easy to forget that we were partners with the US
and the UK in the Manhattan Project), a first-class air
force and its logistic system, diplomats (including George
Ignatieff) who led Canada to
punch above its weight, excellent Government research
labs (the National Research Council), Arctic research
(including the mapping of the North by Kenneth Greenaway and
Moira Dunbar and
others).
All this was smashed or allowed to rot,
the medical isotopes problem being perhaps the last step in
the process for the Chalk River endeavour.
John Diefenbugger (may his soul rot in Hell)
smashed the Arrow, Pearson and Hellyer did in the air force,
Trudeau took care of NRC, and politicians of all stripes did in the rest. A despicable
record; Michael Ignatieff in one part of his brain knows it, and hence his comments on
peacekeeping, which was useful in a few contexts, notably in Cyprus.
He is rightly contemptuous of
Canadians, who have squandered so much, or allowed their
elected representatives to squander for them.
I used to think that Canadians deserved Paul Martin, and I rooted for him (though not
enough to vote for his party). But he wasn’t bad enough;
Canadians deserves their darling, their beauty, their beloved:
Canadians deserve Barack Obama. I hope that when he has finished devastating the US
he will come here and devastate his truest admirers.
I despise and detest Canadians who bitch about the
United States. If they did anything, if their
“patriotism” was asny more than the expression
of puerile envy and were backed up with works and
achievements, then they would have the right to
complain. But then their own efforts with their
successes and failures would lead them to
admiration of the successes of the US and at least a little tolerance for US failures.
“I don’t think it’s so much a matter of the intelligence of Canadians as it is about the state of our press.”
BINGO !!
aka, the media dumbs-down news & information because it is agenda driven. A clear and present danger.
Hence, ‘the reason for being’ of sda.
I have long said Iggy is in the wrong party….he has to be something he isnt because he has a cartoon version in his head of conservatism.
He would make a better amabassador to the UN than he would PM. The Liberal party will splinter underneath him.
“He would make a better amabassador to the UN”
How fitting – a useless person in a useless position at a useless organization.
Iggy seems to have been a hawk in his book writing past. But we shouldn’t let ourselves be lulled into thinking that makes him conservative. I don’t think Iggy is in the wrong party. He stands for nothing…that’s Liberal.
Furthermore he’s never owned a share in a company … and proud of it. He could not be trusted to do the right thing for capitalism and support conservative fiscal policy.
Don’t be fooled, Iggy is nothing more than a power hungry, pompous, upper-crust politician who will say anything to woo any particular audience. Lieberals have always done this and will continue to tell the sheeple exactly what they want to hear rather than the truth.
Canada’s secret battle- the Medak Pocket in Yugoslvia. At that time the biggest Canadian battle since the Korean War. You most likely never heard of it because PM Dhretien didn’t want you to hear of it. Canada is a peacekeeper so it did not fit with the Liberal mindset.
http://newsgroups.derkeiler.com/Archive/Soc/soc.culture.yugoslavia/2006-06/msg00026.html
Ok Dhretien was the also ran I mean PM Chretien.
kathryn, texas
you nailed it!
Why anyone even votes liberal after the Biggest Theft of Public Trust this country has ever seen is beyond me.
Stephen: “The Liberal party will splinter underneath him.”
————————————-
You say that like it’s a bad thing.
Bart at 11:45 AM: “(No disrespect whatsoever to CF members who have actually served on real peacekeeping missions.)”
Exactly; there were no “Peacekeeping Missions”. They were limited wars. If the idea of Peacekeeping was realistic, why would we not sent policemen armed with handguns? Only Soldiers need machine guns and they need them for war. More Liberal delusions.
Kathryn,
I wouldnt go quite that far….almost….but not quite that far. Iggy’s heart lay in that world, that of talk with no action.
If he is ever able to make it to the PM’s chair then I really wonder if “muscular diplomacy” is what will happen. His own party, let alone his old roommate (Bob Rae) wont go along.
So Iggy would have parachuted in the JTF2 to Rawanda without any othe backup? Yeah right.
He makes good speeches, but his direction needs to come from someone else.
I agree the Liberal party doesnt stand for much, and Iggy stands for MI, look at his personal history and you’ll find its all about Michael.
Off topic – Go Riders! (7-0)
“I have long said Iggy is in the wrong party….”
For me, the most important criteria for identifying someone as a conservative is the fiscal policy they advocate. The foreign policy debate has degenerated into a left/right squabble. Ideally Liberals and Conservatives would have very similar views on these policies based on the facts from the ground; but, to his discredit, Trudeau used foreign policy as a political football.
That being said, being a realist with respect to foreign affairs isn’t enough for me to call someone a conservative. I look at his background and his elitists views and can only conclude that the Liberal party is a perfect fit for the Count.
What?! He wasn’t vetted by the Libs?! Just what were they thinking when they lured him over?
The statement is loaded with enough to prevent Iggy from even considering an election. He should be burnt by this.
Anti- Canadian (Liberal gov’t of the day)
Pro Military
Pro American
and
Not true…Libs never favoured ‘hospitals schools and roads’…they favoured high taxes and handouts to social programmes and special interest groups.
Waiting for the media to spin it…
“to his discredit, Trudeau used foreign policy as a political football.”
Mistake, bad day. I meant to say: Chretien used foreign policy as a political football.
Bluetech
The media is waiting for a signal from the artistic director on which way to spin…circus is as circus does.
Syncro
The U.S. was late getting into WWI because they didn’t see how fighting it served their interest.
The U.S. was late getting into WWII because they didn’t see how getting involved served their interest.
The U.S. got into the Korean War because they quit fighting WWII before it was finished and didn’t conquer the USSR which invaded Poland from the East when Germany invaded Poland from the West.
Because the U.S. left the Soviet Union, one of the belligerents from WWII, in a position to threaten the Western World, they had to fight proxy wars in Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and El Salvador.
Cuba, Granada, Iran, and Afghanistan were also in play because of American fecklessness regarding the USSR after Germany was defeated.
Now we are seeing problems with Venezuela and Nicaragua again, threatening Honduras, because of Russia and it’s unreconstructed Bolshevik leader, Vladimir Putin.
Canada is not a nation that is doing anything the U.S. isn’t or hasn’t been doing.
Which wars should Canada have participated in that were in Canada’s interest to participate in compared to American non-participation in WWI and WWII before America somehow decided it was in their direct interest?
Oh, and for those who have studied the Treaty Of Versailles, WWII could have been avoided altogether if the U.S., which next to France was the major author of the Armistice, had taken it’s responsibility in the Armistice seriously and supported Britain and France in sorting Germany out when Germany first began to violate the Treaty of Versailles.
Britain and France would have dealt a telling blow to Germany when it reoccupied the Sudetenland if only the U.S. hadn’t been following a policy of isolationism but instead lived up to it’s responsibilities in the Armistice as one of the signing Major Powers named to enforce the Treaty of Versailles.
WWII would only have been against Stalin’s USSR and all of the following conflicts and the ones to come, which were all fomented by the Communists, would never have occured.
Oz- Monday Morning quarter backing is always right. However, making decisions in ‘actual time’ is subject to context and many uncertain and incomplete information bases.
As for Ignatieff’s ‘real political home’, he belongs in the Liberal Party because he’s an elitist. Elitism is a perspective where the individual considers himself endowed with a special and superior intellectual, moral etc capacity to govern and rule over others who lack this intelligence and moral superiority.
Conservatives are middle class; they hold no self-image of superiority and consider that governing is not an action of applying a univeral and utopian template to the unruly and messy realities, but that governing is a pragmatic ‘tinkering’, an agenda of ‘doing the best we can’ to deal with local realities, by applying local solutions.
“…they would rather bitch about their rich neighbour to the south than actually pay the note…”
Yep, that’s exactly right. That is what the LIBERAL PARTY has been doing since that Trudeau guy ran it. Not so much the Conservatives.
Say, what party is ol’ Iggy head of again?
Prime Time Crime has the list of names.
It’s one of The Liberal Party’s Pyramid Schemes.
Iggy hopes to be the I-Pharaoh.
List includes:
“Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation
Board of Directors
Roy L. Heenan – Chair
Founder and Chair of Heenan Blaikie LLP, CBC Board of Directors,
Director of Kasten Chase,
Chairman of the International Historic Heritage Foundation.
William G. Davis
Former Premier of Ontario. A member of the International Advisory Council of Power Corporation of Canada
Paul Desmarais Jr.
Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer of Power Corporation of Canada
Louise Frechette
Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations
Alexander Himelfarb
Clerk of the Privy Council,
The Clerk of the Privy Council is Canada’s highest-ranking public servant and serves as the Prime Minister’s deputy minister, the Secretary to the Cabinet, and the Head of the Public Service.”
“Billions of tax dollars held by foundations out of public scrutiny: AG
OTTAWA – Auditor General Sheila Fraser is raising the alarm over billions of taxpayer dollars channelled into arms-length government foundations not subject to public scrutiny. The lack of oversight means it’s possible foundation money could be misused in the same way tax dollars were wasted in the sponsorship scandal, warned opposition MPs.”
http://www.primetimecrime.com/Recent/Investigative/20050228foundations.htm
John Lewis, I’d like to protest and say your comment at 1:32pm was too harsh and mean to Canadians…
but sadly, it really wasn’t.
As for Ignatieff’s ‘real political home’, he belongs in the Liberal Party because he’s an elitist. Elitism is a perspective where the individual considers himself endowed with a special and superior intellectual, moral etc capacity to govern and rule over others who lack this intelligence and moral superiority.
Very good ET. And for the same reason, liberals really don’t like free markets and love central planning. They just can’t accept the whole idea of spontaneous order. In fact, they find spontaneous order downright insulting — threatening — because it tends to diminish the apparent value of all those years in pursuing “higher learning” en route to becoming HPPs (Higher Purpose Persons). And of course, that kind of learning doesn’t get much rewarded in the free market, which causes the infamous anger and resentment of the good liberal; his anti-capitalism.
Is there a better example anywhere on the planet of a HPP than Iggy?
ET’s right. Iggy is in the right, er, correct party. He is a man of the left. And he’s there ‘cos the back-room boys were pining for another PET — another brainiac. Another Philosopher King.
And as to his hawkishness, let’s remember that a lot of the early Neo Cons were disappointed, re-directed marxists, socialists, Trotskyites. They still believe there’s a underlying purpose and direction in history, except it’s now democracy, not communism. They still know what’s best and want to hurry it along — with guns.
Go home, Iggy. Your visit to Canada has expired.
H/T Conservative Immigration Minister Kenney.
More, please.
…-
“Majority of Canadians back visa rules, poll finds
69 per cent favour minister’s move to clamp down on flow of visitors from Mexico, Czech Republic
“More than two-thirds of Canadians support the federal government’s visa requirements for visitors from Mexico and Czech Republic, according to a new poll.
The Toronto Star/Angus Reid survey found 69 per cent agree with the visa requirements announced Monday, including 39 per cent who voiced strong agreement.
Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said the move was necessary to stem what the government believed was a tide of bogus refugee claimants from the countries in recent years.”
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/668272