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Tuesday, June 30, 2009

With a Thud

Iggy hits the ground, hard:

The Liberals cannot expect a rookie politician to turn into a seasoned leader overnight. The bigger problem is that there could be more at work in their tepid poll numbers than just a mishandled parliamentary showdown. In central Canada, Ignatieff is fast losing the momentum generated by his successful honeymoon.

On that score, his last visit to Montreal earlier this month was a triumph for the Quebec Liberal organization and a bust for the leader.

Presented with a large, mostly francophone business audience, Ignatieff threw out the economic notes his handlers had prepared (it's nice to know such a speech actually existed) to serve up what are becoming familiar bromides.


What is that strange power that takes hold of politicians?  Stephen Harper and Michael Ignatieff were once esteemed public intellectuals.  People who came up with interesting - though perhaps not always very sensible - ideas.  You got a sense that the wheels were spinning between the ears.  My belief is that once a man declares himself a candidate for public office advisors appear.  They congeal from the shadows I think, armed with long lists.  The lists are of various groups.  Lesbian basket-weavers in Mississauga, Portuguese cleaning ladies in Kamloops, hockey dads and so forth.  Don't say that, they tell the poor candidate, now strapped into a hard wooden chair, it will offend Group X.  They then run their fingers down the magic list and read off the ridings now put into jeopardy by the candidate's ill-considered moment of independent thought.  Bland and empty pleasantries are all that are left.  They are the political equivalent of musing about the weather.  Blander and blander.  

Posted by Richard Anderson on June 30, 2009 | Permalink

Comments

Many people, myself included were considering giving Ignatieff and the Liberals a chance, in the hopes of getting rid of Harper. By supporting C-15, and making all the Liberals vote for it, Iggy lost any hope of getting my vote, and the votes of millions of other Canadians like me. What is the point of replacing Harper with someone who agrees with Harper on most of the major issues? Get a real liberal, like Cretien, or Trudeau, to lead the party and I might come back, but Iggy is just another Tory with a red tie. It seems that liberty loving Canadians are still left with only one choice, the NDP. The NDP is the only party left that does not reek of authoritarianism, so while I don't like all of their policies, they are currently the most friendly to individual liberties.

Posted by: DrGreenthumb | 2009-06-30 9:00:37 AM

Greenthumb,

I remember when I first began coming to this site that the cons were complaining that libertarians were not conservatives and should not be in the conservative party. For once they were right. If you really believe in liberty you should not be associating with any of the major, morally bankupt parties.

The NDP has a few (and I mean few) good ideas. Good for them. Do you think they can be convinced not to loot us if they get elected?

But the biggest problem isn't libertarians associating with the NDP, it's libertarians associating with the cons. The cons don't believe in liberty, and even when presented with strong arguments about how a lot of people would be better off, they simply don't care. They won't change either and libertarians who associate with them only look like hypocrites.

It is high time that those who believe in liberty begin supporting and voting for parties who believe in liberty, regardless of their size. As of right now, too many liberty-minded invididuals associate with parties that don't support liberty. We will never convince others this way.

And honestly, you keep asserting that Chretien and Trudeau were great leaders. They weren't. They were statist baffoons who are mostly responsible for our wonderful welfare state in Canada.

Posted by: Charles | 2009-06-30 11:36:44 AM


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