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a welcome addition to the leadership race, IMHO 
from today's Toronto Star:
| quote: | Ignatieff all but declares leadership bid
Mar. 30, 2006. 06:59 PM
CANADIAN PRESS
OTTAWA — Michael Ignatieff all but declared his candidacy for the federal Liberal leadership Thursday, staking his claim as the natural heir to party icon Pierre Trudeau.
The acclaimed scholar, author and one-time journalist modestly declaimed any right to be compared to Trudeau, the late philosopher king of Canadian politics.
But, in a speech to an overflow crowd of about 250 students at the University of Ottawa, the cerebral, rookie Toronto MP presented himself as the thinking-person's candidate, an intellectual with strongly held beliefs on human rights, national unity and the merits of a strong central government.
Ignatieff faced a small protest over his past musings on the use of torture and his support for the American-led invasion of Iraq.
Four protesters stood silently throughout the speech, dressed in orange jumpsuits with black hoods draped over their heads in the manner of prisoners allegedly abused by American soldiers.
But his 30-minute discourse and thoughtful replies to subsequent questions were generally warmly received. One mature student, despite disagreeing with Ignatieff's stance on Iraq, gushed that the putative candidate is "molded in the tradition of Pierre Trudeau."
"I'm always flattered when those comparisons are made," Ignatieff responded.
"But let's be very clear. There was one Pierre Trudeau and there will not be another."
Ignatieff is expected late next week to formally join the race to succeed Paul Martin, who resigned after losing the Jan. 23 election. Martin's replacement will be chosen Dec. 2-3, but Thursday's speech was a campaign launch in all but name.
"I don't think you'll have to wait long," Ignatieff told reporters who pressed him to announce his intentions. "I'm not in a Hamlet-like state of indecision."
Ignatieff used the speech to lay out his vision for the country. He also attempted to rebut the criticisms that have dogged him since he returned to Canada last fall after almost 30 years out of the country.
He said he's never been out of touch with his Canadian roots, returning frequently to teach, give lectures and make documentaries. He suggested his time spent at Harvard, in Britain and as a war correspondent have given him a more rounded perspective on Canada.
"Sometimes you only see your country clearly from far away."
On Iraq, Ignatieff said his support for the American invasion was based on his personal belief that former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was "genocidal tyrant" responsible for the mass murder of Kurds and Shia Muslims.
As a Harvard professor, he said he had the luxury of voicing his personal views without worrying about public opinion or the potential impact on national unity of involving Canadian troops in a war that was particularly unpopular in Quebec.
"Now that I'm an elected politician I'm deeply aware of those responsibilities," he told reporters, adding that public opinion would be "a significant factor" in any future decisions on deployment of the military.
Ignatieff also unequivocally condemned the use of torture — even the mildest forms of coercive interrogation — to extract information from suspected terrorists.
One student was unconvinced, citing passages from one of Ignatieff's books to suggest he once condoned tactics like sleep deprivation and hoods.
In one of a series of interviews with the national media following Thursday's speech, Ignatieff shrugged off a suggestion that he is too cerebral to survive in the rough and tumble political arena.
"It never pays to underestimate the intelligence of the Canadian voter," he told The Canadian Press. "Canadians, I think, want complexity, they want detail."
During his first campaign last December and January, Ignatieff said he found "when you condescend to Canadians, when you give them sound bites and slogans, you get pushed off the door step."
Ignatieff also tackled the criticism that it's presumptuous for someone who has been an MP for all of two months to think he could lead a national party and eventually the country.
"The only honest answer here is that there have been men and women who trained all their lives to be prime minister and turned out to be really bad at it," he said.
"And there have been people who didn't train very long who turned out to be good at it."
In his speech, Ignatieff laid out his vision for Canada, the core of which revolves around ensuring the country remains united through the practice of what he dubbed "the federalism of recognition and respect."
He said the federal government must respect provincial jurisdictions and recognize that not all provinces are equal but not the same. He endorsed giving Quebec a greater voice on the international stage to protect its unique language and culture. |
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