Iggy's Big Red Tent

[myata]

Ignatieff: Ottawa Citizen

C'mon Iggy, quit peddling this unlikely cr... Stop holding us for underdeveloped imbeciles droning that the only alternative to mean, ideological and non-Canadian valued Harper's conservatives is.. yes you know it. Your Big Red.

If you really mean what you're saying, you'll be working on setting up a broad coalition of parties to defeat this narrow minded, socially conservative government and on that broad basis perhaps make progress in challenges facing this country. Yes, including more meaningful representation system.

And if it's a marketing ploy to get tired and bored electorate pick the other "natural government" partocracy of the maximum of: two allowed to us as our meaningful democratic choices, why would anybody who's retained a grain of intelligence and ability to act, even bother? Not like we have't seen it before, and aren't destined to see it happen again... and again and again.. as in a bad or rather insane dream of democracy going to sleep.

Edited September 18, 2010 by myata

[Keepitsimple]

Ignatieff: Ottawa Citizen

C'mon Iggy, quit peddling this unlikely cr... Stop holding us for underdeveloped imbeciles droning that the only alternative to mean, ideological and non-Canadian valued Harper's conservatives is.. yes you know it. Iggy's Big Red.

He keeps saying things like:

"But I've got to prove it, I've got to work it and I've got to earn it."

The "I" word comes out all too often because lets face it - he's the smartest man in the room and it's "all about me".......just another example of why Canadians just cannot warm up to this guy.

[Smallc]

He keeps saying things like:

"But I've got to prove it, I've got to work it and I've got to earn it."

The "I" word comes out all too often because lets face it - he's the smartest man in the room and it's "all about me".......just another example of why Canadians just cannot warm up to this guy.

I thought coservatives liked it when someone decided to make it their personal responsibility to do better? Flip flop, simple.

[capricorn]

it's "all about me".......

This scrum exchange clocks in at 168 words. There are 16 references to himself and only four references to ‘we’ as in his party. In other words, almost 10 per cent of the word count are devoted to Iggy referring to Iggy. Gosh. No self-absorbed attitude here at all.

http://communities.canada.com/calgaryherald/blogs/donmartin/archive/2009/05/26/i-michael-ignatieff-am-all-about-me.aspx

Little by little, people will get to know the Ignatieff I am, that I have always been. I am doing a public tour to be close to people.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Ignatieff+says+cynicism+root+political+woes/3307408/story.html

http://ignatieff.me/?p=ignatieff#

[punked]

He makes it clear with his "Big tent" he does not want to convince Canadians Liberal policies are the right policies he just wants them to think Liberal "policies" (and I use that term loosely) are what they want.

"You want private health care you got it. What's that you want all private health care gone you got that too."

"You want a lower taxes ok we will cut them. You want more spending done and done. Oh balanced budgets we can do that."

At sometime you need to pick a side of an issue and try and convince Canadians your ideas are right. The Liberal Party has tired of that and has decided it is easier to tell every group in Canada the Liberals will deliver what they want even though that is impossible.

[Jack Weber]

I thought coservatives liked it when someone decided to make it their personal responsibility to do better? Flip flop, simple.

BaZinga!!!!!

[myata]

At sometime you need to pick a side of an issue and try and convince Canadians your ideas are right. The Liberal Party has tired of that and has decided it is easier to tell every group in Canada the Liberals will deliver what they want even though that is impossible.

Not like our only other natural governance party is entirely (or in fact, any) different; only recall the "transparency/accountability" joke. No, the problem is much deeper and it lies square in the fact that our political system hasn't changed one bit since couple of centuries back. Like back then, it's all about single interest and total domination of political opponent(s), while pretty much all of democratic world has long entered the era of coaltion and cooperation in multidimensional, multistream societies.

And so, while in real multiparty democracies government is a common position of several parties representing the majority of different groups and aspirations in the society, our government here is still very much the prize for a political clown or magician that happened to woo the voter with a better array of tricks (i.e electoral promises). Why expect any different next time the array of cards, i.e. tricks/promises is reshuffled? It'll have to come down to the same old, same old thing, guaranteed.

Edited September 18, 2010 by myata

[Jerry J. Fortin]

Our system hasn't changed, but we have. We are entering into a new phase of our political evolution. The transition isn't pretty.

[myata]

Our system hasn't changed, but we have. We are entering into a new phase of our political evolution. The transition isn't pretty.

At some point we (people of this country) will have to realize that some issues are too important to be left to party elites to use as political expediency while doing nothing, absolutely nothing of substance. Take the environment, combat role in Afghanistan. There's been no progress in decades simply because the safest option for the ruling duo is always to do as little as possible.

Either that, or we collectively go to sleep - as a democracy.

[Alta4ever]

At some point we (people of this country) will have to realize that some issues are too important to be left to party elites to use as political expediency while doing nothing, absolutely nothing of substance. Take the environment, combat role in Afghanistan. There's been no progress in decades simply because the safest option for the ruling duo is always to do as little as possible.

Either that, or we collectively go to sleep - as a democracy.

Democracy has never been about fast sweeping change, it is its virtue and vice.

[myata]

Democracy has never been about fast sweeping change, it is its virtue and vice.

Nothing here suggests anything "sweeping" though. Not even modest or miniscule. More like, is it possible to exist without changing and adapting and learning and trying - at all?

Edited September 21, 2010 by myata

[August1991]

Ignatieff is applying standard political thinking: a successful democratic party must get about 40% of the vote and to do that, it must be broad-based - hence, the big tent.

In fact though, Ignatieff is patently false in this. Ignatieff is not a big tent person. At 60, he's a pseudo-intellectual, still looking for answers. He has yet to discover the great truths of existence. That's a sad indictment but I think Ignatieff should have stayed in the BBC. As the son of a diplomat, it's a creditable claim.

-----

Mulroney, Trudeau, Harper, Chretien, King, Diefenbaker - to name a few - had all thought long and hard about Canada and had more than platitudes to offer, when they became PM. As a minimum, they brought their experience of the country to the office.

This is the meaning of a "Big Tent". I'm no nationalist but Ignatieff speaks to me as a foreigner.