Iggy's Mea Culpa


Michael Ignatieff will be in Leamington this Friday, his second visit to our county in recent months. The deputy leader of the Liberal party of Canada will be speaking at a fundraiser for a local candidate and touring some greenhouses. Most of my friends these days are Liberals, including both of my brothers, and they tell me Iggy has become a favourite son in this part of the country. Much more popular that his boss.

In Sunday's NYT magazine Ignatieff apologized for supporting the invasion of Iraq and wrote about the difficulties he's experienced since entering federal politics as a member of parliament. I'm not too impressed with his excuse that an emotional bond with the Iraqi Kurds and Shiites blinded him to the unintended consequences of removing Saddam Hussein from power. I don't really believe that and suspect he's spinning his own story in order to demonstrate some humility and a willingness to admit mistakes.

[Update: This is after all the guy who wrote the book and gave the lectures on The Lesser Evil.]

He is, as he says, learning to act like a politician and not an academic or journalist.

Nothing is personal in politics, because politics is theater. It is part of the job to pretend to have emotions that you do not actually feel. It is a common spectacle in legislatures for representatives to insult one another in the chamber and then retreat for a drink in the bar afterward. This saving hypocrisy of public life is not available in private life. There we play for keeps.


Yet I'd still like to see Ignatieff become his party's leader and prime minister, even though his loyalty to the party and it's current leader have led him to compromise on some of his principles, by for example agreeing to an arbitrary deadline for ending Canada's military mission in Afghanistan.

He came back to Canada to get his hands dirty, working in a system of government where honesty is too often a liability. I hope that before it is too late, that that sacrifice will have been worth while.

Terry and Norm have more on Iggy's mea culpa. Also worth reading is Steve at Far and Wide, who ends his post with this:

It's an open question if someone like Ignatieff is suited to be a politician, I would hazard a guess that even Trudeau would be hard-pressed to survive in the new politics. Sound policy is replaced by sound message, avoid any landmines at all costs, principle comes second for the most part.

Ignatieff's article conveys a new-found political maturity. I'm not sure if that is an advancement in thought, or a surrender to dynamics that aren't necessarily attractive or beneficial. Maybe a better politician, but I'm of the opinion, that is a negative, in the grand scheme.


Update: Liberal and Opposition leader Stephane Dion will be in Windsor Thursday, where he will be joined for dinner by Ignatieff and other guests. Via BBS.

Posted: Tue - August 7, 2007 at 02:15 PM          

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