As quickly as he arrived back in Canada from his European vacation, he is now back abroad. Where in the world is Mike Ignatieff now? He's visiting China. I for one look forward to reading Donolo's press releases to see how they try to spin the visit as it unfolds. Someone should forward a message the Chinese media that Iggy has the worst personal approval ratings of any Canadian federal leader and is unlikely to ever be elected Prime Minister. People in glass houses shouldn't throw snake oil, right? If Rasputin tries that Jedi mind trick where he attempts to convince you that one day he will ascend to our highest office, pay no attention to the Czarist behind the curtain.
Remember, during the summer of 2008 (Beijing Olympics) Stephen Harper took a hard stance on Chinese government human rights abuses? The Libs tried to scream foul, and a couple of months later the Tories significantly increased their vote totals in polling districts with large Asian populations (prime case study, Richmond). Evidently, the people who decided to leave China and are now in Canada don't have a lot of nice things to say about the Chinese government. In fact, the government is a big reason that many of them left their homeland in the first place. Kissing the rear end of the Chinese government may not be the best way for Iggy to breakthrough with Canada’s Asian community.
A wise philosopher once said "don't count your chickens before they come home to roost."
I wonder if the Chinese will "scold" him about the Liberal oil sands policy? Cheers.
ReplyDeleteWill he have an audience with Mo Strong. Did Mo call and did iggy jump. Maybe he is going to tell Mo that he will not be getting millions of dollars from Canada every year as kyoto is dead.
ReplyDeleteFor a leader of the opposition, he sure does like to travel the world a lot. lol. I mean, you're not even PM, are you trying to hammer out policy already? Shows you the arrogance of the party...............why not simply listen to the grassroots, than decide your doctrine, than wory about the other things.
ReplyDeleteIt just may be that he is one those very cultured types who loves to travel.........on the dime of the party.
Do you think I am being unfair? I really just don't the domestic-party advantage of this.
You will note that Ignatieff is meeting with lower level officials not the PM of China. That tells you how important they see his visit. Just another Westerner with no real authority coming to visit for no apparent reason.
ReplyDeleteRemember when Obama was in Copenhagen in December, and was supposed to meet President Hu in a hotel room ? The Chinese kept Obama waiting, and finally sent some lower level flunkie to the meeting ! Talk about a snub.
ReplyDeleteSo if we extrapolate waaaaaaaaay down, from "Obama--the most powerful leader in the world", down to "Iggy-the next electoral roadkill victim of the Big Blue Machine (if his own MPs don't dispose of him first)", how will the Chinese treat Iggy ?
They'll probably force his plane to land in Outer Mongolia, where he will be met by a 76 year old rickshaw driver who doesn't speak English, and doesn't have a clue on how to get to Bejjing. The message: hey Iggy, you wanna save the planet by reducing the use of oil ? You got it, dude !