Thursday, May 5, 2011

The Ignatieff Blame Game

As some talking heads try to come to grips with Monday's crushing Liberal defeat, many are blaming it on the effectiveness of Tory attack ads against Ignatieff. If not for those ads, the Liberals would not have collapsed and we might be lurching towards a left wing coalition government today. While I agree that the ads were very effective, the reason they were effective is because Iggy is an inherently creepy man. Be it his shocking resemblance to Count Chocula or how he always sticks his tongue out like a lizard when he speaks, Canadians were never comfortable with him. The ads worked because he was really terrible choice for leader of a party, not that he would have been a great candidate had it not been for the ads. The chicken came before the egg. Had Iggy been a likable charismatic man, the ads would not have been as effective as they were.

The University of Toronto really is the best place for him. I had been cheering for him to go back to Boston after writing True Patriot Love, but generally I am very pleased to see him fade back into academia.

Thanks for the memories Mike...





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13 comments:

  1. rabbitMay 5, 2011 at 2:04 PM

    I thought the NDP ads against Ignatieff may have been more effective (especially the one that said "if you want a promotion, you should show up for the job.")

    But by far the biggest problem was Ignatieff's waffling over whether he would consider forming a coalition. Canadians hate ditherers.

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  2. WTFMay 5, 2011 at 2:13 PM

    I blame Mike Harris and George Bush! ;-)

    Does anyone else see the irony in Iggy teaching political science at U of T?

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  3. PissedoffMay 5, 2011 at 2:24 PM

    I think the voters had tuned out to all of Iggy's false scandals and that the contempt charge was just another one. As such they tuned him out all through the election. Lets face it he had no policies other then we would do it better.

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  4. AlainMay 5, 2011 at 2:46 PM

    I cannot speak for others, but for me as pathetic as their leader was the problem was much, much bigger; it was the Liberal Party itself. First of all I have been around long enough to remember their lies, deceit and the damage they have done to Canada. Furthermore, their policies/platform were basically the same as the NDP with some overlap with the Greens. Their talk about change was really just more of the same.

    Now if the Liberal Party had actually come up with a truly liberal platform promoting personal freedom and freedom from big government interference in our lives, along with smaller government, reduced spending and a few other things, they would have actually had something to offer.

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  5. oxygentaxMay 5, 2011 at 3:32 PM

    My girlfriend and I don't necessarily see eye to eye when it comes to politics. We generally don't discuss it and I can count on one hand the number of times we discussed politics through the election campaign.

    That said, on 3 occasions, although she tends to lean left on many things, she was the one that brought up how Mr. Ignatieff didn't look like a Prime Minister. She mentioned that the eyes tended to creep her out. She also mentioned a couple times toward the end that Mr. Layton didn't look like a Prime Minister either.

    She knows that I lean right, but when you're hearing unsolicited comments like this, it tends to put into perspective the whole election campaign - that neither party was gaining any traction on the prairies.

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  6. Sean MMay 5, 2011 at 4:30 PM

    Iggo... "he didn't come back for you". That's for sure! One day after leading the Liberals to an historic defeat, Iggo quits ( or was pushed), the next day he lands a job at the U of T, what a fraud. While Liberal media hacks write about how Iggo lost because of "attack ads" and Canadians are too stupid to recognize the greatness of the inserted Liberal leader. Ugh! Liberals are truly pathetic, cynical parasites... American Iggo... he couldn't be inserted into the PMO, so screw it... "he didn't come back for you"... indeed.

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  7. AnonymousMay 5, 2011 at 5:13 PM

    Don't they need a gargoyle for a neo-gothic bld'g somewhere?

    Perhaps a buzzard for a Roadrunner cartoon scene?

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  8. AnonymousMay 5, 2011 at 6:54 PM

    stephen p says:

    Who should be Canada's next Speaker of the House of Commons?

    MP Ruth Ellen Brosseau!

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  9. KadamMay 5, 2011 at 7:24 PM

    Truth is, the Liberal party has been in decline for decades. Its only recently that the Right has got its act together and shown the truth of the state of the LPC. It stands everywhere and thus stands nowhere. The party has no base because they believed they knew better than their base. They had the hubris that they could compete in the democratic process while appointing not electing leaders and candidates.

    But number one is that life long liberals are realizing that today's liberals do not represent individuals, does not represent protection from gov't but the exact opposite. The traditional role of liberals in the anglo world has been abandoned by the liberals.

    And Ignatief was a poor choice in a leader he would have had to been the rebirth of JFK to get this rotting hulk across the post first.

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  10. ChuckMay 5, 2011 at 7:40 PM

    This seems particularly apt.

    http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff320/Johndakota_01/harperhaters.gif

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  11. wilsonMay 5, 2011 at 8:53 PM

    Why would we be interested in anything produced by harperhaters, Chuck/Danny...?

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  12. Alberta GirlMay 6, 2011 at 4:32 AM

    Exactly right Wilson - the Harper Haters have lost their clout and just like Iggy - they have put out soooo much propoganda that people ignore it or pass right over it.

    Thankfully we have four years of ignoring them while they get louder and louder and louder trying to make Canadians understand how stupid they were to vote for Stephen Harper and how his election really isn't a majority.

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  13. ThucydidesMay 6, 2011 at 10:15 AM

    Now that I know what happened to Micheal Ignatieff I will ensure my children never go to U of T, and if at all possible I will never hire one of their grads.

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