Ignatieff vs Harper: New show in town
Michael Ignatieff. Author and journalist. Harvard professor. Public intellectual. Politician.
The new leader of the Liberal party has succeeded in each of the fields he’s chosen to enter since being raised in Toronto as a member of a Russian emigre family with a distinguished history.
Best known for his books (a novel Scar Tissue was even short-listed for the Booker Prize), Ignatieffas an author has plumbed complex human and global issues for the past 25 years.
Will he be equally successful in his new career as leader of the Liberal party?
I carefully watched the first interview he gave after receiving the endorsement of his party’s caucus and its insiders. He came across as a confident personality, sure of himself as a leader, and decisive but careful in his answers.
Liberals will welcome this new sense of sure-footedness. The past two years under Stephane Dion have been difficult for Liberals, despite their admiration of Dion’s integrity and his intellectual ability.
Interestingly, the Liberals have gone for two professors in a row. And when Ignatieff was first courted by Toronto Liberals back in 2004, there was talk of him being the guy who would restore the lustre of Pierre Trudeau to the party.
Certainly, the Liberals have not had a leader since Trudeau of such cerebral powers.
The big question hovering over the Liberals right now is whether they will remain true to their pact to form a Liberal-NDP coalition if the Harper government falls and the Opposition gets a chance to take over without an election.
Ignatieff put the question to rest. “I am prepared to enter into a coalitiuon government if that is what the Governor General asks me to do.”
But note the “if.” He’s also said, mirroring Mackenzie King’s famous conscription statement, “Coalition if necessary, but not necessarily coalition.” And more: “No party can have the confidence of the country if it decides to vote now against a budget it hasn’t even read.”
Also yesterday, Prime Minister Harper phoned Ignatieff to arrange a meeting to discuss the government’s response to problems of the economy.
Ignatieff has made it clear he would not be going to Harper as any kind of supplicant, pleading for certain things to be put into the budget. This was the scenario Harper seemed to have in mind when he said he was willing to “listen” to the ideas of the Opposition.
Ignatieff is of course prepared to meet Harper. But he adds: “I made it clear I don’t want to get into secret negotiations or backdoor deals.”
Certainly, a good start. The Globe and Mail correctly writes that the onus is now on the Prime Minister:
Harper’s real test, the Globe says, will come “when the House of Commons reconvenes. If Mr. Harper does not change the way he treats Parliament now that Mr. Ignatieff is leading the opposition, his prime ministership will likely be on borrowed time.”
Also worth reading:
Murky past could haunt Ignatieff.
