Enter Ignatieff

Well, after a two year delay, Michael Ignatieff finally got his wish and became leader of the Liberal party.  I'm sure he is delighted that Stephane Dion dropped their seat count by 20 during the last election, but I guess it took a disaster to bring the Liberals together.  Already the Conservatives are calling this an undemocratic thing, carefully ignoring how they came to be.  Of course, the coronation of Paul Martin certainly failed, though things are a lot different than 2004.

Ignatieff became convinced that he could become the leader of the Liberals after a popular speech at the 2003 leadership convention.  Many Liberals were already trying to convince him to come back to Canada from his plumb post at his alma mater of Harvard.  Few people, including myself, took too much stock in his move to the University of Toronto as being sincere and I figured that he would pack his bags and leave should he lose his bid for a seat.  However, he did win that seat, and Paul Martin did lose the election, paving his way for frontrunner status in the leadship race that followed.  However, he had his share of gaffes, and a slight majority of the Liberals at the convention felt he was too much of a liablility, and instead chose the unknown Dion.  As for Ignatieff, I'm sure he initially considered going out of politics until it quickly became apparent that Dion would not last long.  And here we are.

Now, I admit that before the election, I considered voting Liberal.  Could I vote for an Ignatieff led party?  I am going to say no.  Although I consider him to be a much stronger leader than Dion, I think that his views will certainly take the Liberals to the social right, something I cannot support.  Or maybe it is his glowing support for the invasion of Iraq to "spread democracy", or his incredibly smug "apology" where he claimed that the Nobel winning people who opposed the war had less judgement than a bus driver.  Here is a man who's ego stretches out far and wide (much like Dion, but more eloquent).  Let the descent of Canadian politics continue, as we have a leader who has spent most of his professional life outside of Canada.