The Rise Of Mephistopheles
Like I said. I told you so.
When he arrived on the scene a little more than two years ago he sat down with your correspondent to give an accounting of himself. The unabridged, annotated version of that interview is here.
Starts this way: “I’m very struck by the difficulty Canadians have in associating a progressive social agenda with a robust internationalism that does involve the use of force. The minute you say that you’re in favour of holding steady in Afghanistan and seeing it through, it’s automatically assumed that you’re on the far right, or `Harper lite’, when really, nothing could be further from the truth. I’ve always seen my international commitments as being sustained by a belief in human rights, and my domestic commitments being sustained by a belief in equal rights, and there doesn’t see to be any conflict to me. It’s part of the same project."
One of the signatures on this document is his. It could be worse, yes?
posted by Terry Glavin at 11:53 AM
11 Comments:
Amazing.
I wonder what kind of prime minister Mr. Ignatieff will have already become when the country goes back to the polls in either five or 18 months time?
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Disappointed as I am that there is not to be a full on ritual bloodletting in the Liberal Party, I can't help but be pleased that I will now have two viable choices in the next election.
As I have written over at my place, I am thoroughly fed up with the CPC's inaction on the s. 13 file. Fed up enough to look seriously at a Plan-B designed to hit the CPC in the marginals. One thing which held me back was the possibility of Dion in power or Bob Rae. With Iggy as the alternative I am not at all shy about forcing Harper to deal with s. 13.
A good day for Canada I'd say. (If a crappy one for those of us who crave political entertainment.)
A good day for Canada, I suspect. a good day for Afghanistan, I hope.
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A while back I, like you Terry, had a chance to sit down with Iggy and chat. But then it was about books, not politics. Though as I listen to that old interview again, it seems that who he is today is yet who he was then, in many ways.
Listen, to the next Prime Minister before he thought of being Prime Minister.
I was thinking about the last line in the post "It could be worse, yes?" when I came across this article by Granatstein.
Whatever Iggy's views may be, may be for naught if the donkeys in the rear are walking in the opposite direction.
If by some slim chance he holds his nose and teams up with Jack and forms a coalition, I hope he keeps the NDP away from foreign affairs, (and finance).
That was a great interview, James. But it seems to get cut off before it ends. . .
Perhaps there was an interruption in transmission. I just checked and got through to the end.
When I met Michael, he was on a tight schedule, and so I only got 15 minutes with him. Which is not too bad, considering that I wouldn't even get 15 seconds with him now!
The whole thing is only about 12 to 13 minutes long, and the last bit is about the novel.
it's inane to think that either the dipper coalition partner, or the indispensable bloc, or stopper lib mp's for that matter, would go along with potential future pm ignatieff's commitment to a robust internationalism with the continued use of force in afghanistan. on this issue ignatieff has a better ally in harper than he does with his own stopper predominant coalition.
i trust that if this coalition is asked to form government, it will collapse in utter egomaniacal dysfunction not too long after it commences, paving the way for a low turnout election and another tory minority government under harper -- which will be good news both for Afghanis and for robust internationalism involving the use of force, but not such good news for progressive domestic policies.
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