Categories: Canada

What happened, Michael?

As Ignatieff sinks in the polls, Liberals are trying to figure out what’s gone wrong

by Aaron Wherry on Friday, October 23, 2009 11:40am - 103 Comments

All of which may be noble notions, but lack the specificity now demanded. He promises more, at some point. “I got some of the things out there,” he says. “There’ll be more and we’ll tie it up in a big bow and hand it to Canadians and say, ‘There you are.’ ”

The last year has blurred the traditional partisan divide, so a new distinction must be made. Stephen Harper, he seems to say, is a man of today, he is a man of tomorrow. “Mr. Harper, after nearly destroying his government in December 2008, basically moved into the Liberal house. But there’s no vision, absolutely no vision of where we’re going to be in five, 10 years. I’ve talked a lot about 2017 because it’s a way of focusing the mind on the question that actually bothers Canadians. The thing I pick up is relief that civilization as we know it didn’t end, but the anxiety that remains for Canadians is what did we get for $56 billion, how are we going to dig ourselves out of it, and if the American market is going to be flat for three, four, five years, how do we make our living in this world?”

Discussion drifts back at several points to that Thanksgiving Sunday and those people and that soup. It was a photo op, and it was a matter of public service. But maybe it mattered for other reasons altogether. Maybe it was part of Michael Ignatieff understanding for himself, and explaining to everyone else, why he’s in this game.

“I don’t pretend to have all the answers. I’m still learning. And there are three or four other pieces that have to be there before Canadians start to think, ‘Yeah, well, he’s at least thinking about our future,’ ” he says, again casting forward. “He’s not up there at 50,000 feet, he’s trying to address the anxieties and anguish that I saw in that food line, that I see in the supervisor’s face. And you have to make that connection. And it’s not enough to just have lots of ideas, lots of policies. People have got to feel, ‘That guy, he’s in my corner. He’s a little funny, he’s got a funny name, he’s been outside the country, but he’s in my corner.’ I mean, that’s the connection you have to make. It’s very visceral. And I feel I make the connection constantly. I don’t think I’m dreaming.”

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Tags: election, Liberal party, Michael Ignatieff, Polls

More by Aaron Wherry

Kendall

What went wrong?! They chose as leader a man that couldn't be bothered to spend most of his adult life in Canada!!!
http://intensedebate.com/people/Jack_Mitchell Jack Mitchell

"We are moving at lightning speed" is the funniest line of the day.
http://intensedebate.com/people/frenchie101 frenchie101

I saw the nanos poll.Ignatieff has failed to connect with the people, but even the party itself seems to be in perma disarray.
Anon Lib

Dude,

It's a big country and there's very few Canadians who get a sense of it as a whole. Being leader of the a political party would give you a pretty unique opportunity to travel all across it and meet Canadians from all walks of life.

As for your comment "He should have been a Canadian all along.". He HAD been a Canadian all along Einstein. You don't stop being Canadian when you work abroad.
ryan

Why do politicans continue to do these commical photo shoots?Everyone, I mean everyone who knows anything about politics knows that this is horrible attempt at….well whatever he is trying to accomplish by getting his picture taken. I doubt the people who needed the service cared at all that the leader of the opposition was dishing it out for them.
Instead Ignatieff makes himself look even worse in front of the cameras.
I still have not me a voter in this country who has been persuaded by these types of political stunts, meant only for political gain.
http://intensedebate.com/people/Laurence_Miall Laurence_Miall

I think the Liberals struggle with three big problems. Number one is the void of a coherent vision for Canada which has been apparent since Trudeau left office. Chrétien did a good job with his steady-hand-at-the-tiller routine, but a major “vision thing” is needed and Ignatieff clearly doesn’t have it (simply saying you have vision doesn’t make it so!). Number two is the Sponsorship Scandal. I think it still haunts this party, especially now that allegations of corruption are swirling around the Sponsorship Scandal’s epicentre here in Quebec. Sure, different levels of government are implicated, but it’s still the Liberal “brand” involved in a lot of this. Liberals need to shake their self-made image of being the Natural Governing Party and old-time cronyism. The world has changed and they have not. The last problem is Ignatieff himself. Far more so than with Dion, one can say “Not a Leader.” Threatening an election nobody wants? It doesn’t get more out of touch than that. I fervently believe Canadians would embrace the Liberal Party, but only if it gets its house in order.
AnnieS

The press conducted a total witch hunt on Ignatieff. For weeks and weeks it was run down Ignatieff and never question anything the conservatives did. I resented this totally and I don't even vote liberal.

http://intensedebate.com/people/hollinm hollinm

Iffy and the Liberal party are the authors of their own crticisims. This man comes back to Canada after a 34 years absence helps throw the Lib leader under the bus and then gets himself with the help of the elites in the party appointed leader. He had no political experience and certainly has no political experience. There is no evidence he can lead a man band let alone a poltiical party and a country. He has made many political blunders since becoming leader and clearly was not in touch with the mood of the Canadian people. I could go on and on but the point is the media now sees the emperor has no clothes and they are simply pointing that out so that Canadians can see it for themselves. Harper has been attacked personally for years and so to think a faux American can simply show up and become PM is simply naive in the extreme.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Crit_Reasoning Crit_Reasoning

You nailed it, Dot!
Mike

It's the sense of entitlement that boggles my mind. Ignatieff and the whole LPC act like 38% of Canadians suffered collective brain injuries in the last election, and that's the reason Harper won. What the hell! We should be voting LPC because they're SUPPOSED to be our government! For gosh sakes Iggy – come up with some policies and take a stand on something! Give us a reason to vote for you.
anon

This article is too long. What happened, Michael? Allow me to summarize:

"WE DON'T LIKE YOU."
- The people of Canada.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Thwim Thwim

Hey, you know, you could say that about every single political leader.
Not ONE of them got a majority of Canadians saying they were liked.

Rob

I was a Liberal supporter. However, since Dalton McGuinty's blatant lies and the introduction of HST I will no longer support this party!
Ottawa, ON

He looks uncomfortable both in the soup kitchen and as leader of the Liberal Party. The smile is phony and people know it. He talks like a visitor, he doesn't know what Canada is about and where it should go. Why would he?

I agree, he and the party underestimated the intellegence of the Canadian people.
delford t louis

there is something brewing….
http://intensedebate.com/people/Thwim Thwim

Yes, let us avoid having educated people lead us, surely that way leads to a society prepared for the challenges of tomorrow.

Given recent results, I suggest we start with those that have economics degrees.
http://intensedebate.com/people/Thwim Thwim

Yes, he ignored us so much he received a Canadian Governor General's award for a book about Canada.

Meanwhile, Harper is off in foreign countries saying that Canada is "second-tier socialistic country, boasting ever more loudly about its economy and social services to mask its second-rate status," and "a Northern European welfare state in the worst sense of the term"
http://intensedebate.com/people/Thwim Thwim

Yes, all 37% of Canadians.
A good chunk of them were saying they want MORE of the hugely expensive programs.
http://intensedebate.com/people/Thwim Thwim

What happened? Just look at the comments here.
What happened is that the conservatives put out the negative advertising and uncritical Canadians took it in and started parroting it back to each other.

Sorry folks, we might like to think of ourselves as paragons of critical thought but the truth is, the negative advertising worked. Harper's money went through the television stations into the mush on top of our necks — and for a lot of people, it stuck there.

And now they're not even getting the facts right. Out of Canada, yes. Canadian Citizen — all along. Doesn't know about Canada? Just wrote friggin' books about it and was the go-to guy for several American stations when they wanted background info about Canada.

RDB

No worries, Thwim, just as soon as Ignatieff figures out how to communicate the reason that Harper’s wrong, the negative advertising will cease to work. What you’re suggesting is something like Dion’s “poor me, blame Harper” routine which was frankly beneath him. No, if Ignatieff and the Liberals want to win, the responsibility is THEIRS. Crybaby antics will just play into their opponents hands.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Thwim Thwim

Yeah, do some research into marketing.

They've already shown that attempting to correct a negative first impression generally only reinforces that first impression. All you can do is present a different impression and hope it has enough stick that it overwhelms the first one.

Now I'm not arguing that Ignatieff is doing a decent job in defining himself — and he needs to. But what's happening here is in the lack of that, Harper's party has used negative advertising to present a definition of him and lazy and gullible Canadians have taken up that definition without actually using that cholesterol they store in their skull.