Categories: Polls

Will Michael Ignatieff's cross-Canada bus tour help the Liberals?

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by macleans.ca on Tuesday, July 13, 2010 5:08pm - 0 Comments

Tags: Michael Ignatieff

http://intensedebate.com/people/citizen_CA citizen_CA

Since he is so concerned about the environment, I wonder if he thought about the carbon footprint his tour will leave behind. He could have just taken a car/van if not for the need to bring his own cheer leading squad with him.

who?

Are you kidding? The bus is a perfect way for Iggy to promote public Transit. "The Liberal Leader travels by bus, you should too!"

http://beverlyakermanmscwriter.blogspot.com/ Bev Akerman

your "yes" choice has a typo: it says "Yes; getting out of Ottawa is just Ignatieff needs" but SHOULD say Yes; getting out of Ottawa is just WHAT Ignatieff needs."

http://intensedebate.com/people/PhilippeG Philippe Gohier

Thanks. Should be fixed now.

http://intensedebate.com/people/psiclone psiclone

can anyone name any time any summer tour has increased numbers for anyone – however invariably during these tours every year has shown an increase to the incumbant … therefore .. come This Fall Harper Up Iggy Down!

sue grahame

I fully agree. These cross country tours are a waste of time and taxpayers money..

http://intensedebate.com/people/Party_of_One Party_of_One

I doubt that taxpayers' are directly funding this, it "should" be coming out of the Liberal party coffers..

Redneck Jackie Chan

I can assure you now that its summer and people are taking time off to relax, meeting a poltician is the last thing on there minds.
Herb

it still is stated wrong. it should say, "Yes, getting out of Ottawa is just what Ottawa needs."

Alba73

That's probably an accurate statement. His getting out of Ottawa probably is just what the city needs. :)

WATTYATHINK

… after Mulroney I vowed never/never to vote Conservative again, lately, however, I have been teetering whether to go back on my own good advice … unfortunately the political landscape in Canada is littered with the corpses of those who have only just missed a date with gaol or some other misfortune. The NDP always seem to have good leaders but as a party just can't make it, the Liberals are gasphing for air and the Conservatives are morally destitute with a western separatist agenda … what's left … I swear if the Block ever sets up a national party they will get my vote … they're slogan could be why separate join us instead …

itzac

I totally agree. An online survey during the last federal election told me my views matched most closely with the Bloc's platform.
mamamia

I believe you are right

http://intensedebate.com/people/TwoYen TwoYen

Today's paper says Iggy wants to give money to kids who want to travel overseas. Great, first the Liberals want to use my taxes to pay for daycare for everybody and now he's going to pay for their trips abroad. When will it stop? We already know that Dalton McGuinty hasn't found a new tax he doesn't like. Can you imagine what would happen if Dalton's buddies got hold of the cheque book in Ottawa? No wonder the Liberals are having problems gaining traction.

http://intensedebate.com/people/TwoYen TwoYen

Thinking about these free trips, I wonder how the Liberals' coalition partners in the NDP will react to Ignatieff's proposal to give free trips to Europe to all those grandkids of the Boomer generation?

http://intensedebate.com/people/CTM Claudia Lemire

I believe traveling is great, but he seems to think that by being away from Canada you are better off, if he wants a shot at this job he needs to stop talking like this, FOCUS Ignatieff, "C A N A D A" . Think of the benefits of growing in Canada, traveling in Canada.

http://intensedebate.com/people/TwoYen TwoYen

I'm not knocking travel overseas. Indeed, I am spending much of July and August overseas myself. But I don't want my taxes paying for rich kids to do it. And I don't believe Iggy's coalition partners in the NDP or Bloc support it either.
http://intensedebate.com/people/Party_of_One Party_of_One

I think I understand the intention behind this proposal, but once again the Liberal team has skipped the step of actually identifying and explaining the problem that they're attempting to address, and therefore once again their "announcement" lacks context. No wonder people react negatively!

The main advantage of travelling "overseas" (although I would argue that travel to Central and South America would be equally useful) lies in getting a better perspective on Canada, by learning that other societies can often function reasonably well under a different set of social values and norms, which in turns leads to understanding that the status quo in Canada is NOT "inevitable" or beyond questioning. It promotes thinking "outside the box", which is arguably generally beneficial to a society's resolution of social, economic and structural problems. At the very least, "overseas" travel promotes a better appreciation of Canada's relatively fortunate position vis-a-vis the most of the rest of the world!
http://intensedebate.com/people/Party_of_One Party_of_One

However, if this is the rationale behind this announcement (I couldn't find the story in my local paper), the Liberal team has failed to identify it as such, and thus the announcement lacks context.

In any case, if Igantieff wants to promote this sort of thing, why not just advocate restoring the funding to the Katimavik program, which has a demonstrated ability to acheive these ends, while also developing a better understanding of Canada WITHIN Canada, as well as overseas? Info on the Katimavik program can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katimavik and at http://www.katimavik.org/

Radio

Who's this guy Ignatieff?
Jeet

Does this brainwave truly believe government is set up to help kids travel on someone else's dime. Is this academic really that stupid. Common sense should be in the Smithsonisn, right beside the dodo bird.
Alba73

He supports it so he has another reason to raise our taxes. It's their way – Spend, spend, spend, and then tax, tax, tax. After all, someone has to pay for their "insightful and genious ideas". There is no way that he or "McGreedy" should be holding on to anyone's chequebook ever again.
Tom Jackson

If the liberal party wants to survive it needs to dump Michael Ignatieff’ His is totally out of touch with the average Canadian'. And in my opinion thinks he's better then the rest of us

mary

reading these comments I think he is propbably

jagdish

yap…out of Ottawa on a one way ticket !!
Coilin

Michael Ignatieff does not have it. Harper is too embedded to slip so badly as to lose in an election. For the good of the party Michael Ignatieff should resign and let someone else who is well experienced and politically astute take over and give Harper a run for his money. We need to get that cynical dictator out before he completely destroys the Canada that we know and care for. Is it too late for Bob Rae?

Lisa

Really? You want the guy who absolutely destroyed Ontario to run the country? Mr. Harper is actually keeping Canada afloat in period of world economic turmoil– I have no idea what you think he's destroying except he egos of a few arrogant liberals.

JOHN

I'm 64 and have paid taxes for many years. Can I get a free trip to Europe from Count Iggy if I vote for him ? Of course it would be over my dead body because that is the only way he would get my vote.
Michel Brazeau

Who?
Prairieanne

Has anyone seen the faces of the big name MPs accompanying the leader on this tour. Bet they'd rather not be on the bus.
veertje

Iggie, yahn,,,, who? sure, give kids trips overseas… are you really serious????? who comes up with these things? and he's an academic and intelectual???? NEVER are they getting my vote!
Layton nice enough guy, but no oompf, no passion, no nothing…
With the conservatives we are doing reasonably well overall, however Harper could use some personality but hey, you can't have it all ehe?
Yuri

I am not a big Iggy fan. But spending a few bucks on kids' trips overseas is not the same as spending $ 9 billion on needless F-35 fighter jets.
http://news.ca.msn.com/top-stories/cbc-article.as…

Let's not forget that the Liberals got us out of Mulroney's huge defficits and now Harper is getting us into them again.

mary

at last someone said something intelligent. so childish most of the comments,

steven

A BUS can kill a lot of wildlife
Carnage all across Canada
ROAD KILL now that has the ring of LIBERAL
STOP the tour and throw IGGY under the bus and
SAVE WILDLIFE

mary

first people complain that iggy isn't close to the people and then when he takes a bus tour that most of us would not do for all the money in the world, you complain about something else.

mars

Is Iggy—or has he ever said anything with "meaning". What does he stand for? Is just biding his time–&–if he doesn't win the next election– will be out of our hair–faster t han U can say-Iggy—as–he only has interest in his own standings! Perhaps a better choice forcross country tour would have been– horse & buggy—after all bus is not enviromentaly friendly!!!
George Waugh

The Count is out for the count!
Don

What a marvelous idea this is to have our university students travel to Europe for their summer break! Not only could they experience a bit of what the world has to offer, but also have the opportunity of learning a second language.
Once they return home and commence their employment, they can ask "would you like fries with that?" in two diffenent languages!
Yuri

My daughter went on an organized trip to Europe during the summer break when she was in college. I paid for it, although it may have been somewhat subsidized by the government. They visited four countries and had to write a dissertation about their trip the next semester. Today she is a very successful high school teacher and still remembers with pleasure her European trip. I wonder how many such trips could be subsidized with the billion + dollars spent on the useless G8 and G20 meetings.
Wayne

I can’t believe that this boring, non-charismatic, waste of skin is still the leader of the party.

He’s as inspiring as a migraine and simply has no idea what the people want and need.

Let me help Iggy out::
1) lower taxes to encourage people to spend their money
2) give seniors a break … they are the people most at risk
3) get the people off assistance and working … landscaping at our parks, roads, etc.

Lastly, get a grip on reality and quit throwing the money away where it doesn’t help anyone.
KSO

Taxpayer dollars should not have been spent on the G20 meetings OR your daughter's trip.
KSO

If he did these three things, he would be a Conservative.