Beyond The Commons

Beyond The Commons

Beyond The Commons

Aaron Wherry covers all the goings-on in and around Parliament Hill. Follow Aaron on Twitter: @aaronwherry

Categories: Beyond The Commons, Capital Read

Michael Ignatieff Elitism Watch

by Aaron Wherry on Thursday, July 29, 2010 6:32pm - 0 Comments

In a speech just now to a few hundred Liberals in suburban Thornhill, Mr. Ignatieff used the word “tendentious” to describe the Conservative government.

However, he also, at the behest of one barbeque attendee, signed a picture of himself drinking cheap Canadian beer. And, later, he posed for a photograph with three scantily clad dancing girls.

Mr. Ignatieff did not, though, partake of the inflatable bouncy Disney castle.

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  • http://intensedebate.com/profiles/saskboy saskboy

    He'd have entered the castle if Rick Mercer had egged him on. Most politicians would do whatever Rick Mercer tells them will look funny. Look at Bob Rae's lake jump, for instance. And Mercer (or Rae) was right, it was terrifically funny. Iggy should strive not to be too boring, or no one under 45 will know his name.

  • Cats

    He did get a "public" education right ??

    Why does he even pretend to be a regular guy ? Watching him watch that hockey game (while drinking wine) was just painful.

    He has certain tastes. Maybe 5% of the population share them. They are the elites.

    Let's just accept it. Stop being judgemental. Stop pretending to be something we're not. Live and let live. Leave the elites alone !

    Cats away!

    • Emily

      Yes, he did.

      What does 'regular guy' mean?

      Homer Simpson?

    • Matlock

      "He did get a "public" education right ??"

      Last I checked the University of Toronto is a publicly funded institution.

      "Watching him watch that hockey game (while drinking wine) was just painful."

      Watching Stephen Harper attempt to shake his elitist image by wearing that cowboy leather vest in 2005 was even more painful. And 6 months later he was PM.

      • chet

        Elitist? No, no no he's a cold calculating monster who rose from mediocrity to force a "far right" agenda (hidden of course) on an unsuspecting populace who want nothing more that a leftist Trudeauesque, progressive wonderland.

        Can jump ship from than meme now.

      • Olaf

        Last I checked the University of Toronto is a publicly funded institution.

        Is that how you'd describe it? Do you know how much it costs to attend?

        • Shiner

          It is a publicly funded institution Olaf, that's really not up for debate.

        • http://intensedebate.com/people/Be_rad Be_rad

          A mere fraction of the cost of each posiiton.

        • http://intensedebate.com/people/sea_n_mountains sea_n_mountains

          when he went or now?

    • http://intensedebate.com/people/NotStephen Not Stephen Colbert

      Cats away!

      It's too bad I love felines so much, because you just made me want a kitten launcher. I am so torn!

    • Jan

      Crap – now we can't drink wine while watching hockey? This reverse snobbery is getting to be a bit much. And maybe you could post a picture of Harper having a beer, while watching hockey at his residence.

    • Out There

      This is in sharp contrast to Regular Guy Stephen Harper, who has done all sorts of Regular Guy things, such as obtaining a master's degree in economics (a master's degree!) and heading the National Citizens Coalition.

      • http://intensedebate.com/people/OntarioTown OntarioTown

        And little else

    • Amateur Hour

      "Why does he even pretend to be a regular guy ? Watching him watch that hockey game (while drinking wine) was just painful … He has certain tastes. Maybe 5% of the population share them. They are the elites."

      I'm sure all of those grape growers (farmers) in Ontario and BC — and the tourism industry dependent on the industry and their largely Conservative MPs — appreciate your support for their hard work.

      Given the fast-rising consumption of wine by Canadians, the ranks of the "elites" are rising at an alarming rate, eh?

      • Orson Bean

        Why do you hate our wine producers?

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/Sir_Francis Sir_Francis

    …later, he posed for a photograph with three scantily clad dancing girls…

    …one of whom is rumoured to have been Dimitri Soudas, cleverly disguised and hiding in plain sight.

    • Orson Bean

      I'm reminded of a event I attended around 1991 or so, it was when Paul Martin was running for the Liberal leadership against Chretien. The event was at the Copa nightclub in Toronto, and there was dancing, booze, etc. going on. Martin ended up dancing with this very hot young Liberal campaign worker, and she basically started doing the dirty dancing bit, rubbing up against him, etc. All of a sudden, Martin's handlers realized how this could end up embarrassing the candidate, and they went into full damage control mode, it was like they were the U.S. Secret Service dealing with an assassination attempt on the President. So they waded into the dance floor and pretended that PM had urgent other business to attend to, grabbed Martin and pulled him to safety. I've always wondered what Martin said to them.

      • http://intensedebate.com/people/danby danby

        I've always wondered what Martin said to them.

        thank goodness for pleats

        • Orson Bean

          Nice one.

        • Orson Bean

          And danby, bonus points for historical veracity/accuracy, as pleated pants were very much in style at the time!

          • http://intensedebate.com/people/McC_ McC_

            as was tying an onion to your belt, let us hope neither style comes back around again!

      • Mandatory Jedi

        I swear that was my light saber in my pocket!

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/Sir_Francis Sir_Francis

    Mr. Ignatieff used the word “tendentious” to describe the Conservative government.

    The latest CPC meme is already being broadcast from HQ: "Ignatieff: the kind of guy who plays Scrabble. And wins".

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/NotStephen Not Stephen Colbert

    Mr. Ignatieff did not, though, partake of the inflatable bouncy Disney castle.

    Huge missed opportunity. I would've voted Liberal if he had done this.

    • http://intensedebate.com/people/Stewart_Smith Stewart_Smith

      Especially if he had gotten the 3 girls to join him.

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

        Just imagine the front page of tomorrow's Sun: IGGY GETS JIGGY!

        • Emily

          Toronto Sun

          Iggy gets jiggy on Queen St.
          http://www.torontosun.com/news/torontoandgta/2010…

          • http://intensedebate.com/people/Stewart_Smith Stewart_Smith

            You really can't make this stuff up.

          • Emily

            LOL I know…cracked me right up!

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

            LOL!!!

          • Olaf

            Haha, God bless him. I must say, that was awesome. Iggy just jumped a few notches in my books.

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

            Agreed!

    • Dave

      What's a fun fair without a bouncy castle?

      • http://intensedebate.com/people/PeteTong PeteTong

        hahaha beat me to it.

  • Wascally Wabbit

    He could have worn his Stetson backwards – with panache – if he'd gone into the Bouncy Castle…sort of Stampede Ontario style!
    As it is I'm more focused upon this… http://www.themarknews.com/articles/1909-how-iggy…

    • LaxAtlDfwYow

      Thanks for the link. Interesting article. The Trudeau comparison is, perhaps, appropriate: Trudeau – love him or loathe him – clearly changed the LPC to suit himself and his priorities whereas Iggy appears to have done the converse and been subsumed.

      As much as I hate to admit it, I'd bet this is, at least in part, due to Iggy's being out of and out of touch with the country for so long. Upon return, he was (and perhaps still is) wholly dependent on long time LPC hands (or their offspring) for his "nationview".

      • http://intensedebate.com/people/Jenn_ Jenn_

        Well, that was a fine thread you two had going of drippingly fake 'concern' and 'disappointment'. And the article proved only that Ignatieff (and Sir Francis, of course) isn't the only one that can use big words. But other than that, pure crap. All over the place with no real path except to say Iggy=bad and Liberals=bad. I mean, Amiel could have written the outline!

  • Emily

    Canadians are stupid ya know. They don't under them there big words.

    Double face palm!

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

      Must you be so obstreperous?

      • Emily

        I'm sorry, I was trying not to sound overly articulate so my Canadian citizenship wouldn't be revoked.

        • Olaf

          Foreigner! I knew it!

    • Olaf

      I bet 80 percent of the population doesn't know what "tendentious" means. Quite sincerely, I had to look it up myself, and I like to consider myself (notwithstanding all evidence to the contrary) relatively well versed in the language.

      • Stewart_Smith

        If you are feeling inadequate due to this recent failure this

        http://www.hotforwords.com/

        is a good site to brush up on your etymology.

        • http://intensedebate.com/people/charlesh Charles H.

          Not to be confused with brushing up on your entomology. I suggest the garden for that one.

          • http://intensedebate.com/people/Stewart_Smith Stewart_Smith

            Funny sometime words are fun, other times they just bug me.

  • Mandatory Jedi

    Tendentious like The Empire was towards to Rebel Alliance!

    Although I believe Admiral Ackbar was more relatable than Ignatieff.

    • http://intensedebate.com/people/McC_ McC_

      Remember when Admiral Ackbar used to reliably comment here? I miss him!

  • Emily

    Olaf…even Dief used words like 'surreptitious', so stop playing dumb.

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/madeyoulook madeyoulook

    And, later, he posed for a photograph with three scantily clad dancing girls.

    Anything to get coverage in the Sun chain of papers, I guess…

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/NorthernPoV NorthernPoV

    First I think, "aw sh*t, he really does sound like the Man Who Fell to Earth" but then I had a brainstorm:
    Fess up Wherry – you asked him to work the word “tendentious” into his speech so you could get a blog-post out of it.

  • chet

    He naturally acts and speaks like the elite academic…because he is an elite, academic of uppercrust pedigree and Royal dissent,

    and "poses" with the commoners.

    Did he actually touch the commoners? Without white gloves I mean?

    • Emily

      Con ignorance showing, loud and clear.

      • Orson Bean

        Maybe you two should have a cage match. That'd settle things once and for all.

        • Emily

          You can't have a battle of wits with an unarmed man, Orson.

          Bad form you know.

        • Olaf

          Seriously. We need to cordon off Chet, Jan, Emily, Jarrid, Holly Stick, and Cats. Just give them their own little chat room where they can spew pro and anti-Harper one liners at each other until their hearts' content. Then the rest of us can have a quasi-civil, semi-reasonable conversation.

          Oh, and the Critical Reasoning hack needs to go too, while we're at it. He's been stepping on my last nerve.

          • Emily

            Or perhaps you could all stop being partisan and discuss topics on their merits.

          • http://intensedebate.com/people/Raging_Ranter Raging_Ranter

            Wouldn't be much of a cage match; likely they'd all become life-long friends.

          • Emily

            Not a chance.

          • http://intensedebate.com/people/Raging_Ranter Raging_Ranter

            That's true. Nobody would befriend you. I hadn't factored that in.

          • Emily

            Oh goodness! I'm all upset now.

            I'll go throw myself on my bed and cry.

            LOL Do you guys even think about what you post?

          • http://intensedebate.com/people/NotStephen Not Stephen Colbert

            Elephants are awesome, but they generally make poor calculus tutors.

          • Orson Bean

            Hmm, looks like a virtual cage match erupted in any event . . .

          • http://intensedebate.com/people/Raging_Ranter Raging_Ranter

            I disagree about Critical Reasoning. He's one of the more reasonable commenters on here. Partisan, yes, as am I, but not excessively so. Can't say I object to the rest of your list though.

          • Olaf

            CR is a mole. I'm surprised he's managed to deceive you. Trust me: his "reasonable" "balanced" "thoughtful" approach is really just a ruse. A ruse bent on communism.

          • http://intensedebate.com/people/madeyoulook madeyoulook

            Yeah, but he keeps the fly population in control with his tongue. Can we keep him? Please?

          • http://intensedebate.com/people/Raging_Ranter Raging_Ranter

            He's a communist mole?

          • Orson Bean

            Posing as a sort of Red Tory — it's SO insidious . . .

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

            How did you discover my secret ruse bent on communism? Did one of those nine "deep cover" Russian spies rat me out?

          • http://intensedebate.com/people/Raging_Ranter Raging_Ranter

            Personally I got suspicious when you posted about your new hammer & sickle tattoo. When you started posting about your collection of vintage CCCP hockey jerseys, and dissing Paul Henderson, I just knew.

          • http://intensedebate.com/people/Robin_E Robin_E

            Olaf- why don't you bring back your blog? Perhaps you could host a quasi-civil, semi-reasonable conversation on there. Plus, it was one of my favourites. And, it allowed me to use the "but some of my favourite blogs are conservative" line.

          • http://intensedebate.com/people/OntarioTown OntarioTown

            Or they could do lunch and leave everyone alone

    • http://intensedebate.com/people/charlesh Charles H.

      Royal dissent? Is that like Henry VIII telling the Pope to bugger off, or more like Cromwell saying the same to Charles II?

      • http://intensedebate.com/people/Jenn_ Jenn_

        I thought it was refusing dessert.

    • http://intensedebate.com/people/Halo_Override Halo_Override

      chet, where's Steve?

    • Margaret

      Are you really that dumb?

  • Blacktop

    My isn't it a slow summer?

    • http://intensedebate.com/people/Jenn_ Jenn_

      Best line of the night.

  • chet

    All I can say is we should all be thankful that Iggy descended from the Ivy League tower to return to Canada after decades to rule over us (and only to rule over us apparently).

    All this forced Tim Hortons stuff is unbecoming a man of such greatness. To be sure he takes a long cleansing spa treatment to exfoliate the blue collared fibres from skin that is used to the finest garments,

    but that he is put in a position of having to walk away from the string quartet to listen to Stopin Tom must be pure torture.

    Bravo Mr. Ignatieff. So brave. So strong.

    • http://intensedebate.com/people/Halo_Override Halo_Override

      chet, you haven't seen Steve around, have you? Everyone is wondering if he's okay.

    • http://intensedebate.com/people/OntarioTown OntarioTown

      Steve doesn't do Timmies – only for photo-ops

  • pedantic person

    "Tendentious" is a ridiculous word. Of all things, it comes from "tendence," i.e. a tendency to tend in a particular direction. So it's the adjectival form of a basically opaque word.

    I have never before, in my long and pedantic life, heard anything but an argument or a line of reasoning described as "tendentious." I defy Iggy or anyone else to cite an authoritative instance otherwise, e.g. describing a person or thing (say, the Conservative party) as tendentious; I'd demand a classical English author but this absurd neologism doesn't exist before 1900.

    Take it from a pedant, Iggy: you don't get anywhere with such high-fallutin' misusages. Say what you f*cking well mean: the CPC is a kindergarten full of 5-year-old ideologues.

    • http://ragingranter.blogspot.com Raging_Ranter

      I have never before, in my long and pedantic life, heard anything but an argument or a line of reasoning described as "tendentious."

      Maybe you were too tendentious to notice?

    • http://intensedebate.com/people/Be_rad Be_rad

      A very quick perusal of several online dictionaries used many examples, none of which were " argument or a line of reasoning".

      Mind you, your alternative did make me spray my keyboard.

  • President Bartlet

    If you're going to be the "Education President," it'd be nice not to hide that you have an education.

    • Emily

      Exactly.

      There is no need to talk like Joe the Plumber in Canada.

      • http://intensedebate.com/people/Jenn_ Jenn_

        You know Joe the Plumber isn't a licensed plumber, right? There is no need to behave like Joe the Plumber in any way in Canada.

    • Bob

      Except Bartlet had other qualities in addition to intelligence… like a personality.

      • http://intensedebate.com/people/Robin_E Robin_E

        I was about to poke fun at you for referring to him as if he were a real person, but I do it all the time too.

        Vote Bartlet.

      • President Bartlet

        "I am an economics professor with a big old stick up my butt"

    • http://intensedebate.com/people/NotStephen Not Stephen Colbert

      Bartlet for Canada!

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/Robin_E Robin_E

    As in, "That should be enough on there. Now these waffles are totally surreptitious". Right?

  • Wascally Wabbit

    Clearly – you lot are NOT REAL Canadians.
    If you were – you would know tendentious from the Readers Digest – Canadian version!
    Isn't that how all Canadians brush up their vocabulary – so they can win at Scrabble?

  • Margaret

    So, we're not supposed to expand our vocabularies? Speak for yourself, brain trust. I looked it up, and it fits Harper to a T.

    What's next – have all the dictionaries burned??

    1.

    Main Entry: ten·den·tious
    Pronunciation: ten-ˈden(t)-shəs
    Function: adjective
    Date: 1900

    : marked by a tendency in favor of a particular point of view : biased

    — ten·den·tious·ly adverb
    — ten·den·tious·ness noun

  • Margaret

    I never, ever thought that I'd see Canadians getting angry because a politician has a bigger vocabulary than they do. We used to be known for a higher degree of general knowledge and intelligence than the US. but that has certainly changed. Canada is now populated by thickos who watch FOX news , and other delights.

  • Margaret

    How anyone can talk about Ignatieff being boring, with Harper looking them in the face, is beyond me. I have to say though that there is something fascinating about Harper's ugliness; so I suppose that spares him from being a complete and utter bore.

    Has anyone ever heard Harper talk to anyone, without a couple of bodyguards?

  • Olaf

    Yea… playing dumb… totally got you guys!

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