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

On the stump

by Aaron Wherry on Thursday, August 12, 2010 2:28pm - 0 Comments

Michael Ignatieff is not quite reinventing the spoken word this summer, but he’s speaking with a certain vim and building a certain case. There’ll be another 2,000 words or so on this either later today or sometime tomorrow, but for the sake of visual documentation, here are a few clips.

First, his address to the rally in Windsor on Sunday night.

Previously referenced here were Thornhill and, from the official Liberal YouTube account, bits of his remarks in Oakville and London. Separately, the Liberals have also put up excerpts from Maugerville and Cupids someone has uploaded footage from Peterborough.

Tags: Liberal Express, Michael Ignatieff

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Cats

Yeah! Go Iggy! He's speaking with vim and building a case !!!

Oh what ??

Ooops. Latest poll shows his personal approval at 14%. Which is exactly …. WAIT FOR IT ….

what it was before he began his bus tour.

So media lap dogs pronouncing this success is a tour need to realize they are not reporting reality but seeking to invent it.

Oh rats, oh CATS!

Ted Chartrand

Oh, Cats, the media are certainly no match for the "reality" that the conservatives are tyring to create. Give your a head a little shake, will ya. Maybe you better have a good listen to Tony Clement and Stock Day. Now those are real inventors.

Emily

Considering the giant cowpie the Cons are in, Iggy doesn't have to do anything more than meet people and sound measured and calm.
Bob

Certainly a contrast with the Mr Angry over in the PMO.

I think when voters see these guys side by side, Ignatieff is going to look like the more attractive, more dynamic leader.

Harper ran out of policy two years ago. Ignatieff is introducing some pretty interesting new ideas into the political arena. I look forward to a good fight in the upcoming election.

Bob

You're wrong. And you stole my handle.

Gaunilon

He started off really well. The proroguement points were awesome.

Then it went awry with the G20 stuff. Harper did a superb job at the G8/G20 of battling for Canada's interests and international prestige. The "China won't remember Harper" stuff was weak, (a) because it's wrong, and (b) because it's not the sort of thing based on which we should be choosing a PM.

Finished strong; the whole "lived outside of Canada" thing from the CPC is pretty easy to pick apart, even if it actually has some substance in Ignatieff's case, and made for a nice segue into a "We are Canadian" moment.

All in all, I'd give it a C- on substance and an A- on delivery, which is not half bad for a guy in Ignatieff's position. Harper had better take Ignatieff seriously – he could be in for a run for his money.

Emily

The G20 meeting is in Seoul Korea in November.

PM Cameron of the UK termed what happened in Toronto a 'circus'.

Amateur Hour

"Harper did a superb job at the G8/G20 of battling for Canada's interests and international prestige."

Really?:

"A loonie boondoggle: Ostentation in a time of austerity" (Economist)
"Police in Toronto Criticized for Treatment of Protesters, Many Peaceful" (New York Times)
"Do-little G20 summit cheers spared bankers" (Reuters)
Stewart_Smith

Iggy is clearly much better in a smaller venue.

Yesterday, I decided that the Conservative just Visiting campaign actually had some validity. Not in the sense that the man did not understand Canadians, but rather that the degrees of separation between Ignatieff and a typical Canadian were rather large. Canada is a small country, so many Canadians get to meet our "famous" (or at least be at a small event were they talk). I never have never met Gretzky but I know several people who have. (I did meet Orr who was a better hockey player anyway) I know someone who played golf with Mike Weir and once rented a cabin across the bay from Ed Robertson's "shack". None of this is particularly surprising in Canada. Once this tour is over, I suspect Ignatieff will have significantly shifted his degrees of separation from the average Canadian.

There is a big advantage to doing this, because it inoculates him from inaccurate caricatures from the Conservatives PR machine. The Just Visiting campaign is already rendered counterproductive, because it will just remind people that in fact, Ignatieff did just visit there part of the country. It will be interesting to see what the next line of attack is.

Halo_Override

Stephen Harper: Not Visiting.

Olaf

I must say, I liked it. The first third in particular was fantastic – I felt like he actually meant what he was saying. Then he went on with the G20 stuff, which didn't ring true – instead of saying what it was that Harper had done wrong, as he did with his 'power vs. governing' portion, he just tried to hit the talking points (1 billion! fake lake! etc.!), instead of saying how he would have done things differently.

Anyway, let this man talk, let him say what he thinks about certain issues, and about how and where this government has gone wrong, and I think you may have a winner. If you start trying to stuff him into a combative partisan mold, it won't fit, just the way it didn't fit Dion. He's clearly a smart man, and doesn't fit the CPC caricature of some aloof ivory tower professor. But the more his handlers (or himself, for all I know) try to employ partisan tactics that don't suit his personality and skills, as a way to "fight fire with fire" against Harper, the less appealing he is, and the more they play to Harper's strengths as opposed to their own. Chretien had that type of personality, so he could muck it up with the best of them. Martin, Dion and Ignatieff are more cerebral and decent, and should act accordingly. In short, they should stop listening to the Kinsella's of the world who think that every Liberal party leader should be and act like Chretien – there are other ways to appeal to Canadians than winning a street fight.

You're welcome Liberal party.
ListenToMe

Reminder: The $1.2 BILLION was JUST for security, nothing else. Not for the fake lake, not for the big media centre where all the journalists could watch the World Cup (what, report on the G20…? Uh….!), not for feeding and lodging of the leaders' posses (did Obama really need to bring FIVE HUNDRED people to help him?)… I'm sure we will never be told the true cost of this gigantic and embarrassing waste of money.