Beyond The Commons

Beyond The Commons

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

'Canadians got to ask themselves is this the kind of politics you want?'

by Aaron Wherry on Sunday, March 20, 2011 3:19pm - 300 Comments

In an interview with CTV, Michael Ignatieff responds to the Conservative attack on his family heritage.

In response, the Liberal Leader accused the Tories of twisting the facts and acting outside the bounds of decency. “Their attack on me is a disgrace. They’ve attacked my patriotism. They’ve attacked my commitment to the country. And now they’re attacking my family.”

He said the Tories’ targeting of his character and family is unparalleled in this country. “These personal attacks are unprecedented in the history of Canadian democracy,” Mr. Ignatieff charged. “[Stephen Harper] is absolutely out of control. He thinks he can get away with and say anything,” the Liberal Leader said. “A Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian. I am a proud Canadian. I won’t take that from him or from anybody else.” He added: “Canadians got to ask themselves is this the kind of politics you want? This is a prime minister who is prepared to say anything to hold on to power.”

Bookmark and Share
  • FVerhoeven

    Reverend_Blair says: "Ignatieff didn't bring his father into this"

    Right! :))))

    Good try, Reverend, but with a body like that I wouldn't compete in any body-building contest if I were you.

    • Loraine Lamontagne

      Harper is an economist.

      • FVerhoeven

        "My papa was a rolling stone…."

        "Who was your daddy…."

      • wilson

        Harper comes from a family of accountants, from Ontario.

    • Reverend_Blair

      Er…okay.

  • wilson

    I think it was LordK that said:
    'but polls like this make me wonder what the Liberals have to do to get beyond it (Adscam) with the public. '

    answer:
    No Liberals went to jail. (and they brag about it)

    ''Martin responded to the report by promising that the Liberal Party would reimburse $1.14 million to the federal treasury and by banning ten individuals linked to the scandal''

    LPC gave back $1.4 of $40 million, and banned afew members.
    That's it.
    No Elections Canada investigation,
    no RCMP laying charges, 12 Liberal candidates names kept secret, and Chretien acted like it was a joke.

    Canadians feel you guys cheated your way out of punishment that was deserved.

    • Gayle

      Hi wilson!

      Hey, here's a fun party game. Why don't you review the Elections Act as it stood in the 1990's and fill us all in on what EC could have and should have done. See, they are restricted by that Act and if it did not contain any provisions that permitted any further action well, then, your little whine here is pointless.

      Then maybe you could ask the RCMP why it is they were unable to lay any charges against the LPC after their boy Harper sent them in to do some more investigation, and maybe reconcile that with the fact that at least one of the people charged out of this whole thing plead guilty to committing fraud against the LPC.

      But then you are not really interested in what they could have done. You are interested in trying to convince people that everyone is against the poor poor conservatives.

      Meanwhile the rest of the country will continue to question why it is that Harper is so desperate he is attacking Ignatieff's father.

    • Jan

      Why don't we settle up after the Auditor General's audit of the stimulas spending?

  • wilson

    Why would Ignatieff make a commercial about himself,
    when that fits so well into the CPC narrative that it's all about him?

    Is Donolo trying to lose this election?
    http://ignatieff.me/

    • FVerhoeven

      Very good point, Wilson!

      But the question remains: is talking about father Ignatieff really like talking about Ignatieff.

      On the one hand, Ignatieff claims it is not about his father, it's all about Michael Ignatieff.

      On the other hand, Ignatieff seems to need the help of his father to make the picture complete.

      Go figure. But the numbers aren't all in. Which way is it, Michael?

      I am confused. An apology is in order, Mr.Ignatieff. For democracy sake!

      • wilson

        Americans always bring their families into their political campaigns. So it is a family affair, in the US, in the country he calls 'his'.

        Really dumb strategy,
        if Canadians cared about his blueblood roots, they's buy the book he published 2 years ago,
        All About Me, by Count Ig

        1. healthcare
        2. economy
        39545. history lesson on Ignatieff family

        • Gayle

          Hmmm

          You seem a little worried these ads and Harper's reaction might cause some problems for your guys.

          • Reverend_Blair

            They do seem rather frightened of something, don't they?

      • Halo_Override

        I gotta admit, I'm inclined to agree with your eighth sentence.

        • FVerhoeven

          The black, black widow is sittin' in the middle of the web,
          It's the fly she seeks.
          You may be her lover but you never will recover,
          'cause she ain't had a bite for weeks.
          You think you're the same, 'cause you got the same name,
          But the widow has a mobile phone….

  • Loraine Lamontagne

    “My dad laid [railway] track in British Columbia. He put himself through university. He lived the immigrant story.”

    So here folks I give you new fodder. George Ignatieff would therefore have done this while he had over a million dollars in his pocket, or so would the Conservatives would have us believe,and though they were not born when George Ignatieff arrived in Canada, laid railway tracks in BC, went to university they know everything about George. His mother would have pulled George out of LCC after a year even though she had a million dollars in her pocket. The Cons have never met George, but they know him better somehow * than Michael who knew his father intimately.

    Will the Conservatives attack Michael Ignatieff for providing these details about his father's life and claim they are lies? I doubt it. They prefer to attack dead persons they have never met.

    Ahh, the rationale of the Conservative cult.

    * Maybe they use hallucinogens.

    • FVerhoeven

      "Swing your daddy!"
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92TzM9NabQY

      Oh, Yeah!! :))))

    • Gayle

      I think every noble family with a million dollars would immediately buy a farm and start farming! I mean, with a million dollars they could have settled in London, hob nobbed with royalty, invested in some white collar business ventures and basically lived the high life.

      Instead they chose to farm. Yeah – that really fits the CPC narrative about the Ignatieffs.

      • Halo_Override

        "New York is where I'd rather stay, I get allergic smelling hay."

        Everything the CPC knows about the aristocracy, they learned from Green Acres.

        • Gayle

          Heh.

        • FVerhoeven

          And everything Ignatieff knows, he learned from his father. The secret is finally out, thank god!

          • TimesArrow

            And everything Ignatieff knows, he learned from his father. The secret is finally out, thank god!

            I'm starting to wonder just who's nuts here? You? Or me for reading and replying to this crap?

      • FVerhoeven

        Guess you've never bought a farm, eh!

        • MostlyCivil

          You're just jealous. The Ignatieff's bought a dairy farm in England. No quota system.

          That's why he drives you so nuts, right? No go check your protien levels.

  • wilson

    Ignatieff family did not come to Canada with nothing,
    he had the proceeds from the sale of his farm.

    I can't for the life of me figure out why the brains in the OLO want to try to distance Ignatieff from his silver spoon past.

    • Gayle

      Right. And then they rented a farm and his grandmother, who according to a government website had barely enough for essentials, made sacrifices to scrape enough money together to send her son to a private school.

      The farm was losing money, debts had to be paid before they settled up, and there were costs associated with the immigration process. By the time they arrived they did not have enough money to buy anything, and so they rented. And farmed.

      • FVerhoeven

        Well, if you loose the farm once, then the next time it's better to rent one. To be cautious is learned somehow….

        • MostlyCivil

          If you lose the farm once, nobody will loan you the cash to buy another…at least not right away. The banks haven't changed much in 100 years.

    • Loraine Lamontagne

      Were you their accountant?

    • catherine

      Actually the government website says the Ignatieff's "operated" a farm in England and the sale of the farm forced them to move. Where are you getting your facts from, Wilson? And are you suggesting the government website is false? Conspiracy?

      • LdKitchenersOwn

        Actually, I think they did own the farm in England. Of course, it was losing money, so they had to sell it, settle their debts, and move to Canada where they couldn't afford to buy another farm, but rented instead.

        That's the part I love most about the conservative spin. That the Ignatieff's, former aristocrats, came to Canada with the equivalent upwards of a million dollars, and decided to rent a farm and set to milking cows. Then their youngest son went off to lay railway tracks in B.C. to pay for his education, despite all the money they brought over from England with them.

        Yeah. 'Cause that makes sense.

  • TimesArrow

    At around the time of the Ignatieff's arrival to Canada the place was crawling with black sheep, remittance men and the genteel poor.Men with Oxbridge educations were dirt poor farmers, loggers and fishermen if they were lucky. Ignatieff's family wouldn't have stood out at all. As for the ludicrous suggestion they arrived with the equivalent of a cool half a mil – that does not jive at all with the fact that MI's father laid track in BC[ surely an easily verifiable fact] and neither does the fact he was pulled out of UCC after a year and subsequently attended public school [ not mentioned in the CPC "facts"]
    But the real scandal here [ as Wells would say] is the fact that our federal govt chooses to dwell at length on this.
    WTF has happened to this country? The liberals have and are continuing to pay a price for their sins; the new Tories are ensuring our future will be as shameful as our past.
    Ok Harper you've had your pound of flesh. Now grow up and govern this country decently or get the hell out!

  • Loraine Lamontagne

    On the one hand we have a statement by the Conservatives that the Ignatieff family "have never ceased to enjoy great privilege, as a function of the financial and educational resources and social status they brought with them". They provide no document, no evidence to support their opinion; it us purely and strictly their opinion.
    On the other hand, the Government considers factual the information on their website about the Ignatieff family: that George had to be pulled out of LCC for lack of financial resources and that the extended Ignatieff family had to live under one roof during the depression. These are verifiable facts that remain undisputed by the government and contradict their statement on the continuous wealth of the Ignatieff family. When Mr. Ignatieff states that his father worked on the train rails in BC, the Conservative don't accuse him of lying. Why would a wealthy, privilege person work on the train rails in BC, live with the extended family under one roof and be pulled out of private school because they can’t pay? Only the Conservative cultish brain can rationalize this.
    The Conservatives are lying, pure and simple. Harper owes Mr. Ignatieff an apology.

  • perplexed

    http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/publicatio…

    I'm guessing there will be some fancy re-wording of this web page if the Cons want to change the story now…

  • http://www.wholesalekk.com wholesalekk

    ONLINE wholesale STORE:

    http://www.wholesalekk.com

    —–If you think our website is good , you can put this website to your bookmarks or other places ,easy to find …

    online msn :wholesalekk@hotmail.com

From Macleans