Michael Ignatieff's pronoun problem

By Paul Wells - Saturday, May 16, 2009 at 10:14 AM - 255 Comments

Rex Murphy is sure the Conservative ads about Michael Ignatieff will fail because “Canadians don’t like mean.” Chantal Hébert hopes they will fail because If Harper had wanted to do the Bloc’s bidding at Conservative expense, he would not have proceeded otherwise.”

I am less certain, and here’s why. Here’s my column from the Maclean’s print edition of Sept. 6, 2006. Here’s part of the argument:

There’s been grumbling in Liberal ranks about what some call Ignatieff’s “pronoun problem” ever since he moved to Toronto in 2005. His pronoun problem is his tendency to use the first person plural — we, our — when discussing a country that isn’t Canada. He makes sure not to do it anymore, but he used to.

I’m trying to decide how much this bothers me. I can tell you it bothers a lot of Liberals. At their recent Vancouver caucus meeting, those who aren’t supporting Ignatieff often mentioned the more than 30 years during which his principal residence was in England or the United States.(He left Canada in 1969 and returned for less than two years in 1978.)”He’s not a Liberal,” a few said. “He’s not Canadian,” one or two said. But when I got to Toronto and reported this to Maclean’s colleagues, one or two rolled their eyes theatrically. “God,” one said. “How parochial.”

Really? Continue…