Getting to know Ignatieff

Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff paid a call on the Star yesterday, spending an hour with us in wide-ranging conversation. It was the first editorial-board session he's done since becoming Liberal leader -- a chance for the folks at 1 Yonge to get to know him a bit better.  I think this is always an excellent strategy for politicians. It remains an enduring mystery to me, for instance, why Stephen Harper, who's very good on his feet, is so fond of scripted performances. 

Ignatieff was generally deemed to have done well at the board -- see the last paragraph in this editorial --  and I'll be posting more from the session on this blog later today. Meanwhile, coincidentally, the Liberals released this video yesterday, precisely while we were sitting down with Ignatieff, to help more widely acquaint Canadians with this politician. Here's the video: 

 

Comments

[Gabby in QC]

To paraphrase a Spanish proverb, which many people have paraphrased as well: "The more I know THIS man, the more I love my dog."

[Chris Durrant]

I think it is a good idea for politicians to let people know more about their personal stories, for their careers and also to keep the role of politician a little more respected and understood. How Ignatieff ruins this whole video however, is the jabs at Harper and Layton for being career politicians. That he has the gall to ask people to watch the video and listen to his story, and then sum up two other men's personal stories that way, it makes me angry. That somehow a life time fighting for the ideas they believe in is a mark of shame? And he claims in the video he doesn't have the leave them dead at the side of the road instincts?

Am I the only one who thought the video completely fell down on that point.

[Frank Docherty]

I don't know Ignatieff and I don't know Harper, however, what I do know is this. With respect to national security, corruption and white collar crime in Canada, my faith in our current government is nose diving faster than a Kamakazi pilot with a rabbid farret in his pants. ( http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/875724--memo-names-politicians-feared-under-foreign-influence ) Our PM seems to have not one single conservative bone in his body, well... except for one, and, it makes me wonder - how many botox injections did it take for him to be able to say the things that he says with a straight face ???

[Frank Docherty]

Is getting to know our government leaders kinda like getting to know Canada? Call me sentimentall, but isn't it perhaps just as, or even more important, that our elected leaders take the time to get to know Canadians and the issues that affect their simple daily lives? ( http://fairwhistleblower.ca/content/whistleblower-watchdog-retires-auditor-general-conducting-audit ) In the effort to produce measureable results with respect to making Canada a better and safer place for all Canadian citizens, would it be unreasonable to suggest, request, that our govenment be held to the same standard of integrity that Her citizens are expected to maintain???