1. Not (or maybe, hot?): Michael Ignatieff dancing. Take a look – and feel free to comment. Does this make you want to vote for the Liberal Leader?
The Liberal Leader’s summer bus tour was in the Toronto area Thursday. That’s where Mr. Ignatieff, who a la Jean Chrétien, is trying to show a different side of himself. Where Mr. Chrétien was photographed waterskiing, white-water rafting, skateboarding and playing basketball, Mr. Ignatieff is also doing his best to get involved in non-traditional political situations.
Over the past few weeks, the man who is accused by Stephen Harper’s Conservatives of being an elitist has been seen riding a bike, canoeing, drinking beer from a can, getting his hands calloused by helping to build a house, country dancing with his wife, wearing cowboy hats and baseball caps and now this. Mr. Ignatieff was photographed in front of Much Music on Queen Street West dancing with the Caribana’s Calypso Monarch and a steel band.
Check out his moves – the Liberals have even provided video.
2. Hot: Stephen Harper emerging from the shadows. The Prime Minister will at last be visible next week.
After criticism by the opposition that he has been in hiding for the past few weeks avoiding contentious issues such as the scrapping of the long-form census and the leadership troubles at the RCMP, he and his MPs and Senators are gathering for their summer national caucus meeting in Ottawa. There are also a series of cabinet meetings in preparation for the fall sitting.
One senior Tory MP said, however, it is doubtful that Conservative caucus members will be “upset” about the Prime Minister’s controversial decision to scrap the compulsory long-form census.
The issue blew up in political Ottawa after the sudden resignation of the chief statistician and accusations by the opposition that the census was scrapped over right-wing ideology. Despite a day-long summer committee hearing in which Industry Minister Tony Clement testified, it is still unclear precisely why the Tories decided to scrap the mandatory long form census.
The MP, who asked not to be named, said that the decision “never came up in caucus” and had never been discussed “internally.” Regardless, he believes it’s a non-issue that has only created controversy because of the summer “dead-news cycle.”
“I can’t imagine people in our own caucus are going to be that upset about it. I think we’ll probably get an explanation as to how we’ve arrived at the point we’re at and beyond that I think that most Conservatives are going to side with the government, including people in our caucus,” the MP says.
“I think that there are people out there saying, ‘Why did we pick this fight? We didn’t need it … it’s not a hill to die on … there’s bigger fish to fry than that.’ Again, I think we’re a victim of a dead news cycle.”
The MP says the only big issue out there is the economy – but without bad economic news there is little for the opposition to focus on. “So we get dragged on to other issues.”
Still, there is some discontent in Tory ranks. The Sun’s David Akin is reporting on a letter from an Edmonton Tory complaining of the decision.
The Globe and Mail, meanwhile, has a new poll from the Canadian Association for Business Economics that found 76 per cent of 252 respondents surveyed last week say they do not believe it is good policy to replace the mandatory long-form census with a voluntary national household survey.
And Ipsos-Reid pollster Darrell Bricker, who testified before the all-party Commons committee this week, says this is definitely not an election issue. But it could nonetheless have dark implications for the Tories.
“Who knows why the government’s really doing it,” Mr. Bricker told The Globe. “What it does it could also raise the question as to why the government is doing this, what are their motivations and it could have some impact on how people look at the government’s character and that’s how it could become an election issue.”
