1. Uniter versus divider. While Stephen Harper’s senior cabinet ministers are out campaigning against a global bank tax, Michael Ignatieff is stumping on his “One Canada” theme accusing Tories of insulting ethnic groups.
The Liberal Leader is touring Canada this week, telling various groups he won’t use his position to “divide Canadians for political gain.” His message, too, is that Liberals will not say different things to different ethnic groups.
“We will say the same thing to all Canadians, whether in a church basement in Rimouski, or a mandir in Brampton, a gurdwara in Vancouver, a mosque in Toronto or a synagogue in Winnipeg.
“We will never make the insulting assumption that the members of a community all think the same way,” Mr. Ignatieff says.
Despite his pointed message, the Liberals have a lot of work ahead of them as the Tories under Immigration Minister Jason Kenney have worked hard to listen to and respond to ethnic communities in Canada.
Mr. Ignatieff is in Markham, Ont., today, participating in a multicultural business roundtable and meeting with Korean community leaders. Yesterday, he was meeting with Toronto-area Chinese leaders and Wednesday he is in Calgary for an event with African-Canadian leaders.
He and his Liberals are accusing the Tories of pitting one group against another. “The Conservatives are expert at this. They pick issues that polarize Canadians, that polarize communities, that turn people against one another, and they exploit those divisions to win votes,” Mr. Ignatieff said in a speech to members of the ethnic press last week.
As examples he noted gun control (rural versus urban); arts and culture (Quebec versus the rest of Canada) and the Middle East: “They’ve made the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a partisan issue, for the first time ever,” Mr. Ignatieff said.
2. What's in a name? A Kingston bar has settled the great naming debate in Ottawa –Wellington Street versus Macdonald Boulevard – with suds.
And, though hardly scientific, it seems patrons in the hometown of Sir John A. Macdonald agree that portions of Ottawa’s historic Wellington St. – in front of the Parliament Buildings – should be renamed in honour of Canada’s first prime minister.
“It wasn’t even close,” said Troy Gadbois, manager of the Iron Duke bar, which is named after the Duke of Wellington.
Last Friday, Mr. Gadbois came up with the idea of his patrons voting via pints on the issue as a result of the controversy over renaming the portion of Wellington Street. He felt that a bar in Sir John’s hometown was well-placed to mediate the debate.
Here are the results: 251 pints (Alexander Keith’s beer was designated the pro-Macdonald beer) were sold in favour of the name change compared to 64 (Wellington’s Best Bitter was designated the Duke beer) for the status quo. “The City of Ottawa’s duty is now clear,” Mr. Gadbois says.
An appeal from veteran Conservative historian and author, Bob Plamondon, to rename the portion of the historic street, stirred up the issue. Andrew Cohen, the president of Historica-Dominion Institute, supported his idea.
But it was the subject of some derision on the press. The Globe and Mail editorialists sharpened their pens, arguing that the name change was attempting to “whitewash a little of Canada’s past.”
Mr. Plamondon defended himself, saying this would not threaten “our ancestral heritage.” Rather, the name change would inspire “our parliamentarians, and all Canadians.”
In keeping with the Macdonald theme, meanwhile, political junkie Arthur Milnes, who is the owner-operator of the Sir John A. Macdonald-themed walking tour of Kingston (Coach’s Corner’s Don Cherry is the narrator of one of the tours as is former Liberal prime minister Jean Chrétien), is offering free tours to anyone who can demonstrate their Scottish heritage.
Mr. Milnes’s offer begins July 1 and is his way of thanking the government and people of Scotland for honouring Sir John by unveiling a plaque in Scotland last week. “As a resident of Kingston, a community that Sir John A. Macdonald did so much for in his lifetime, I felt it my duty to thank the Scottish for this friendly gesture between the nation where Macdonald was born, Scotland, and the nation Macdonald created, Canada.”
Mr. Milnes, a fellow in political history at Queen’s University, is also pushing for the federal government to create a Sir John A Bicentennial Commission in advance of the 200th anniversary of Sir John’s birth in 2015.
