The pile on Iggy is subject to today reminds me in part of the pounding Stockwell Day suffered when he was leader of the Canadian Alliance. All Conservatives remember that horror no matter where you fit in the puzzle. The Liberals will rebound - they always do. But it is evident things are rough when my buddy Warren Kinsella, original creator of Iggy Infatuation Corner, goes on the defensive.
Warren has taken to citing the troubles and infighting Jean Chretien had to manage in 1990 and 1991 as a comparative to the eventual outcome of the current Iggy difficulties. The comparison doesn't fly on many levels, but the most obvious disconnect comes in the form of personal appeal and image. Chretien was and is a likeable warm fellow full of rough-hewn charisma with penetrating populous appeal. Despite some high-profile errors, he conveyed a personal magnetism (now it sounds like I have a man crush on him). Iggy has the public persona of a frozen cod fillet. He transmits an aura of impatience matched with an imprudence of action without any natural humor or apparent grace. Men in a hurry don't sell well.
After Stephen "the Piano Man" Harper's performance on the weekend, Iggy had a chance to do something unexpected. Instead, unlike Jack Layton, who complimented the PM on his fun effort, Iggy blathered some meaningless and predictable attack rhetoric. He did what he always accuses his opponent of doing; he acted small and petty about this unique moment of contemporary Canadian political history. Ignatieff has always been billed by his Toronto promoters as being so much more than your run-of-the-mill politician yet he was so much less on Sunday when presented with the opportunity for some light-hearted decency.