The Liberal Party of Canada invited speakers to attend Canada at 150, their policy conference in Montreal this weekend, on the understanding that it would be a strictly non-partisan event designed to promote a dialog about ideas.
But then Mr. Ignatieff informed us: "The conference will be a key step in the development of the Liberal Party's platform for the next general election."
The nicest thing to say about these two statements is that they don't hang together very well. The gloss doesn't line up with the underlying intent. Which is perhaps the whole problem with the Ignatieff-era Liberal Party. There is something about this offer that doesn't ring true - that doesn't hold together.
We are offered the "only progressive alternative to the Harper government" - that supports all of Mr. Harper's key policies.
We are offered the only environmental crusader - who supports unlimited development in the tar sands. The only crusader for peace - who supported the Iraq war. The only advocate for ordinary families-- who believes all of the federal government's net financial flexibility should be spent on tax cuts for wealthy individuals and profitable corporations, rendering all other commitments either impossible or fiscally reckless. The only crusader for human rights - who supported torture (making it awkward to assail the Harper government for conduct towards enemy combatants that you actively supported at the time). The only person who truly believes the Harper government is the worst thing to ever to happen to Canada - and whose single accomplishment in five years or so of public life was a fateful decision to maintain Stephen Harper in office.
There are explanations for all of these contradictions. But as every young Saskatchewan CCF-New Democrat is told in their first days in the marble palace (aka the Legislature in Regina): when you're explaining, you're losing.
There are a growing number of people in his party who are quietly saying that "Michael is never going to be ready," and that perhaps the best thing that could happen in the circumstances would be to get an election over with sooner rather than later, so that the party can move on to some newer gimmick. Or, to put it more politely, someone who understands politics, political parties, Canadians and Canada.
Still, an event that begins with a singing of O Canada in Mohawk can't be all bad. Mr. Ignatieff asked some interesting questions in his opening speech. Those of us who believe our country can do better than it is doing under the current government know we owe Canadians good answers to some of the issues Mr. Ignatieff wants to muse about, before Canadians will provide us with a chance to do better. It is Michael Ignatieff's tragedy that to date he has been the source of questions and explanations, but not of answers, or of any progress towards "better." Absent some remarkable change, Canadians will need to look elsewhere on the opposition benches for those.