Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff speaks to reporters after the Canadian Council on Learning unveiled its final report at the Chateau Laurier in Ottawa on March 30, 2010.BLAIR GABLE/Reuters
Piling on Michael Ignatieff isn't as much fun as it used to be. Soon people are going to have to invoke a mercy rule. But most of the abuse he's getting these days is not coming from his opponents, it's coming from members of his own party.
Witness Jane Taber's post this morning about the " confusion" expressed by some Liberals concerning the caucus position on disclosing MP expenses. Then, astonishingly, Warren Kinsella is spawning a dialogue about Liberal-NDP manifestations. Wow. I never thought I'd see the day when one when one of the Liberal Party's foremost warriors went down that path. Even as he does that, on another post he further criticizes the Liberals "no coalition" talking points that appear on his site. Let us not forget it was only this past weekend when the Toronto Star ran an op-ed from another grassroots Liberal talking about the need for a change in Liberal hegemonic thinking.
For a variety of reasons, I suspect, we are starting to see different Liberals get ahead of their leader and subsequently appear to diminish the credibility he has with them by advocating for a significant rethink of how the party appeals to Canadians. Vibrancy in any organization is a good thing. But when the leader of a party is as disconnected from his supporters as Mr. Ignatieff appears to be, it makes for challenging times.
It may be premature to observe (though that has never stopped me before), but Ignatieff is starting to remind me more and more of Joe Clark circa 2000-2003. Ignatieff and Clark are both decent, thoughtful men. Clark in that time was going through similar circumstances to the ones Ignatieff finds himself in now. The Progressive Conservative Party that Clark led then was trying to reassert itself as a national force. Clark believed it was not necessary to deal substantively with the Reform and Alliance parties in any co-operative fashion to defeat the Liberals. He seemed to ignore the signs and noises coming from his own party that change was afoot. Clark's deafness to his party, his hubris and a caucus that was losing confidence in him made him give up the leadership of the party he so loved for a second time. The rest is history: Peter MacKay became leader of the PCs, and he and Stephen Harper engaged the bases of the PC and Alliance parties to form the Conservative Party in 2004.
As it was then with Clark, it still remains unclear how Ignatieff's future will play out and whether or not there will ever be a united Liberal-NDP entity. But one thing is certain: Liberal Party members are having a conversation. Ignatieff ignores it at his peril. If he doesn't manage the dialogue properly, he will be rolled over by it.
(Photo: Blair Gable/Reuters)