In a recent post, Andrew Steele tells us the Liberals would do well to let Ignatieff be Ignatieff. No need to dress him up in a Calgary Flames sweater or send him hunting for bear in the woods of Northern Ontario. That would be pandering. Steele points to Ignatieff's review of Leslie Gelb's new book on American foreign policy as a good example of what Ig ought to be doing, ie exercising his considerable skills as a writer and intellectual to augment the leadership grind.
"Politicians need to be true to themselves to succeed. They have to be comfortable in their own skin.
Clearly, Michael Ignatieff is most comfortable engaging in intellectual debate and wrestling with complex ideas.
To abandon his writing is to abandon himself.
While such an intellectual bent does open a candidate up to charges of being out of touch, what impresses is the strength of character required to shrug off potential critics and do something you clearly enjoy while running for public office. While elitist, it is also clearly genuine."
True. But I would also suggest it's all a bit of a mixed blessing. Here are two things that bug me about Ignatieff's writing, his style of intellection and ultimately his leadership. On bad days he can be both glib and needlessly scheming. Both cropped up recently.
In the Gelb review Ignatieff wrote:
"Common sense for Mr. Gelb means an anti-utopian, evidence-based, pragmatic, moderate foreign policy focusing on achievable goals, rather than unattainable and hubristic master strategies like trying to foster democracy in countries where you can't drink the water. We can't drink the water in Afghanistan, and Mr. Gelb advises that America should abandon ambitions of state or nation building there and concentrate instead on eliminating Al Qaeda."
Canada puts troops in harm's way precisely so that we (and they) can "drink the water" and foster democracy. Ignatieff heads the party that put us there. So, on that score at least, enough with the clever, clever.
And last week, CTV's Robert Fife reported that:
"Former prime minister Brian Mulroney got a surprise phone call from a major party leader on his 70th birthday Friday.
It wasn't Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper but Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff. Ignatieff called to wish Happy Birthday to Mulroney and to talk a little politics.
Ignatieff is making a major push in Quebec and his kindness to Mulroney will do him no harm in a province where the former PM is still popular.
Mulroney is a close adviser to Quebec Premier Jean Charest as well as the province's powerful business and media elite.
He is chairman of Quebecor, which owns the TVA television network and the Journal de Montreal, and is best friends with Montreal billionaire Paul Desmarais Sr., who owns La Presse.
A family spokesperson said Mulroney was deeply touched by Ignatieff's phone call, calling it 'a class act.'"
I'm not sure I need to get into just how brutally self serving this is on all sides but I would suggest the work of Stevie Cameron and Harvey Cashore might merit further review.