Ignatieff 'meek,' Rae 'forceful: U.S. WikiLeaks cable
U.S. officials found Bob Rae to be forceful, eloquent and dominant, especially in comparison to then Liberal leader and former rival Michael Ignatieff, according to leaked diplomatic cables.
Both men met with David Jacobson, the U.S. ambassador to Canada, on Oct. 23, 2009, and left American diplomats with a distinct impression.
Their relations "remain clearly tense, with Rae arriving late and then immediately dominating the conversation, while Ignatieff sat back almost meekly," says a cable marked "confidential."
"Rae was by far the more forceful and eloquent of the two and showed little deference to his party chief, without at any time displaying any rudeness or personal animosity.
"He came across as better read and more substantive than Ignatieff, who stuck mostly to pleasantries and generalities."
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/u-officials-contrast-forceful-rae-meek-ignatieff-131058436.html
Bob Rae is going to be a handful and he is coming after the NDP. He has an axe to grind. Did you hear him on Power and Politics? "The NDP just won't adapt to modernity...or something like that. Other Socialist parties around the world have dealt with the economic realities of the world, but the NDP hasn't.
I think he is trying to say that the NDP are still somewhat anti-capitalist, thank god, and Bob Rae is a big sellout along with DSK.
"The NDP just won't adapt to modernity...or something like that. Other Socialist parties around the world have dealt with the economic realities of the world, but the NDP hasn't.
Translation: Bob Rae's definition of "not adapting to modernity" is not wanting to embrace Bob Rae. Its all about HIM. I think he's a very mean, petty, vindictive man with a personal axe to grind. There is not a scintilla of difference in terms of "modernity" between the NDP and other social democratic parties in the western world. Rae knows that perfectly well. He hasn't been in a coma for the last ten years. He just lies through his teeth. Deep down he is a broken man with a grudge - watching the NDP have triple the number of seats the liberals have and knowing that he bought a very very overvalued stock when he went liberal and that he has now lost his shirt. Deep down he hates himself and he tries to direct all that self-hate at the NDP.
I agree - I don't see the NDP as being somehow more "old school" and "ideologically rigid" and "anti-market economy" than other social democratic parties.
He's upset that the NDP finally achieved its goal of leapfrogging over the Liberals and becoming the main party of the center-left.
Is this his strategy to win the "blue Grits" back?
So you don't think there is an anti-capitalist ideology to the NDP?
Is this an outdated document?
http://economics.uwaterloo.ca/needhdata/Regina_Manifesto.html
I would be interested to know more about why Rae left the NDP. Sure it was largely misplaced ambition but what were the signs along the road? I remember that he said something at the time about the NDP's position on Israel but don't remember any other reason he may have articulated.
Can anyone sketch in the fuller story?
I would be interested to know more about why Rae left the NDP. Sure it was largely misplaced ambition but what were the signs along the road? I remember that he said something at the time about the NDP's position on Israel but don't remember any other reason he may have articulated.
Can anyone sketch in the fuller story?
Didn't he campaign on public auto insurance and then backed away when the pressure from the American insurance companies got too hot? Then of course there was Rae Days.
Rae was very critical of Svend Robinson's Israel stance, but has also been saying the NDP refuses to accept "the reality of the market economy" since 1996 or so.
Saw a recent picture of Rae and he sure looked old and warn out - big bags under his eyes - all puffy and just so unhealthy looking - must be all that late night work, going to door & peddling liberal memberships and trying to fundraising for all those previous failed liberal leadership races where they are all in big debt. Well at least the weather is getting warmer and the exercise is good for him.
I would be interested to know more about why Rae left the NDP. Sure it was largely misplaced ambition but what were the signs along the road? I remember that he said something at the time about the NDP's position on Israel but don't remember any other reason he may have articulated.
Can anyone sketch in the fuller story?
I think Rae also felt he was knifed in the back by the Ontario public sector unions over the Social Contract. Rae's view was that it was better to "share the pain" of public spending cuts through Rae Days (what we called "Filmon Fridays" in Manitoba) and wage freezes. The public sector unions rejected the Social Contract and publicly attacked the Rae government. When the 1995 election came along, many of these folks sat on their hands or voted for other parties.
I'm sure the fact that the party spurned his preferred successor in the 1996 leadership race didn't help matters, and I would also venture to guess that after he started working as a Bay Street lawyer he had less and less in common with the NDP.
Of course Rae also NOW says (after having been a New Democrat for almost 30 years) that he has "always" rejected the idea of "having any ideology" and that he believes in nothing. When asked why he ever became a New Democrat in the first place as opposed to a Liberal, his only reason was that he found the Liberals "too arrogant" - which is funny coming from a man who drips with arrogance from every pore.
In addition to what ghoris writes, I think Rae still had political ambitions, realized he would always be "persona non grata" in the NDP and so the Liberals were the only game in town for him.
I would be interested to know more about why Rae left the NDP. Sure it was largely misplaced ambition but what were the signs along the road? I remember that he said something at the time about the NDP's position on Israel but don't remember any other reason he may have articulated.
Can anyone sketch in the fuller story?
I dont 'know'. But the truth is too banal and self serving to talk about, so probably no one has heard it.
Lefties are always looking for ideological differences- as if those are always paramount. And ideological differences are more edifying reasons for switching, so of course Rae will offer those.
It's simple. Bob Rae did not have a future in the NDP. And most leading politicians dont leave it gracefully, especially when they are still relatively young.
So he has epiphanies, and sort of re-invents himself. All the easier when his brother is a long time Liberal insider.
So you don't think there is an anti-capitalist ideology to the NDP?
Is this an outdated document?
http://economics.uwaterloo.ca/needhdata/Regina_Manifesto.html
When's the last time they ran on a planned economy and nationalizations? Layton ran away from an inheritance tax a couple of elections back and has never revived even this modest effort at breaking up large concentrations of wealth. Its economic platform this past election called for business tax cuts and keeping the corporate tax rate lower than the U.S.'s. Rae is attacking a strawman -- a socialist bogeyman -- that now longer exists. The NDP is indistinguishable from other social democratic parties around the world who, for the most part, seek to reform, rather than overthrow, capitalism.
So you don't think there is an anti-capitalist ideology to the NDP?
Is this an outdated document?
http://economics.uwaterloo.ca/needhdata/Regina_Manifesto.html
When's the last time they ran on a planned economy and nationalizations? Layton ran away from an inheritance tax a couple of elections back and has never revived even this modest effort at breaking up large concentrations of wealth. Its economic platform this past election called for business tax cuts and keeping the corporate tax rate lower than the U.S.'s. Rae is attacking a strawman -- a socialist bogeyman -- that now longer exists. The NDP is indistinguishable from other social democratic parties around the world who, for the most part, seek to reform, rather than overthrow, capitalism.
A party can't run on nationalizing and hope to get elected because the elite power structure will crush you. So now the NDP is taking a forced incremental approach similar to the one Harper is taking on the right-wing. That does not mean that the party is pro-capitalist. Small business tax cuts actually works in a socialist ideolgy considering redistribution of wealth. My point is that if the NDP is going to be the next Liberal Party of Canada and preserve the disgusting status-quo of our murderous world and country then we either need to change it or get a new party.
Harper doesn't run on privatizing health care and making gay marriage illegal but we know he wants to do these things. Same for the NDP, I hope. If our country would accept the nationalizing of banks and oil companies I would like to think the NDP would stand up for it.
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2011/05/28/chris-selley-layton-the-b...
Rex Murphy can we please get rid of this guy?
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2011/05/28/rex-murphy-jack-laytons-h...
To summarize, Bob Rae has the gift of the gab and not much else. Nothing more pathetic than an old con when their skills start to fade.
Bob Rae on why he's a Liberal
ha ha ha - Liberal party is progressive - ha ha ha - oh I just can't be bothered to list all the facts of their past non-progressive policies and actions that reveal how unprogressive Liberals are!!
Bob Rae on why he's a Liberal