The Hype of Michael Ignatieff: A train wreck waiting to happen

The utter hype, absolute nonsense, and BS polling we have been subjected to recently in the mainstream press is mindboggling. If each election for the past 5 elections, the Cons have gained 10% on the Liberals, which is fact, there's a serious possibility that that 10% could be doubled to close to 20% during the next election campaign.  This political clown is on the verge of making most progressive Canadians worst nitemare come true.

Michael Ignatieff's highly overrated summer vacation

Michael Ignatieff's interminable summer of small towns, small crowds and small media coverage is now over. Privately the man must be ecstatic. And yet all he has to look forward to is another session of parliament where he remains a lame duck to be constantly humiliated by new Government House Leader John Baird and Stephen Harper's other wild dogs.

He can say what he likes, but it's hard to believe that every day in every way, Mr. Ignatieff would not give the moon to regain his previous life. As a late-blooming politician, it's been a long, hard, often demeaning four years.

His fall from grace actually began shortly before his Great Canadian Adventure. While still a fashionable Harvard-based public intellectual who referred to Americans as "we," Mr. Ignatieff had caused incredulity among many of his previous admirers - of whom I was among the fervent - by justifying both George Bush's illegal invasion of Iraq and his approval of torture. These positions haunt Mr. Ignatieff still, as they should.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/michael-ignatieffs-highly-o...

It's the economy, Ignatieff

By virtue of their recent track record in power, the Liberals were uniquely positioned to deliver such a critique. They have failed to make the case, even in the face of a record budget deficit inflated by electorally-driven Conservative cuts to the GST.

With good reason, most Canadians do not associate Ignatieff with the economic file. Nothing in his academic past or his political present suggests a compelling interest for the issue.

Ignatieff is not the first opposition leader to fail to be moved to rhetorical heights by economic policy. When Jean Chrétien, a former finance minister under Pierre Trudeau, was in opposition, corporate leaders often complained that he seemed disengaged from their issues.

But current Liberal finance critic John McCallum is no Paul Martin. And over the past year he has not made a dent in the credibility of finance minister Jim Flaherty.

On the contrary, the minister's star has risen over the time of the recession.

In the same predicament, past opposition leaders would have sent their top parliamentary performer into the obvious breach. But while Bob Rae is the Liberals' most effective critic, his track record as Ontario premier makes him a poor fit for a front-line position on economic matters.

A look at the rest of the caucus suggests that if the Liberals want to send a strong message that they do have their ducks lined up on the economy, they should look outside their current ranks for a heavy-hitter.

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/855002--hebert-it-s-the-econo...

University professors are smart people but they don't make great politicians.  They seem to lack the politician's sense for connecting with people. 

Broadbent didn't start to "connect" with people until after he had been NDP leader for about 10 years. From 1975 to early 1984 - he was widely regarded as a dud.

Whoa, good for that.  I was beginning to think this was a thread about how great past Liberal leaders have been.

What is missing in many leaders today, including those such as Harper and Ignatieff, is emotional intelligence.  It isn't enough to have intellectual intelligence.  As Daniel Goleman documented in his ground-breaking "Emotional Intelligence" book several years back, brain smarts are not enough.  It is also important to be able to understand the way we relate to each other and the way in which the social and emotional world around us impacts our lives.

The best leaders are those who possess not only IQ smarts, but an emotional compass and understanding as well.

You make a good point Stuart.  I guess the counterbalance might be the general raising of expectations the successful tour itself entails for the return to Parliament.  He'll be expected to do better there now, too.

Aren't most of NR's threads largely about the same subject?  (eg. the impending collapse of the Liberal Party).

There are about 10 of these threads here every month.