Harper v. Ignatieff - Garth's blog

So you prefer Iggy with his 25 years living in the UK working for the BBC and his 5 years teaching at Harvard, over Harper’s faithful service to his country Canada?

By HARRY S on 12.15.08 3:41 pm

Harry S., what years of service to Canada are you attributing to Harper? That is a joke! The only thing Harper has done is push and bully people for most of his adult life to further his own agenda and career.

What exactly has Harper done? Well, funny enough he was a member of the Young Liberals Club in high school. Quit that.

Enrolled at the University of Toronto but quit that.

Moved to Edmonton where it seems his daddy (an accountant at Imperial Oil) probably got him a job in the Imperial Oil mail room (Stevie then became an IT geek for a while).

Got paid by the Conservative Party to be the aid to Jim Hawkes, then quit the Conservatives to join the Reform Party.

Lost his first attempt running against Hawkes. Worked for Deb Grey’s office. Got paid by the Reform Party to develop right wing policy. Quit as policy chief in 1992 because people didn’t agree with him.

Got his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in economics (never paid a nickle by anyone to be a practicing economist).

Ran successfully in 1993 against Hawkes (helped by the way with a $50,000 ad campaign waged against Hawkes by the National Citizens Coalition) and was an MP until 1997 when we quit again because he couldn’t get his way.

Joined the right wing National Citizens Coalition as VP then president to champion their cause (no surprise there given their ad campaign that helped defeat Hawkes).

Re-entered politics in 2002 and beat Stockwell Day for Alliance Party leadership. He was elected in a bye-election that the Liberals and Conservatives did not even contest. Harper’s only opponent was an NDP candidate (a former United Church moderator) whom Harper refused to debate because he “despised him”.

Since 2002 Harper’s record is well known.

There’s an interesting pattern through all of this…he quits when he doesn’t get his way. The supreme example of that was proroguing parliament to avoid losing a confidence motion.

Harry, perhaps in your strange world this looks like leadership. To me is only looks like a childhood bully who never grew up. I also do not see any evidence of broad intellectual capacity.

By comparison Michael Ignatieff’s life accomplishments are simply too long to detail in this posting. Here’s just a quick overview:

- wrote 16 books that have been translated into 12 languages.
- The Russian Album won the 1987 Governor General’s Award for Non-Fiction and the British Royal Society of Literature’s Heinemann Prize.
- his biography on Isaiah Berlin was shortlisted for both the Jewish Quarterly Literary Prize for Non-Fiction and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize
- his book Virtual War: Kosovo and Beyond won the Orwell Prize for political non-fiction
- he worked on the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty which examined the role of international involvement in Kosovo and Rwanda
- his book, Blood and Belonging: Journeys into the New Nationalism won the Gordon Montador Award for Best Canadian Book on Social Issues, and the U of T Lionel Gelber Prize

This is a man of supreme intellect and someone that the British Arts Council recognized as “an extraordinarily versatile writer”.

Ignatieff has written extensively on Canadian culture and human rights, as well as international development, peacekeeping and the international responsibilities of Western Nations.

He has held teaching positions at Oxford, the University of London, the London School of Economics, and the University of California. He was the director of the Carr Centre for Human Rights Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. He was the Chancellor Jackman Visiting Professor in Human Rights Policy at the University of Toronto. Ignatieff’s contributions during his career have been recognized by 9 honorary doctorates.

Harry, for you to dismiss this Canadian of great distinction by calling him “an egghead” shows your total and complete misunderstanding of the man, his intellect, and the history of leadership he has exhibited throughout his career.

Would I choose Ignatieff over Harper as PM? In a heartbeat.

He is also an acclaimed journalist and film maker. This is a man of tremendous intellectual depth.

By TS on 12.15.08 7:00 pm