When the race for the Liberal leadership started and the number of candidates began to grow at a rate that prompted some commentators to say that it was easier to list those Canadians who were not running, several Liberals admonished their brethren and sisters to abstain from mud-throwing, as this would hurt the already damaged unity of the party.
With the first debate of the leadership hopefuls out of the way, one thing is clear: unity does not figure prominently among their concerns. Instead, it's about winning at all cost, and most of them seem to have identified their common target: Michael Ignatieff.
Harvard icon Ignatieff, after being parachuted into a Toronto electoral district for the last federal election at a moment’s notice, was initially vilified for being a Brit or American since he had spent most of his adult life outside of Canada. Then, following his first public address at a Canadian university, he was attacked mostly by Western Canadians who didn't like his attempt to revive some of (Liberal prime minister in the 1970s and early 1980s) Trudeau's old policies, such as taking a more authoritarian stand vis-à-vis the provinces, including musings about bringing the hated National Energy Program [nationalization of provincial oil resources, which caused a lot of economic hardship in the province of Alberta] back to life.
Now, however, it’s Liberals who seem to hate his guts for being too “conservative” for their taste. Fellow leadership candidate Joe Volpe thinks that Ignatieff is merely a pawn for the Republican-controlled White House and not a true Canadian. Ignatieff owes this characterization to his voting with the Conservative government recently to extend Canada’s Afghanistan mission. It’s always funny to see that Liberals don’t seem to have any short or long-term memory: It was the previous – Liberal – government that green-lighted the mission in the first place. How soon we forget, eh?
But Ignatieff also dished it out. He accused Joe Volpe of having caused tremendous damage to the reputation of the Liberal Party for accepting allegedly illegal donations, including from 11-year-olds, and then trying to justify and/or sweep the affair under the rug. In so many words, he suggested that Volpe should pull out of the race before he wreaked even greater havoc.
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