Saturday, October 23, 2010

Ken Dryden on Michael Ignatieff


If the Round Tables were Ignatieff’s finest hour, as Dryden claims in his new book, then he is in worse shape than he thinks.

Ignatieff personally invited me to present the Marshall Savings Plan to the Liberals at these round table gatherings only to have the invitation overturned by those in the party like Gerard Kennedy who are interested in pandering to Corporate Canada and kow towing to the Life insurance industry. The Liberals are grossly conflicted on matters like the income trust issue and have proven themselves clearly incapable of doing was is right for 99.9% of Canadians, including the 79.6% of Canadians who supported implementation of the Marshall Savings Plan as determined by an an Environics poll.

The Liberals are no better than the Conservatives on matters such as the trust tax fraud, as their record of total inaction demonstrates.


Goalie-turned-MP Dryden takes a few slapshots at Liberal captain


BY CHRISTINA SPENCER,
POSTMEDIA NEWS
OCTOBER 23, 2010


OTTAWA — In a new book, hockey-great-turned-MP Ken Dryden delivers a blunt analysis not only of his own party's political woes but, more surprisingly, of those he thinks have dogged his boss, Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff.

Becoming Canada, Dryden's fifth book, is meant as a rallying call for a better Canada. But the former Montreal Canadiens goaltender spends much of it analyzing the shortcomings of the federal Liberal party, which he says was bereft of ideas and direction by the time Stephen Harper's Conservatives won the 2006 election.

"It had been a long time since Liberals had acted and felt like Liberals," Dryden writes. "Perhaps the last best time had been in 1982 with the passage of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

"Since the 2006 election, the Liberals have seemed always on the edges of the game and never back in it."

Dryden describes Ignatieff, who formally became party leader in 2009 after two lacklustre years of Stephane Dion's helmsmanship, as having yearned for the prime minister's job since his childhood.

What the leader hadn't envisioned, Dryden suggests, were "the tactics and manoeuvrings that make politics function."

Instead, Ignatieff "was more confident in his understandings of the world than of Canada," writes Dryden.

By contrast, he argues, Harper is so politically skilful that the public spotlight has turned mostly on the Liberals since 2006.

"It is Dion and now Ignatieff, who have had their flaws so starkly revealed," he writes.

"Today, Harper seems less worn than Dion did, less worn than Ignatieff does now."

It's unusual for a politician to so bluntly describe his party leader while still working for him. Dryden, MP for York Centre in Ontario, was minister of social development in the Paul Martin government, and is now the party's national outreach adviser for poverty and working families.

"When Ignatieff was only ten years old, he didn't only dream of being Beliveau or even Rocket Richard or Gordie Howe, as other boys did, he dreamed of being prime minister," Dryden writes. "What would a prime minister say? How would he say it?"

Once Ignatieff became leader, he "seemed remarkably comfortable," Dryden wrote. But he says this didn't shield the former international journalist and scholar from Tory attacks that defined him as "just visiting" Canada.

"From his first boyhood imaginings, he had put himself inside the skin of prime ministers and presidents, living out their experiences with them, deciding for himself what he would have done, how he would have looked and sounded in their stead. He arrived in his new role 50 years experienced. But what were not in his boyhood fantasies, or much in his adult observings, were the tactics and manoeuvrings that make politics function," Dryden writes. "Here, he was not experienced."

Nonetheless, Dryden describes early 2010, after Harper prorogued Parliament, as a glimmer of hope for the Liberal leader. During that period, the Liberals held dozens of roundtables on ideas and policies, attended by experts and duly reported by the news media.

"This was Ignatieff at his best — listener, learner, ponderer, sense-maker, meaning-seeker, big-picture-finder. In those three weeks, his confidence growing, he seemed finally to realize: I can be good at this. It might even be fun."


© Copyright (c) Postmedia News

9 comments:

Dr Mike said...

The Liberals are guilty of recycling a bunch of old ideas & nobody is listening.

Unless they come at the people with something innovative which will place distance between themselves & the Cons then why would anyone vote for change.

It`s a real shame too as what we have now is not good for Canada where the minority rules the majority & this same minority is imposing it`s will as they see fit.

Kenny Dryden is right about one thing , it is a party floating in the wind with very little direction & that serves no one well.

Dr Mike Popovich

WesternGrit said...

The home-care program IS new, and is a brilliant stroke. So is the theme of caring for families and "taking care of things at home" vs. billion dollar corporate bailouts...

Anonymous said...

So...........it has begun. No, scratch that - it has continued.

Ignatieff will not be prime minister.

Dr Mike said...

Anonymous said...
So...........it has begun. No, scratch that - it has continued. Ignatieff will not be prime minister.


Well , I wouldn`t go that far.

Only 36% of Canadians want Harper back for a fourth term , ooops , I meant third ---- with all the prorogations , it just seemed like more.

Iggy`s popularity is similar to Harper`s when he was Opposition leader prior to his 2006 win.

Of course Iggy won`t have the RCMP intervening on his behalf like Harper did in the 2006 election when the then boss of the police force jumped in to save the day for big Steve.

Iggy needs to set himself & his party apart with some good policy around healthcare & jobs as Harper is weak in both areas.

Harper is very vulnerable to waste such as the 1.5 billion dollar shrimp-fest-photo-op in Toronto from last june.

Do we need prisons & planes or do we need hospital beds & jobs.

It can be done , Iggy can be Pm , but he needs to get off his butt & show us what he is made of & what he stands for.

We are waiting , all 64% of us.

Dr Mike Popovich

Anonymous said...

We are waiting, all 64% of us.

Yeah, yeah Mike, everything you've said I've heard when Stephane Dion was leader. And he didn't become Prime Minister, either. Been there, done that as it were.

Ignatieff has already been defined. He wasted too much time trying to define himself. Just like Dion, Ignatieff will not be Prime Minister.

Dr Mike said...

Hey Anonymous , if you want to scare the CRAP out of a Con , just mention the name Justin Trudeau & their eyeballs pop & their neck veins distend.

This guy scares them , not because of any policy , but because he is human & not like the robots leading the parties right now.

This kid has looks , charm & a mind of his own.

He can steal a room faster than the Wiggles.

If the Libs want to sweep , just toss Justin out there & watch the second coming of Pierre.

It would be tis-up Cons in one fell sweep.

Dr Mike Popovich

Anonymous said...

Ah Mike, now I notice that you aren't even bothering to defend Ignatieff anymore, let alone even bothering to mention him. You've even looked immediatley past Ignatieff's eyeblink time as leader by alluding what you think a Liberal party led by another Trudeau would look like. So telling.

As for being "scared" of Trudeau, we are, but not for the reasons you think. We're scared of how much worse, if that is even possible, that he would be as a PM than his father, how much he would screw this country up. Yeah, he looks good, yeah he can be charming in a superficial, banal sort of manner. But a mind of his own? Well, it's been said that he has his father's looks.....and his mother's brains.

Oh yeah, and Michael Ignatieff will not be Prime Minister. But by now, we both know that.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous

The difference between the Liberals and the Conservatives is that the Liberals lying abilities are only exceeded by their incompetence while the Conservatives incompetence is only exceeded by their lying abilities.

Harper is the lead liar.

As far as I'm concerned politicians are all the same.

Railhound

Dr Mike said...

Hey Anonymous , I guess we will agree to disagree.

Enjoyed your input .

Next time try using your name as that would lend some credence to what you are saying.

It`s darn hard to take anyone serious who does not have the cojones to back it up with their name.

Dr Mike Popovich