- Bruce Anderson's take on what's ailing Michael Ignatieff looks to dovetail nicely with the recent discussion about brokerage politics:
More fundamentally, he hasn't yet developed clusters of voters who see him as "their guy." I'm talking about groups of voters with common interests: aligned by income or region or gender based concerns, or who hold a particular place on the political spectrum, or who care deeply about a single issue, and who know they can trust him to champion their causes.- Ladies and gentlemen, start your news alerts. The over/under on Russell Ulyatt's soft landing within the right-wing noise machine (after he was fired for leaking secret documents to lobbyists) is December 1.
His policy positions are becoming varied and substantive, but their variety is both an advantage and a disadvantage. He has thus far chosen not to crusade for one or two big ideas or speak to a single organizing point of view about the future. Instead, he looks like a smart, rational, pragmatic man who cares a fair bit about dozens of different things. (This is perhaps not surprising given his past life.)
But in the end, for the voter who worries about taxes, or health, or retirement, or fiscal management, or jobs, or the environment, or trade, or foreign policy, or who lives in Atlantic Canada, or economically stressed Ontario, or the lower mainland of British Columbia, there is a sense that he is sufficiently smart but insufficiently passionate about what keeps you awake at night.
- Or maybe it should be earlier based on the federal resources being poured into PR for the oil sands.
- Finally, it's always a plus to see the NDP taking a stand on an issue like the abuse of tax loopholes. But it'll be especially interesting to watch the Cons' response - which normally ranges somewhere between lip service and changing the subject - in such an obvious case of people who play by the rules getting the short end of the stick.
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