Editor,
It appears that Michael Ignatieff leads a privileged life. After 27 years of living abroad, teaching and writing, he was brought home to Canada by the federal Liberal Party to be parachuted into the Greater Toronto area riding of Etobicoke Lakeshore as an unknown and unwelcome candidate.
Several years later, after the beginning of a spirited federal Liberal leadership contest, Ignatieff was annointed leader without a single vote being cast. It seems a mere nod of the federal Liberal Party executive council was all that was needed after Dominic LeBlanc and Bob Rae were told to quietly withdraw. Not a single vote was provided to the grassroots Liberals across the county. So much for the democratic principles of the Liberal Party of Canada.
Now, after having read the illuminating and entertaining Michael Ignatieff book, “True Patriot Love,” wherein he vividly describes his family connections with the Grant family, I’m left with a nagging question about the man who wants to be prime minister of Canada. Does Ignatieff have the Royal Jelly to be a prime minister? To arrive at some sort of conclusion, one needs to learn about the Grant family who were, perhaps, visionaires.
In his book, Ignatieff states, “The Canada the Grants conjure up was never the one that was before their eyes. It was always a Canada they imagined in the future, a Canada yoked to some greater destiny or a Canada, in the case of Uncle George, irreparably lost in the past. If they pushed themselves forward as commentators and public intellecturals, it was because they believed the country needed them, needed the shaping act of the imagination that only they could provide. Yes, such self-importance was ridiculous, but it was what they believed and it is what I inherited.”
So, it seems Mr. Ignatieff has inherited the Grant genes of self-importance. Can we afford such a self-important man at the helm of Canada? Do we need him? I think not.
John Muise
Charlottetown
