Do you, like Simpson this morning, feel kinda sorry for Bob Rae? I don't really, even though I have have plenty of respect for him. The reason Rae's deficit-raddled 1990-95 premiership hangs around his neck like a leper's bell is that nobody knows what he's been up to since then. And if his reputation is unfair it was up to him to fix it. He's clever enough to have written a bestseller to redefine himself, the way Chretien did with Straight from the Heart, but he didn't. (Wait a minute, he did write a book, and it sounds kinda interesting. But I'd never heard of it.) He could also have outed himself as a Liberal much earlier and put his real skills on display under Chretien, Martin or even McGuinty. But he didn't. Instead he spent ten years -- and it feels like much longer, whole eras have passed in Canadian politics -- doing mildly useful great-and-the-good stuff nobody noticed. Which is fine, but you can't hope to go straight from what's perceived as a fiasco to having the prime ministership fall into your lap. Rae should have been able to see in 2006 that the only way he could ever be PM was after a record of success in somebody else's cabinet. But it was probably too late even then, and it definitely is now.
To me the fascinating thing here continues to be the fact that Ignatieff and Rae were roommates and rivals in college. (There's what I remember as a better, fuller Valpy article behind the wall.) Proof that Canada is even more class-ridden and inbred than the U.S. or U.K? Or just a fun fact?
UPDATE: Our New Brunswick correspondent points me to a much better article in Macleans about the enduring Rae-Ignatieff psychodrama. It brings out clearly how deeply Toronto-establishment both boys are, but also makes the point that both families had worked their way inside in a single generation -- though admittedly the whole Czarist-cabinet-minister thing makes the Ignatieff saga less than the stuff of Horatio Alger. Still, you get the impression that the Canadian establishment is both a somewhat creepy club for insider game-playing and reasonably meritocratic... is that possible?
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The Threadkiller is privately of the opinion that the wily Rae took a good hard look at the state of the Liberal party, decided that Ignatieff was welcome to the whole glorious mess, and left the podium after his concession speech with a spring in his step.
No matter. The Threadkiller loathes Ignatieff with the white-hot heat of a thousand blazing suns (and she speaks as a Rae Days veteran). She is taking her formerly blood-red vote and going home to convert it to a grass-green one out of sheer spite.
Now can Threadkiller articulate the basis of her w.-h.h. a bit more? Because Dr. Ig's caucus support is based on the premise that he has a decent chance of selling himself to the country as the rational voice of the centre and the middle class. And for the sake of the country one has to hope he succeeds. But if 'killer's viscera are typical, there's clearly a problem here.
(Dr. B actually met him in his former life, so her intuitions are tainted.)
Ah well, there's the problem, it is visceral, not necessarily rational. The Threadkiller is the first to admit that she is politically naive and not eloquent enough to articulate precisely why Michael Ignatieff gives her such a rash. However it likely boils down to the fact that she does not need to love Bob Rae to acknowledge him as a seasoned politician and an all-round smart guy. Not that Dr Ig isn't a smart guy, but she doesn't think he has been in this business nearly long enough, and she doubts (again armed only with the force of her own opinion) that he is able to look past his own, considerably privileged world view in order to empathize effectively with his fellow Canadians. The Threadkiller is as boring, white and middle-class as the Canadian electorate gets, and yet she's not feeling the love.
And yet TK is passionate but not inflexible. Things could change. After all, after many years of sputtering "evil incarnate" at the very mention of the name Condoleeza Rice, she found with the advent of Sarah Palin that Dr Rice suddenly looked like a nice sensible lady - a little intimidating, perhaps, and definitely more right-leaning than Threadkiller herself, and she wouldn't want to cross her, but still, if one had to be stuck in an elevator with one of the two, the 'killer would vote for Condi, hands down.
On a lighter note, has anyone noticed that Bob Rae's wikipedia entry is filled with many interesting (and possibly spurious) bits of trivia, such as his being under-tipped by Pat Nixon back in the day?
From what I've read, Iggy strikes me as having a fairly good idea of how poor people live. Read his essay "The Needs of Strangers." See also his experiences at the prison riots while he was reading for his PhD.
He has been ruthless in how he has used people. That makes me uncomfortable.
He will sort out Harper v quickly. He's more intelligent and appears to be considerably more ruthless. Harper deserves it. Will voters support Ignatieff? Don't know.
But I'm looking forward to political theatre of a sort that we hardly get up here.
Ignatieff reminds me of the hero of some as-yet-unwritten Judith Krantz novel - "Tall, brilliant and passionate, with piercing blue eyes, his destiny was to rule! Born into privilege, he ruthlessly swept away all who stood between him and his dreams. But would he ever meet the one who could tame his power and arrogance?". Actually, that sounds more like Howard Roark.
At one point I was toying with the idea of writing a romance novel about Ignatieff, Rae and Michaelle Jean as a love triangle. "Torn between love and duty, their passions would shake the nation!".
Lord, I just can't stand Bob Rae. Can't stand him.
Have no particular feeling about Ig, but I knew other Ig's (cousins?) whom I liked very much.
I have just the slightest soft spot for Rae, the consequence not of any remotely relevant knowledge or experience, but of golden memories from back in the day, when Dr B, Threadkiller, Eidelweiss and I in our capacity as the executive or the prez and her assistants or something of our school's Public Affairs Club invited Rae to address the school, and to advertise this talk made up dozens of ratehr minimalist posters with the slogan "My My, Hey Hey, Come Hear Bob Rae", which we thought was terribly witty.
Our Man in Provence chimes in:
I feel that I learned everything I needed to know about Iggy at the last leadership convention, and it can be summed up thusly: he's nobody's second choice. Some people like him a lot, but nobody likes him a little. And you don't win an election if everyone outside of your hard-core partisans finds you revolting. For example, Hillary.
- The people who might lead Canada someplace worth going all live in my neighborhood [ed. note - this would be Outremont south, on the edge of the neo-Maoist Plateau] and shop on Park Ave.: Cauchon, Pettigrew (a philosophy major at University!), and Trudeau. My number one guy is Cauchon.... He's waiting for his time, which will be between the Iggy debacle and the second coming (of Trudeau). You heard it here first, or perhaps second or third. Certainly no worse than fifth or sixth. Not tenth, definitely not tenth, at least probably not.
Re: inbredness (inbreditude?) crossed with eliteness (elititude?), all three of the Lib candidates were, of course, Trinity grads. 'Nuf said.
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