Ad hominens and personal attacks litter the political landscape these days. It is what it is. Politics, as they say, is a dirty, messy, game where scruples and integrity are often left at the door.
However, I must admit, I'm not sure what the Liberals are complaining about here. Is it not a fact that Michael Ignatieff lived in the United States for three decades? I think it's a legitimate question, no? Or is it enough to have a Canadian passport to lead this country?
Heard a local sports personality on Team 990 pull a good one today. He equated Dick Cheney to the terrorists held in Guantanamo. I'm so sick of hearing stupid things on the radio - a sports show no less. It lacks depth and perspective to say the least.
Unless you can back up that "relativist" comment with solid evidence or defense (and yes damn insights), then move along.
There's a difference between making a sound political statement and making unsubstantiated claims. Yes, Cheney maybe a corrupt douche but it seems to me you can apply this line of weak reasoning to many, many politicians of all political stripes around the world.
I must admit those 30 years and some of his "academic" positions on Iraq bug me...however rather him than harper.
ReplyDeleteSo you think the ad is fair game?
ReplyDeletePersonal attacks, character assassination in Canada usually play against the attacker. Not fair but very risky for Sir Harpoon.
ReplyDeleteI did not need the Conservative to know about Ignatieff's whereabouts, he never hid them and wrote extensively about that. Still it bothers me.
"30 Years" in the US? I knew this was 'way off but couldn't be specific so here's the scoop on Ignatieff's years away, from Wikipedia:
ReplyDelete"Ignatieff lived in the United Kingdom from 1978 to 2000. During this time he was a member of the faculty at both Cambridge and Oxford, and worked as a film-maker and political commentator for the BBC. He lived in the United States from 2000 to 2005; there, he was director of Harvard's Carr Center for Human Rights Policy while examining the use of torture against detainees during George Bush's War on Terror. He returned to Canada in 2005 and took a position as a visiting professor and senior fellow of the Munk Centre for International Studies at the University of Toronto.[1] He was then mentioned as a possible Liberal candidate for the next federal election."
That's right; he was at Oxford! 22 years in the UK, some will say that's worse! I wonder what they would think if Conrad Black would run for office.
ReplyDeleteSo it should have been 30 years abroad.
Thanks for this information.
Which goes to show again, you have to fact check EVERYTHING.
But does it change the overall premise of the post?