Michael Ignatieff Writes in the First Person: Is this the sort of leader you want?
PATRIOT IN-LOVE WITH MYSELF
The NDP's research team has carefully examined Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff's new book and found the personal pronoun "I" is mentioned 164 times. Bob Rae, Jean Chrétien, Paul Martin, Stéphane Dion and the carbon tax are not mentioned.
Number of times Jack Layton uses the personal pronoun "I" in the first 5 pages of his book: 19
But, in fairness, he does mention Paul Martin...
Labels: silly attacks
posted by calgarygrit at
3:22 p.m.
17 Comments:
Congrats on getting through 5 pages Grit!
By
Steve V, at 3:33 p.m.
"carefully examined "
Our tax dollars at work -- counting "I"s and "we"s.
But, to be fair, will anyone quibble with the notion that Iggy is just a touch self-absorbed and vain? Isn't every political leader?
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Anonymous, at 3:49 p.m.
Anon: hardly tax dollars. Most of this would like have come from the party's funds. Not the best use by any stretch of the means.
And before you say it, remember that the NDP has recently been raising as much as the Liberals, so public party financing is not really the issue here.
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Ian, at 4:10 p.m.
To be fair, not every political leader invites implicit comparisons between himself as the messiah, as Ignatieff does at the end of "Getting Iraq Wrong."
Daring leaders can be trusted as long as they give some inkling of knowing what it is to fail. They must be men of sorrow acquainted with grief, as the prophet Isaiah says . . . .Not the Ignatieff is acquainted with the thousandth part of the grief he helped visit on the people of Iraq, but it's interesting to note that he considers the whole calamitous episode somewhat worthwhile for having taught the world something important about Michael Ignatieff and his capacity for leadership.
The real contrast, finally, between Layton's books (on homelessness and on public policy generally) is not the "Is" and "Wes": it's that Layton's books are about relevant issues of public concern.
Ignatieff, by contrast, has chosen the moment of the current economic crisis to write a book introducing the country to his famous relatives.
By
Stephen, at 4:21 p.m.
Hey, at least the New Democrats bought a copy!
But seriously, isn't it incumbent on a guy who has bearly lived in Canada long enough to qualify for social benefits, short-circuted his party's leadership process, and has flip-flopped on everything from asbestos to tax cuts, to the war in Iraq, to the deaths of innocents in the Middle East to fill in the blanks about himself with something other than "My name is Michael, and I am Canadian"-style drivel?
Just asking.
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Blogging Horse, at 4:52 p.m.
Hard times in Dipperville, judging from all the trolling.
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Anonymous, at 5:00 p.m.
Actually, I have read several of Iggy's books and this is a real phenomenon. He is quite enamoured of his own awesomeness.
It doesn't disqualify him from anyting, because you figure a potential national leader is going to have a huge ego. But it is a real feature of his personality that I wished he would suppress.
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bigcitylib, at 5:13 p.m.
Gosh, Layton isn't enamoured by himself? Never saw a mirror or camera he doesn't like.
Harper - thinks very highly of himself.
So, Ignatieff should be a wallflower?
Don't know about Duceppe.
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RuralSandi, at 5:45 p.m.
"Anon: hardly tax dollars. Most of this would like have come from the party's funds. Not the best use by any stretch of the means.
And before you say it, remember that the NDP has recently been raising as much as the Liberals, so public party financing is not really the issue here."
Why not? I mean public financing was, what, 57% of the NDP's budget a few months ago when Harper tried to axe it. Has it dropped that much recently?
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Jacob, at 6:27 p.m.
good one!
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Mel, at 6:34 p.m.
Criminey! None of this matters until one of them starts speaking of "us"! Only "us" matters here. Reflection on "us" is all that matters. Unfortunately, Jack's mirror (courtesy of Disney) only answers one question: who is the fartiest of us all.
I would rather take a chance on Iggy - as I can only hope his reflective muse is better than Manic-Jack's.
As for Psycho-Harpo's mirror - well, that cracked long ago!
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Scott MacNeil, at 9:16 p.m.
Bigcitylib has figured out that Iggy has a big ego - good.
But I am also sure Iggy will be glad to know that he won the famous f-awards for - drum roll - the most regressive progressive. Now there's a honour.
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susansmith, at 10:26 p.m.
janfromthebruce - and those F-awards are just so damn important aren't they?
A handful of bloggers does not represent all the voters of Canada - barely touch the surface.
Actually, the awards can't be taken very seriously - it depends on the extreme partisans from all political stripes and who pump in the most partisan votes. Fun and games maybe, but serious, na.
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Anonymous, at 5:29 a.m.
I, too, have noticed Ignatieff's use of the pronoun "I". And it has bothered me somewhat at times. Doing scrums, for example, he uses "I" such a lot of times when he could have used "We", meaning the Liberal Party as a whole. It makes him sound like he is the only one in the Party.
Not meaning to slag him off but this has always bothered me. Would be nice if someone could suggest to him that he use "We" more often.
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penlan, at 5:30 a.m.
penlan - then again, Iggy's gotten burned for using "we" in the past...
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calgarygrit, at 9:17 a.m.
Hmmmm....it doesn't matter what Ignatieff says - the Cons and NDP (out of fear) will pick, pick, pick.
The more they do, the more they look desperate.
Imagine that - he says "I" - you'd think he told someone to f**k off.
Petty and pitiful.
By
Anonymous, at 9:44 a.m.
nice work! i love it
By
Data recovery software, at 4:36 a.m.
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