The Stranger Within

Who is Michael Ignatieff? Why does he want to run the country? And does he have what it takes, not only to defeat Stephen Harper, but also—first things first—to bring peace to his own party?

Christopher Wahl / Walrus

Ron Graham, The Walrus | Full Story | Let us step away for a moment from the ear-splitting racket of the political racetrack, the huffing and puffing, the gyrating polls, the editorial pontifications and advertising positive or negative. Let us concede victory to Michael Ignatieff in the next election or let him concede defeat to Stephen Harper—it’s of little matter to our purpose.

Let us acknowledge that Ignatieff is a writer of international renown, a chum of the high and mighty, a man of many virtues and talents, fluently bilingual, decent, fair minded, polite to old ladies, and respectful of war vets, a model of the person we should hope to see in our public life and as our representative on the world stage.

Let us grant that Michael Ignatieff is more intelligent than we, better educated, better read, better traveled, better connected, better looking, an altogether superior fellow. Let us posit that he entered this very tough game in his advanced years out of an old-fashioned sense of duty to his nation. Let us suppose, for the sake of argument, that he would make a better prime minister than Stephen Harper, a low bar indeed.

Okay, so now that we’ve got all that out of the way, let’s find a quiet corner where we might sit and ask ourselves why we haven’t been bowled over, swept away, or even had our socks knocked off. To paraphrase Kurt Weill, is it him or is it us? >>

Published 10.01.10 19:00:00 -0500 GMT | Posted by Andrew Garib on 10.01.10 | On the Web at: http://saveandrewgarib.com/articles/639 |

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