Photo: Adrian MacNair, licence under Creative Commons Attribution
The above photograph was taken rather by surprise at around 3:15pm while standing in a very long lineup waiting for Michael Ignatieff to arrive at UBC in Vancouver for his campus tour. When I spotted him he was barely four feet away, and I whipped my camera out so suddenly that at first I startled him. Then he smiled, posed for the photograph, and then extended his hand for a handshake. I accepted, and he entered the University.
I have to admit, the turnout for Mr.Ignatieff was impressive. The lineup was so long that the auditorium was quickly filled, and the overflow room set up to accommodate the stragglers, like myself, was also overflowing. What this says about Mr.Ignatieff’s popularity is unclear. What was certain is that the people here were singing his tune. If anything, the Liberal leader stood out as being the more rightwing presence on campus, as question after question directed at him were about the “tar sands”.
A long lineup for the Liberal leader.
Michael Ignatieff began on a speech about Canada and it’s place in the world, highlighting the need for more people to get into Universities, and more aboriginal enrollment. He spoke about prorogation, our crumbling democracy, and our pluralistic society. He emphasized that he thought it was absurd the Conservatives had mocked him for being outside of Canada for so long, and encouraged everyone in the audience to also leave Canada, and periodically return.
He then fielded a number of questions from the audience. I should note that the vast majority of the questions were about the “Tar Sands” and that none were about Afghanistan or prorogation.
On Education
“You’re the lucky ones. You’ve got the brains, you’ve got the shot, you’ve got the chance of a world class education. But you have to, as a condition of your incredible privilege is think about who doesn’t.”
On Marijuana usage for Ross Rebagliati
“I never make comments on the personal lifestyle choices of my colleagues and friends, and I’ve never felt that marijuana use or, for example, possession of small amounts of marijuana are to be criminalized or that anybody should suffer consequences for personal recreational uses of marijuana. But then I have to say to people who then ask me if I want to legalize marijuana, and I know you don’t want to hear me say this, but I’d say no.”
On Climate Change
I should say at this point that almost the rest of the questions were about climate change. What do the Liberals plan to do about it? Why aren’t they doing anything about it? When will they do something about it? Why won’t they shut down the “Tar Sands”? Will they sign a new Kyoto agreement?
“We need to have a cap and trade system immediately. We’ve got to stop waiting for the United States climate change policy. That’s a key issue of Canadian sovereignty.”
This was just the overflow crowd to watch a screen of Michael Ignatieff in the next room.
On Partisanship
“I make no apologies for being a partisan. But there’s smart partisanship and there’s stupid partisanship, and there’s some things that should not be partisan. You will have noticed this week for example that I very explicitly did not make the Haitian disaster a partisan issue. I don’t want to score cheap points while people are dying.”
I don’t think that Ralph Goodale got the memo.
On Crime
“My party has always supported tough sentencing on crime when we need it. But we’ve never believed that’s enough.”
On KAIROS
“What happened? They’ve just had their funding cut by the Conservatives. That’s another thing in terms of accountability. We have to be courageous enough as a Liberal government to hear what that means from you, without cutting your funding.”
I guess Michael Ignatieff didn’t buy the line that KAIROS is engaging in anti-Israeli activities which foster anti-Semitism.
On the Tar Sands
At this point a very raucous crowd broke out in a chant: “When I say Stop The, you say Tar Sands, Stop The, Tar Sands!” They shut down Michael Ignatieff’s speech for about two minutes while they chanted on the Tar Sands. After they finally quietened down, Michael Ignatieff gave a fairly good defence of the Oil Sands against a somewhat hostile crowd:
“Let’s understand something about the Tar Sands. I was just about to say something before the demonstration started. One of the key things about politics, one of the key things about Canada, is that we can’t pick and choose which facts we like. The Tar Sands are a fact of our national lives. We have one of the largest proven carbon oil reserves in the world. The question is, what do we do to make it sustainable?”
He later defended it more vigorously:
“This industry employs Canadians from coast to coast to coast. We have to make it sustainable. We can’t go on the way we are. I give this to Greenpeace. Greenpeace is right. It’s affecting the international prestige of Canada and the international credibility of Canada. I get all that. But I’m not going to establish [my credibility] by running against an industry that employs thousands of Canadians and contributes $6 billion to the federal treasury.” [applause]
On the deficit
He explained that the Conservatives inherited a $12 billion surplus from the previous Liberal government and then spent the government into deficit before the recession hit, and then blamed the deficit on the recession. But unbelievably he goes on to suggest that the solutions to the deficit is “pro-growth policies” and policies that “employ young people” and more research for post-secondary education, including getting more aboriginals to attend University. How those vague ideas were meant to improve the economy mystified the environment-oriented crowd.
On western alienation
“[The Oil Sands] is precisely this issue of western alienation. We’ve got to understand that environmental policy, climate change policy, are national unity issues. I will not pit one side of the country against another. We have to do this together, pull together as a people. And the idea of turning one province into a kind of climate change enemy is folly. That will divide the country, and I’m in politics to unite the country.”
That pretty much concluded the afternoon. There were no questions about Afghan detainees, or prorogation, or financial policies, or taxes, or federal transfer payments, or anything else that might have been considered “hard-hitting”. The crowd seemed to be mostly comprised of environmental activists who might one day be right-wing enough to join the Liberal Party, and sycophants who were already proudly partisan. Michael Ignatieff didn’t say anything particularly impressive, but his refusal to do the clearly popular thing and say the “Tar Sands have got to go” gets some good marks from me. The turnout was also impressive, but whether this has to do with prorogation or the popularity of the Liberals at UBC, I can’t say.
Posted in canada Tagged: Liberals, michael ignatieff, UBC 
