This is from the EdmontonSun.
We are indeed the people of the deserts of Kandahar. Perhaps Iggy would keep us there as a great and loyal friend of US humanitarian imperialism. Iggy''s rhetoric has echoes of Obama's puffery about change. What change can you expect from someone annointed by the kingmakers?
Interesting that Iggy is not bound by the thirty policy resolutions passed by the convention. However, he has managed to achieve a one person one vote system for choosing the leader---next time! I guess the kingmakers are certain they can market Iggy or their next chosen representative and manage to have one of their own as leader. But there will be no more Green Shifts. Dion has received the Green Shaft along with the accolades celebrating the fact he is no longer leader!
May 3, 2009
Iggy seeks 'new politics'Liberals formally crown Michael Ignatieff as leader
By CHRISTINA SPENCER, NATIONAL BUREAU
VANCOUVER -- A "longing for change" is sweeping across Canada, Michael Ignatieff said yesterday as 3,000 jubilant, pumped-up Liberals formally crowned him their leader.
"The Canadian way is a way for the whole world," he told a packed hall.
"In a world ravaged by hatred, we do remain a light unto the nations."
Praising Canadians as the people of "Vimy Ridge, Juno Beach and the deserts of Kandahar," Ignatieff said Canadians long for "a new politics that replaces spite and spin with civility and common purpose ... a longing for us to be the most adventurous and entrepreneurial people on the planet."
Ignatieff, who has been interim leader since December, was officially confirmed as party leader by 97% of those who voted at a biennial convention that celebrated strong polling numbers and some recovery in the party's once-flat fundraising.
Taking aim at Prime Minister Stephen Harper, he said "you have played province against province, group against group, region against region, individual against individual.
"You have failed to understand that a prime minister has only one job: to unite Canadians."
Introduced to the faithful by a fiery Bob Rae, Ignatieff promised Liberals would create a knowledge society and set a common national standard for employment insurance.
But he mostly spoke of dreaming bigger.
"If you ask what I want for Canada, it is this: that we surprise ourselves. Astonish ourselves. That we astonish the world."
Political experts have suggested Ignatieff needed to use the speech to start sketching out his platform as leader. But the speech was thin on specifics.
In his new book, True Patriot Love, Ignatieff enthused about projects such as a four-lane Trans-Canada Highway, high-speed rail between major cities and an integrated national energy strategy.
However, in interviews, he has stressed that those ideas shouldn't be taken as an election platform.
He also isn't bound by more than 30 policy resolutions passed by party delegates earlier yesterday.
For example, Stephane Dion's "Green Shift" legacy showed new life, as party delegates voted in favour of an environmental policy that could include a carbon tax.
Ignatieff has indicated he would not resurrect the Green Shift.
Ignatieff's success in uniting what has often been a fractious party was clear when Liberals backed his plea to change the way they choose their leader in future, from delegated votes to a one-person, one-vote system.
The change was endorsed by former leadership rival Rae, who told the crowd it was important to show "that the Liberal party is an open party ... that the Liberal party is not a private club."
CHRISTINA@SPENCER@SUNMEDIA.CA
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