“Frankly,” he said, “I think it's condescending to westerners that being a so-called intellectual is some big liability. People out here are as devoted to the life of the mind, and the life of culture, as anybody else in the country. So I don't think that's going to fly. It's just stupid.Federal Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff on western Canadians and Conservative attacks.
Ignatieff is in Edmonton for the next two days and will be speaking at a Town Hall meeting at the Santa Maria Goretti Community Centre tonight at 6:50pm. I'm planning on checking out what the serene professor has to say, so post your questions below and I may try and ask one if I get the chance.
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32 comments:
Is this open to all comers? Is there a price to attend?
As far as I can tell, the BBQ before hand is $20, but the Town Hall is open (does anyone know different?)
http://www.liberalalberta.ca/events_e.aspx#1710
Seems like it might be $20 either way? Too bad if that's the case.
Federal Liberals defending western Canada? Alberta Conservatives attacking federal Conservatives?
My head just blew up.
The BBQ is $20 the town hall is free.
I love it when libs come out west and pretend they don't hate us.
Iggy can blow in our ears all he wants. Once an election starts he'll go back into screw the west get the rest mode and start bashing Alberta to get cheap easy votes in the east.
Meet the new boss same as the old boss.
Actually, being an intellectual is fine with us rednecks. Being an "aloof intellectual who is only comfortable in one half of the country" is what makes Ignatieff a liability.
Canada Day is a perfect time to ask him if he still thinks our flag is best compared to a beer label.
Having lived 33 years in Quebec and Ontario, and Calgary for 15, I can declare here and now that Liberals never hated Western Canada. Misunderstood - yes. Hated - no. But this is no different than the misunderstanding Quebec sovereigntists have about the rest of Canada, or Westerners have about Quebec or Eastern Canada.
But I chalk it up to ignorance. And I mean ignorance as in lack of information and experience. Here's an example: I've met seperatists who live in Quebec and they have no idea what the rest of Canada is like. But the ones that have spent part of their lives in other parts of the country.... guess what? They don't think like separatists anymore. Because they now see th the bigger picture.
Sorry Karl, I don't buy it. I go to Quebec and Ontario for business and meet lots of great people. The ones that identify themselves as Liberals, inevitably the second I'm identified as an Albertan treat me like a retard or look at me like I just shit my pants.
They resent our economic success and think we're all a bunch of gun-totin', bible-quotin hicks in bib overalls. The hatred is palpable.
"They resent our economic success and think we're all a bunch of gun-totin', bible-quotin hicks in bib overalls. The hatred is palpable."
Kinda like how westerners resent Torontonians? I got a really bad reaction when my family moved to Red Deer in 1999. One of my new neighbors assumed I was Trudeau Liberal and loved the NEP (I have voted Liberal and PC in Ontario, and don't know much about the NEP).
All my friends in Toronto knew about Alberta were stories about oil and their bumbling drunk Premier, it was not hard to create these kinda perceptions.
I have never resented Albertans and I still live here. I love it in Red Deer.
I always find it funny that the Albertans who really wanted the rest of the country to give Reform a chance are unwiilling to do the same with the Liberals (federal or provincial). - Roman
Roman said...
I always find it funny that the Albertans who really wanted the rest of the country to give Reform a chance are unwiilling to do the same with the Liberals (federal or provincial). - Roman
Maybe it's because Albertans have seen the LPC in action and have always been treated with contempt by them. Why should we trust them?
Nastyboy: Quit talking about Westerners like we're stupid. I've seen the LPC in action, and I've seen the CPC in action (and I thankfully haven't seen the NDP in action). Both are power hungry Ottawa focused parties.
Tony said
I have never resented Albertans and I still live here. I love it in Red Deer.
if you re-read my comments they were about partisan Liberals. Hell even most partisan Alberta Liberals I know can't disguise their disgust towards this province and it's people.
Anonymous said...
Nastyboy: Quit talking about Westerners like we're stupid. I've seen the LPC in action, and I've seen the CPC in action (and I thankfully haven't seen the NDP in action). Both are power hungry Ottawa focused parties.
Of course they are. that's why I don't ally myself with either party.
I would like to know what Ignatieff thinks of electoral reform, proportional representation. For all the bickering back and forth about regional sentiments, I wonder if PR would alleviate those concerns. Right now the country acts like there are no liberals in the prairies, no conservatives in toronto, montreal, or vancouver. PR would more accurately describe the political makeup of the country instead of ignoring large segments of the population that didnt vote for their current MP. Liberals would get better representation in western canada and Conservatives in the east. I am not a partisan, I just hate FPTP
Its your job to convince people to vote for your candidate, that's what FPTP is. If you can't get enough people motivated to work for and elect your candidate and support his or her platform that's your problem and your candidate shouldn't be elected.
Is it fair? Well no hard work is never fair, so suck it up princess and get to work.
nastyboy:
the liberals hates the conservatves, not alberta.
alberta may be the conservative stronghold, but that doesn't mean we are all conservative.
when I see the liberals engageing in what you call "alberta bashing", I don't see any hate on alberta, just on conservative policy..... the two are not the same
p.s.
Nastyboy: "Hell even most partisan Alberta Liberals I know can't disguise their disgust towards this province and it's people."
sorry to burst your bubble, but..... alberta liberals are also members of this provinces people.
what they disgust is the political atmosphere in this province, not the people (the people are far more diverse than the politics.)
quee22 said...
sorry to burst your bubble, but..... alberta liberals are also members of this provinces people.
of course they are. But it doesn't stop SOME from hating their fellow Albertans. After every election they jam radio talk shows and blogs and talk about how stupid Albertans are for voting conservative, and how we "just don't get it", instead of blaming themselves for doing nothing to reach out to the average Albertan.
And it's worse out east. You say they hate the conservatives not Albertans. That's just BS. they don't differenciate between the two. Just go on the message boards of CBC and read the comments of any story about Alberta. The vitriol is disgusting.
And it's just as bad in person. Almost every time I run into a Lib when I'm out east I'm attacked like I'm personnaly responsible for everything they perceive to be wrong with this province.
And why should Albertans trust Ignatieff when he says one thing and one of his closest advisors says things like this?
http://www.warrenkinsella.com/index.php?entry=entry080311-200759
Screw the west get the rest. As usual.
Nasty boy, its comments like yours that make Albertans look selfish and partisan. Wake up and smell the coffee. Alberta is not the only province considered the west. What about Manitoba and BC? That's the problem with Albertans. They seem to think that the west stops there.Is it any wonder that the rest of the country do not have a love for Alberta? Don't say it isn't so because I come from the true western province and have close ties with Alberta so over the past 40 plus years have heard a lot of negative comments about the west. Try and have a non partisan day for a change
What exactly are you bringing to the table here Nastyboy besides living up to your name?
I will give Michael Ignatieff credit for this. He has admitted what everyone west of Ontario has known for a generation or more.
"In part, he said, the Liberals have tried to win votes in Toronto by blowing off Alberta and bashing the oil sands."
Same article Dave gets his quote from, of course, Michael used the quote to show how he is "different", how he's going to be the "new Liberal" who appreciates Alberta.
Course, wasn't that long ago Paul Martin was doing the same thing.. stating"'he would consider his time as PM a failure if he didn't win the confidence of the West....? And, at the end of the day, what changed..
We've heard it before, Michael, the LPC is no friend of Western Canada, it never was and never will be..because, at it's core, it has no soul. It is a party focused on one thing - acquiring power. Period. End of story.
And, the most efficient way of capturing power is to marginalize the West while campaigning in Quebec and Ontario.. it's just a matter of pure math, and Michael Ignatieff knows that as much as anyone.
If Michael wants to be "big man on campus", which is his raison d'etre, his reason for being, he will, as every Liberal leader has done since Trudeau and beyond, give lip service to the needs and concerns of Western Canada.
It is so clear and predictable, that so suggest otherwise, is to truly be "condescending".
So - thank-you Michael for admitting what we already know, but, as you imply, Albertans aren't nearly as stupid as people in Toronto think.
Careful Rob, I think you're talking about "Albetans" in the same way which "Albertans" hate people from Toronto referring them as one solid mass. Will an Iggy lead party sweep the rural ridings? No chance, but the urban ridings I think could be in play.
The NDP I think is going to move into the "down with the tar sands to save our SUVs and fixies" in Ontario.
I was there last night and have a post up at my place on the subject if anyone is interested.
Not only can he contradict himself from one minute to the next, the man also seems to put his foot in his mouth a lot. Take this little snippet: "the west has always been french, never forget that" and that this part of the world has always been french and "always will be french".
Anonymous said...
Try and have a non partisan day for a change
How am I being partisan? Because I don't trust the LPC? I don't affiliate myself with any political party. But I guess if I'm from Alberta I must be a Tory right? And thanks for verifying that the rest of canada hates us. I don't thinks its all of canada though. Just people like you.
George Bell said...
What exactly are you bringing to the table here Nastyboy besides living up to your name?
I'm saying that the LPC can't be trusted, and when Iggy comes to Alberta to court us he's talking out of both sides of his mouth.
When the writ gets dropped he'll beat up Alberta to get cheap easy votes in the east and when (because i think it's inevitable) he gets into power, he'll screw Alberta over just as every other
Liberal PM has done before.
Same as it ever was.
Ardvark said...
Not only can he contradict himself from one minute to the next, the man also seems to put his foot in his mouth a lot. Take this little snippet: "the west has always been french, never forget that" and that this part of the world has always been french and "always will be french".
That's not entirely untrue. many parts of western Canada were settled by francophones first, and there are many francophone communities in western Canada where french is still the primary language.
Ignatieff to Harper: Quit treating westerners like they're stupid.
Ocean to Ignatieff: Quit treating westerners like we're stupid. Oh, and 'Alberta' is not equivalent to 'The West' and all 'westerners' are not equivalent to 'Albertans'.
Got it?
Alberta does have a very active and thriving french community and history but this is not what Ignatieff said. He said "the west has always been french, never forget that" and that this part of the world has always been french and "always will be french".
There is a difference.
Any idea who was responsible for putting up the "Iggy Loves the Tar Sands" posters all over Whyte ave?
By the way, NastyBoy, you do know that it was Jean Chretien who gave the oil sands major tax cuts that kick-started the recent boom right? I can't remember which party he was.
True. Then he went on to call our desire to appoint elected senator a joke and run election ads out east declaring Day would turn the rest of the country into (gasp) Alberta (dun, dun, dun).
Cretien played the east vs. west card better than anybody, and his advisors who now work for Iggy are ready to do the same thing all over again.
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