The concept of 'triangulation' was first popularised in the '90s by the administration of puffy sleaze-bag Bill Clinton. In practice, this meant that he would alter his ideas on legislation depending on how the political wind was blowing. Triangulation is defined, kindly, in Wikipedia as:
The act of a candidate presenting his or her ideology as being "above" and "between" the left and right sides of the political spectrum.
Now Iggy seems to be following a similar path to power. A couple of months ago, he mentioned in a press interview that he wasn't losing sleep about Israeli actions in Lebanon. The result: lots of criticism from the Quebec and Youth wings of the Liberal party.
Suddenly, this week, in a french-language interview, Iggy is singing a different tune: he described certain Israeli actions in Lebanon as "war crimes", which pissed off the 'Israel right or wrong' wing of the Liberal party to the extent that his campaign manager resigned.
Beyond the pathetic squabbling of the Liberals, this latest statement implies, to me, that he wouldn't lose any sleep as Prime Minister when informed about any future war crimes.
This sort of whatever! attitude may be ok for you and me, since we as everyday Canadians (ie. not Jewish, Muslim, Lebanese, Israeli, or evangelical Christian) probably didn't lose much sleep over it either.
But then you or I have no driving need to lead this country.
Perhaps, due to his total lack of experience in government, Iggy can be excused for his apparent ability to piss off everyone concerned regarding an important international issue. But who can excuse his staff? By all accounts, he has the majority of the Liberal 'brain-trust' behind him whole-heartedly.
Good luck at the convention, Iggy, you deep-thinker you.
4 comments:
Ken Dryden, the former hockey great would have made a far better candidate.
That's Canadian leadership for you. I have a friend on the 'inside.' One thng he'll say about Harper. He leads. Simply by taking decisions he's lifted the spirits of civil servants. Take a stand, explain yourself and people will respect you for it regardless of the position. I guess the advisors and got to Ignatieff and said, "Don't lead with ideas, leadership and your mind, fool! GO WITH THE POLLS!'
You didn't do anything to celebrate your 1st anniversary of Pulitzer prize blogging???
Homeplug, I really pity you.
Commentator, there is still something to be said for someone that can alter their preceptions when challenged by differing perspectives. I have seen no evidence of this capacity in Steven Harper.
Anonymous, I must presume that you are a friend, disguised, making this hurtful comment in an effort to 'take the piss', as they say.
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