The ghost of PET
Iggy's resemblances to Trudeau aren't necessarily a good thing
Prince Michael Ignatieff continues his slow-dance with divine destiny. The man who would be PM.
Oooh, he can taste it, especially after he and Prime Minister Stephen Harper averted a summer election yesterday.
There was Ignatieff, like he'd just swallowed a Conservative canary. Win-win. He's practically sharing power with Harper -- plus we're grateful we don't have to swelter in polling booths.
But do we want him to lead us?
Surely Canadians would never embrace a rich, arrogant, ambitious, flip, footloose, pompous, aloof, over-educated, elitist egghead with a hawkish face and cocky eyebrows.
Hey, wait a minute. We already did.
Holy fuddle-duddle. Is Michael Ignatieff the reincarnation of Pierre Trudeau after all?
Liberals have multiple orgasms at the very thought.
Trudeau held power for almost 16 years. Nothing makes Liberals more orgasmic than the thought of power.
With Iggy, they're already starting to moan and toss their heads.
They close their eyes and think of Pierre.
With good reason. Superficially at least -- and that's what counts in politics -- the two men are Tweedledum and Tweedledee.
(I'll write of Trudeau in the present tense, since many Liberals think he's living, with Elvis.)
Let's start with nicknames. They both have cute ones. Iggy. PET. I bet Harper wishes he had a catchy handle.
And snappy accessories. PET and Iggy are partial to red. One rarely left the house without a rose in his lapel. The other favours crimson ties.
Both are browners, as we called them in high school. Brainiacs. At dumps like Harvard and the London School of Economics.
Too smart for their own damn good. Or for ours.Between them, they've penned or edited a whole library. Trudeau cranked out 15 books, Ignatieff has 16.
Boring books, mostly. Not much sex.
Harper may not be Hemingway, but he's smart enough to write a book about hockey.
Trudeau and Ignatieff both look tall, though only Iggy is a 6-footer. Trudeau was 5-foot-9.
Neither had humble beginnings. Little Pierre was born to a wealthy Montreal lawyer and businessman.
Ignatieff's grandfather was a count, for crying out loud. Count Paul Ignatieff was the last Russian czar's education minister. Iggy's granny was the Princess Natasha.
So he can really relate to the guys and gals on the line at GM.
Just as Pierre communed with farmers and oilworkers. Bloody serfs. Remember the Trudeau salute?
Neither Trudeau nor Ignatieff ever had problems with women. I mean problems getting them. I'm no expert, but women claim they're sexy dudes.
Other problems? Well, Iggy had a very messy and costly divorce from his first wife, a beautiful British film historian named Susan Barrowclough. As for Trudeau, one word: Maggie.
Iggy had 22 years in the U.K., and other stints in the States.
I'd say he spent about 14 minutes in Canada before concluding he wanted to be its prime minister.
Trudeau went to China instead, decided Mao was firmly entrenched, and returned to seek power here.
You like your leaders warlike?
Ignatieff backed George W. Bush's attack on Iraq. Trudeau invoked the War Measures Act and sent troops into our streets during the FLQ crisis of 1970.
He and Iggy were newspapermen. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Neither spent much time on the night crime beat.
Ignatieff was a reporter for the Globe. Trudeau founded Cite Libre in Quebec.
Now they are media idols. Trudeaumania, meet Iggypop!
So, you see? Lots of likeness, at least on the surface.
Maybe one really is the other, reborn.
In that illustration by our Tim Peckham, Iggy is a natural in Pierre's famous duds.
It's the flashy apparel of a man who sure livened up the cold, grey north -- but also left it divided, damaged and in debt.
Do you believe in ghosts?
Is he back to haunt us?
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