Iggy Moment

John Ivison: Michael Ignatieff's one-horse bandwagon

Posted: July 02, 2009, 4:32 PM by NP Editor

Years ago, while lining up to watch the movie The Usual Suspects, I glanced at the famous promotional poster that had the cast of criminals in a police line-up, above the line: “Who is Keyser Soze?”

Helpfully, some joker had scribbled on an arrow pointing up at Kevin Spacey’s character and anotated the words: “It’s him.”
The ending ruined, we went to see Kevin Costner’s Waterworld instead. Grrrrr.

Still, it seems like a tactic the Liberal Party could use if it decides to force an election in the fall.

Judging by a new poll from Nanos Research, many voters still couldn’t pick Michael Ignatieff out of a police line-up.

Fully half of the 1,004 Canadians polled by Nanos between June 17-21, were unsure of the Liberal Party’s strengths and weaknesses. Only 35% of those polled could define any strengths, against 49% who could define weaknesses — which means most Canadians have a negative impression of the Liberal Party (an overall definition of -14%).

Worse news for the Liberal leader is that, of those who do recognize him, more believe he is a liability for the party than think he is an asset. This suggests the Conservative negative advertising campaign, designed to undermine Mr. Ignatieff’s personal numbers, has had some success. This confirms a long-suspected and deep-seated distrust of learning and worldliness in the Canadian psyche — not something over which we should rejoice.

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