Iggy Moment

John Ivison: Ignatieff learns to look beyond the next Opposition Day

Posted: December 01, 2009, 5:00 PM by NP Editor

There's a Spanish proverb that says if you sit by the river long enough, the body of your enemy will float by.

Judging by his performance so far, patience is not a virtue Michael Ignatieff has in abundance. Many Canadians have the impression that if he can't be prime minister, he'd rather return to his ivory tower at Harvard. But yesterday the Liberal leader gave an indication that he may be in politics for the long haul.
When he emerged from a caucus meeting, convened to discuss the Liberal response to the government's harmonized sales tax legislation, he said his party will support the HST bill that will pay British Columbia and Ontario billions in transition funding as they merge the federal GST with their provincial sales taxes.

It was not the first time Mr. Ignatieff has shown bold leadership, in the face of opposition from a large number of his MPs, who saw an opportunity to tap into bubbling public anger over the HST. In Sudbury last September, he came out of a caucus meeting that was near unanimous in its opposition to a fall election and announced he was intent on sinking Stephen Harper's government. But it was the first time he has shown bold leadership that was not, at the same time, suicidal.

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Kelly McParland: Ignatieff makes the right ugly decision

Posted: December 01, 2009, 3:35 PM by NP Editor

Maybe it's just happenstance, or maybe it's a seminal moment: Michael Ignatieff takes a decisive step in the right direction.

The Liberal leader's decision to support the HST bill was arrived at with all the usual soap opera twists and turns. First he attacked it as the Harper Sales Tax. Then he whispered to Dalton McGuinty that he planned to support it. Then he backtracked when McGuinty blabbed the secret to everyone. Realizing he was starting to look silly, he re-backtracked and promised not to revoke the tax if it was already in place when he became prime minister. And now he says -- flat out, no fingers crossed, swear on his aunties' grave -- that he and his party will vote to support the tax.

Well, OK, it wasn't pretty, but in the end he made the right call. Mr. Ignatieff is now firmly on the correct side of the issue, while opposition parties in B.C. and Ontario, where the tax is to take effect next summer, continue to flail about in a state of denial.

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