Ain't No Career Politician

Now there's a reason - if Canadians were actually looking for one - to bring the Liberals back to power, with their leader Michael Ignatieff at the helm. Mr. Ignatieff presents himself variously, as a man of the people just incidentally a one-time news reporter who lived from insecure pay cheque to pay cheque. Just like the broad majority of people he wishes to represent as prime minister of the country.

Of course he's also, at heart, and through practise, an academic. If there is one thing he is not, however, it is a politician. Let's re-phrase that: Michael Ignatieff is not a 'professional' politician. He is not a 'career politician', like so many others in Canadian public life who have become accustomed, as the saying goes, at feeding at the public trough.

He states his position as a 'unifier and risk-taker', one who makes common cause with the Canadian entrepreneurial spirit of meaningful enterprise to build this country even better than it is. He is a visionary, a man of purpose and without guile or pretense. Trust me, he says, and you'll do well.

"Mr. Harper has done nothing but be a career politician all his life. Jack Layton has been a career politician all his life. I'm not a career politician." Right there. No one would dispute that last little dinger. One can only wonder what other high-ranking Liberals think about this new tack that seems to tarnish them, since so many are in fact, 'career politicians'.

"I don't have all the leave 'em dead by the side of the road instincts of a standard politician. Never have. Never will. so, if you're looking for a standard politician, don't come to me. Come to the other guy". All right! Bright invitation; we'll do just that; the latter, not the former.

Sneer as he may, he has also confirmed what many Canadians have observed and believe to be a fact: that Mr. Ignatieff is no politician, has no experience that would prepare him or the electorate to expect a reasonable performance as prime minister, and we have the option of concurring with him, and responding that yes, you're right, and we don't want you.