Getting to know the enemy

The political landscape, post-prorogation, has become a bit of a mine field where Harper and Ignatieff are walking carefully, trying to avoid costly mistakes. The coalition talk has cooled as the two main leaders take some time to sniff each other out, waiting before tossing grenades in the trenches.

Getting to know the enemy, at this point, is essential. Ignatieff, as a newly crowned pawn, remains a bit of a mystery to the Canadian public. Unlike Stephane Dion, his weaknesses are not as apparent, but they do exist. Most of them are inherent to his strengths, too.

Michael Ignatieff's international pedigree is portrayed as a undeniable quality. He is a man who, as journalist Andrew Cohen is quoted as saying, "has lived abroad, studied abroad, worked abroad travelled widely and knows, I would think, leaders of other countries by their first names."

He is also hailed for being absent during a decade of Liberal abuse. A double edged-sword, his in-depth knowledge of the world outside of Canada, also makes him an outsider, a "martian" as he said himself. Liberal supporters are sneering at Harper for, unlike Ignatieff, having stayed in Canada most of his life.

Ignatieff's academic poise, if you can call it that, makes him seem like a winner to other elite-minded Liberals. But it also makes him sound like a condescending patriarch, father-knows-best type. He is a leader of the elite, not an average guy. I expect we will see more of that side in the media as his persona becomes better known.

Ignatieff comes with a clean slate, his supporters say. But on the other hand, he has a closet full of potentially dirty laundry, his writings.

In his recent ATV interview with Steve Murphy, Harper mentions that he is not very familiar with the new opposition leader's bibliography. But you can bet that someone atPMO is working on that. If not, task someone fast.

Ignatieff's writings cannot be denied. He will be forced to defend some of his past views, or promise they are reformed. It would be no surprise to see apologies coming from Ignatieff for some of his printed remarks over the years. If played well, these will make him seem unreliable, and maybe even foolish, as he is framed as a man whose views may have changed but still haunt him.

As Ignatieff's right-leaning tendencies are revealed, they could become ammunition for the battles to come. What truly differentiates him from Harper, the Conservative camp could argue? Why not chose a man whose views are clearly conservative, rather than a flip-flopping neo-con in liberal disguise?

More ammo on the way?

Ignatieff might be helping us out, potentially putting his foot in his mouth with a new book due out on April 28, on the eve of the Liberal convention. Titled True Patriot Love: Four Generations in Search of Canada, the book looks like a attempt to show that Ignatieff is "[nothing] less than 110% Grade A Canadian, even if he did spend 25 years or so being a Canadian somewhere other than Canada," comments Kelly McParland.

This excerpt, hollow patriotic rhetoric, reminds me of the words former PM Paul Martin used to spew during the 2006 election campaign: empty in substance, but meant to mysteriously inspire and draw you in.

“Loving a country is an act of the imagination. You love the country because it gives you the possibility of sharing feeling and belief. You cannot love the country alone. The emotions you have must be shared with others in order for them to make any sense at all. A solitary patriot is a contradiction in terms. Love of country is an emotion shared in the imagination across time, shared with the dead, the living and the yet to be born.”

This waste of paper might hold a couple a gems...