Last Friday, Michael Ignatieff suited up for his toughest lecture yet at the University of Toronto.
Having emerged with an early lead in the Liberal leadership race, his campaign was struck with controversy over a remark he made about Israel on Oct. 8 on Radio-Canada.
By referring to Israel’s bombing of a civilian site in Qana, Lebanon this summer as a “war crime,” Ignatieff lost the support of MP Susan Kadis, who resigned as co-chair of his GTA operation, dealing a blow to his campaign.
So what was initially slated as a speech on equality in Stephen Harper’s Canada at Innis Town Hall instead centered around the remark. And it was all the reporters asked about during the question period.
Ignatieff wasted no time in addressing the issue, calling himself a “lifelong friend and supporter of the state of Israel.”
“It was a conflict provoked by Hezbollah and its backers to lure Israel into a wider war,” Ignatieff said of the Israeli bombing of Lebanon.
He attempted to clarify his remarks about the bombing, saying that Israel had exercised its right to respond to a threat, and that he believes war crimes were visited on both Israeli and Lebanese citizens.
“Whether war crimes were or were not committed in the attack on Qana is for international bodies to determine,” said Ignatieff, before announcing that he will visit Israel as part of a delegation from the Canada-Israel Committee.
Ignatieff also responded to Stephen Harper’s attack on the Liberal leadership candidates and their supposed anti-Israel bias. He called Harper’s comments “a disgrace,” and claimed that they show a profound lack of respect for the official opposition.
“No Prime Minister has the right to say that anyone who voices a criticism of Israel is an enemy of Israel,” Ignatieff said.
He then launched an attack on the Conservative Party, outlining the ways in which the Conservatives and Liberals are continually polar opposites in terms of political progression.
He called Harper’s vision of Canada “less progressive, less fair, less just, and less equal,” before he slammed Harper for his cuts in literacy programs, as well as his abandonment of the Kyoto protocol.
Concerning the scrapping of the Kelowna accord, signed in 2005 to grant funding to Aboriginal education and social programs, Ignatieff said “in Harper’s Canada, it’s acceptable to break faith with aboriginal Canadians once again.”
“[Canadians] do not want a country where the values of a right wing minority are imposed by stealth on the progressive majority,” Ignatieff proclaimed, and his insistence on this point was met with applause.
The Harvard scholar’s most detailed plan focused on post-secondary education, with Ignatieff promising to expand the federal government’s commitment to this issue. He described a four-point plan that he believes will guarantee access to education to what he called “vulnerable youth,” specifically those from aboriginal, rural, or lower income families.
Ignatieff was passionate about the issue, stressing that “if you’ve got the grades in Canada, you get to go.”
He also claimed he would oppose a second cut to the GST, and use those extra funds to provide aid to lower income Canadians. He would introduce a federal working income tax benefit, and Canada’s child tax benefit would be enhanced following his election, Ignatieff said.
Ignatieff positioned these proposed reforms in the ongoing battle of ideologies between the Conservatives and Liberals, which he called “a politics of selfishness versus a politics of community.”
Still, Ignatieff’s Israel remark continued to haunt him at Sunday’s final debate between the eight Liberal leadership contenders in Toronto. On foreign policy, Ignatieff was attacked by second-place candidate Bob Rae. Rae claimed that Ignatieff had flip-flopped on the “Middle East issue” three times in one week.
“I actually don’t know where you stand on this issue,” Rae taunted.
“Absolutely untrue,” Ignatieff shot back. “You’ve known me for 40 years and you know that’s not true.”
The press pack pressed him on the point again at his post-debate conference.
“I’ve made my position clear,” Ignatieff responded. He added it was “a slander” for Stephen Harper to paint Liberals as anti-Israel.
But it was Stephane Dion who best summarized for Liberals Sunday’s debate.
“We need to go back to power as soon as possible,” Dion said. The new Liberal leader will be anointed at a national convention in Montreal, on Dec. 2-3.
