After spending 34 years globetrotting through America, France, Russia, and England, the last leg of Michael Ignatieff's world tour will see him launch his “Just Visiting Express” later today on Parliament Hill.

Our country is apparently so foreign to Michael Ignatieff that he told his fellow Liberal MPs that that he wants to get out there this summer and meet “the Canadians” as if we were some sort of foreign species. (Hill Times, June 14, 2010) Ignatieff also doesn’t appear to be that enthusiastic about meeting “the Canadians” as he said he would only tour Canada “if it doesn’t kill me first”. (QMI, July 10, 2010)

During his 34 years abroad, Ignatieff didn’t have a lot of nice things to say about his fellow Canadians. To him,

• Our flag was a “passing imitation of a beer label.” (The Observer, July 8, 1990);

• He also claimed the only thing he missed about Canada when he was away for 34 years was Algonquin Park. (Macleans, November 20, 2006);

• He told American TV viewers, “You have to decide what kind of America you want...it’s your country just as much as it is mine.” (CSPAN, June 17, 2004), and

• His commitment to Canada was so weak that just days before returning to our country to run for Parliament, he said, “If I am not elected, I imagine that I will ask Harvard to let me back”. (Harvard Crimson, November 30, 2005)

One newspaper even described Ignatieff as “remote and haughty, an opera-loving cappuccino-sipping scion of a family that was part of the Russian nobility, an urbane dilettante who owns a vacation home in Provence and a condo in Toronto's trendy Yorkville.” (Vancouver Sun, July 9, 2010)

Ignatieff’s attempt to fool Canadians into forgetting that he was away from our country for 34 years and that he’s “just visiting” proves yet again that he isn’t in it for Canadians. He’s just in it for himself.

Donate Join Help Print

Sign Contact Shop eNews

RSS Facebook Digg Del.icio.us