The Ignatieffs are model immigrants

New Conservative ads released this week attack Michael Ignatieff for causing an election nobody wants, and end with the slogan: “Ignatieff: He didn't come back for you.” It's further evidence of the Conservatives' infatuation with the Liberal leader's life, following ads that revel in his family history and invite the question: Is the Conservative Party on a retainer for ancestry.ca?

Think of it as part of the federal economic action plan: The focus on Mr. Ignatieff's background could do much for those in the business of studying family trees. Other parties may have to hire staff genealogists. Politicians could no longer make their own myths, calling themselves, say, le petit gars de Shawinigan, without some opponent proving a descent from le Roi Soleil.

The irony is that the Conservatives have indulged one of Mr. Ignatieff's passions; his ruminations on his forebears have so far filled two volumes.

The Conservatives justify their attack on his background by arguing the Liberals made it an issue. That's fair. The Opposition had posted a video in which Mr. Ignatieff paid tribute to his father, the Russian-born Canadian diplomat George Ignatieff, saying he “came off a boat without anything” and “lived that immigrant dream, up the ladder one rung at a time.” The Conservatives counter that the Ignatieffs were Russian aristocrats; in other words, not people who had to dig up
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/editorials/the-ignatieffs-are-model-immigrants/article1955834/

What skeletons are hidden. Hidden deeply in minds that are just waiting to emerge?


A family tragedy that Stephen Harper has not forgotten

In his moving eulogy to Mr. Batters, it was noteworthy to see that Mr. Harper issued a caution regarding people who reveal too much of themselves. “Dave was a very human politician,” Mr. Harper said. “He opened himself to others. It strengthened his hand in representing his constituents, but it rendered him vulnerable to depression, as it can to any of us."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/a-family-tragedy-that-stephen-harper-has-not-forgotten/article1211219/