2006-10-21

Montreal Debate a Repeat of Toronto with More French and Louder Supporters

-Gerard Kennedy should read his speech in his second language. His style over substance approach simply doesn't work in French where he manages to transgress every French grammar rule ever written.

-Dion needs to work on his speaking style. He should also consider reading. He comes across as a whiner. Didn't help that Ignatieff supporters booed him.

-Ignatieff performed the best. Although I think both Rae and Dion managed to score points by attacking his credibility. The Ignatieff supporters didn't help by booing to silence both Rae and Dion. I suddenly have the urge to read everything Ignatieff has ever written to make sure this guy isn't completely off his rocker.

-Rae tried but didn't succeed. He tried to relate to the audience but came across as a clueless Ontarian who thinks the federal government has a right if not a duty to get involved in provincial jurisdictions.

4 comments:

Winnipeg Liberal said...

Rae cherry-picked that quote out of a 7000 word article from the NY Times about the ethics of conducting the war on terror.

It's a sign of his and Dion's desperation that they're quote-mining Ignatieff's writings in order to distort his views.

Read the article for yourself.

You'll find that, contrary to what Rae implied, Ignatieff does not and never did support torture:

"An outright ban on torture, rather than an attempt to regulate it, seems the only way a democracy can keep true to its ideal of respecting the dignity even of its enemies. For that is what the rule of law commits us to: to show respect even to those who show no respect for us."

As well, Ignatieff makes it clear that the conduct of a war on terror must remain subject to the rule of law and democratic oversight:

"The chief ethical challenge of a war on terror is relatively simple -- to discharge duties to those who have violated their duties to us. Even terrorists, unfortunately, have human rights. We have to respect these because we are fighting a war whose essential prize is preserving the identity of democratic society and preventing it from becoming what terrorists believe it to be. Terrorists seek to provoke us into stripping off the mask of law in order to reveal the black heart of coercion that they believe lurks behind our promises of freedom. We have to show ourselves and the populations whose loyalties we seek that the rule of law is not a mask or an illusion. It is our true nature."

This is the kind of tactic we've come to expect from the Tories - digging up quotes and using them out of context.

Anonymous said...

I found the boo-ing unsettling too.

Anyone who disagrees with Iggy shall face the wrath of his death hounds!!

It was aay overboard.

I hope he loses.

Dion and Rae all the way.

Altavistagoogle said...

robedger said...
It's a sign of his and Dion's desperation that they're quote-mining Ignatieff's writings in order to distort his views.Rae's quote probably was out of context. Dion's quote was dead on. Read for yourself: Ignatieff pushing Bush in the back.

Altavistagoogle said...

Thanks for the link Robedger. I had to repost your comment to get rid of the long URL. HTML or tinyurl.com from now on please. Long URLs mess up the page layout.

I read the article. Quite interesting. Not the type of thing you want to say in a campaign, but certainly makes sense to me.

I had even posted a similar view
before (not having read Ignatieff's article). Although I posted it anonymously...

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