Modeling Journey

Ignatieff is fast sowing problems for himself and for Liberals with his changing positions. Like a weather vane, we seem to find a spinning Ignatieff every time the wind blows.

Two examples for starters. After voting for the ineffectual Tory budget, and so propping up Harper's government rather than becoming prime minister himself at the head of a coalition government, Ignatieff told Canadians that he was putting Harper on probation. He then said he would not allow Harper to spend $3 billion without any details.

What happened?

Harper huffed and he puffed and Ignatieff spun around, backing off from his line in the sand and approving without conditions Harper's $3 billion.

The second example? Ignatieff's changed views and behaviour on the coalition government. More particularly, the change in his publicly expressed views on the rights of Bloc MPs to enter into agreements with the other parties in our Parliament so as to govern the country during a savage recession.

A good summary of this dramatic and very startling about face is contained in Andrew Coyne's blog in Macleans.

Ignatieff seems to have moved from supporting the Bloc MPs rights to do that, to agreeing with Harper's demonization of the Bloc MPs. This is a dramatic shift; Harper's attacks on the 'separatists' as being supportive of the NDP-LPC coalition has cost him dearly in Quebec, where his two-faced approach (I love you today but hate you tomorrow, when it suits me) has caused voter support for the Tories to plummet.

The Cat wonders if the same fate awaits Ignatieff and the Liberals in Quebec, in light of his U-turn about the rights of Queckers to elect MPs to our Parliament who have rights equal to those of all other MPs.