Former Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff says it is possible that the debate over climate change “could break democratic politics” in Canada if federal policies simply ignore the considerations of energy-producing provinces in the West.
Speaking at Cambridge University two weeks before Canadian mining company Teck cancelled its plan for an estimated $20 billion oilsands mine in Alberta over political uncertainty and amid social unrest, including railroad blockades, protesting a B.C. natural gas pipeline, Ignatieff said that a functional political system requires a “necessary hypocrisy” to navigate debates like the one that pits Canada’s natural resource economy against climate change priorities.
“If you produce energy, your kids’ jobs depend on it, you depend on it, you have one take on this. A national political system has to adjudicate that,” Ignatieff said at the February 12 event which was to help launch Cambridge University’s new Centre for the Future of Democracy, and was posted this past weekend on the Talking Politics podcast feed.
All this stuff is going to get tougher and tougher and tougher for every society
“If you don’t believe that’s a process you have to go through, if you just think, oh, forget about Alberta and Saskatchewan, forget about the energy-producing provinces because the mortal threat is so great we just read out a whole constituency of our country from consideration, you get away from democracy,” said Ignatieff, who in addition to his brief political career as leader of the federal Liberals in opposition from 2008 and 2011, is also an author, a public intellectual, a professor of international politics and is currently rector and President of Central European University.
“All this stuff is going to get tougher and tougher and tougher for every society but if you don’t believe that it’s in democracy that we adjudicate those conflicts and everyone gets less than they want, we’ll blow the place up.”
Ignatieff said that while many climate activists treat the issue as one that transcends politics, the political system is in fact vital to balancing a country’s conflicting priorities.
“It has to take it slowly and it has to engage in a whole set of hypocrisies, like we can both pump gas and get to carbon neutrality. The levels of hypocrisy about this in Canada in the democratic system are sickening but it is the necessary hypocrisy of a society trying to hold itself together in the middle of the biggest energy transition in the history of the country.”
In the live question-and-answer session, Ignatieff said he appreciates the enthusiasm of young people, like 17-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who lobby for action on climate change at any cost. But Ignatieff said he’s worried about a corrosive effect that might have on liberal democracies.
There’s “some sense (from young people) that normal democratic politics can’t deal with this problem,” he said.
“We need (Greta), but there’s a sense in which she argues that climate change is something that has to stop politics, when in fact climate change is precisely the thing in which you need more politics,” said Ignatieff.
Ignatieff said he understands why people get frustrated by the slow pace of political change, but noted that action on the environment has been happening faster in democracies than in authoritarian regimes around the world.
The former Liberal leader also surveyed the wreckage of his political career with brutal honesty and self-deprecating humour.
“Truth in advertising requires me to say… my (political) career ended in complete failure. It’s extremely important that everybody understands that, lest you think I’m a tremendous success,” said Ignatieff, at the very beginning of the talk.
Ignatieff said he found himself “extremely ill-equipped” to make the transition from academic life to politics. When he was attacked by opponents he found himself responding like a professor, arguing the point instead of employing a “ju-jitsu move” to turn defence into attack.
“I thought if I was asked a question I had to answer it. That was a surprise. I didn’t understand that simple thing, that you don’t answer the question you were asked, you answer the question you want to be asked,” he said.
MP Justin Trudeau with then-Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff in 2010.
Andre Forget/Postmedia/File
He also said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau excels at this kind of political theatre.
“It’s a performance my successor, the prime minister of Canada, fully inhabits in his role. I say that in genuine praise. He is a politician from the moment he gets up to the moment he goes to sleep,” said Ignatieff. “I’ve never seen him off-stage, but that’s what you have to be. That’s a tremendous psychic strain. Nobody actually wants to be an actor 24/7 but you have to be.”
The philosopher Isaiah Berlin once marvelled at the quality possessed by great statesmen that was lacking in people with a more theoretical type of genius.
Albert Einstein, despite his brilliance, couldn’t read a room the way Winston Churchill could. There were countless people better-read than Otto Von Bismarck, but something intangible made him the man who unified Germany.
Ignatieff, who enjoyed a decade-long friendship with Berlin and wrote a book about him, said he had no choice but to conclude he lacked that quality that Berlin wrote about.
“When you’ve seen the great ones do that, and I’ve seen a few do that, it’s just an astounding ability. Which to be sure, I did not have. Or I wouldn’t be here,” he said.
Quebec legislature member Youri Chassin has announced he’s leaving the Coalition Avenir Québec government to sit as an Independent.
He announced the decision shortly after writing an open letter criticizing Premier François Legault’s government for abandoning its principles of smaller government.
In the letter published in Le Journal de Montréal and Le Journal de Québec, Chassin accused the party of falling back on what he called the old formula of throwing money at problems instead of looking to do things differently.
Chassin says public services are more fragile than ever, despite rising spending that pushed the province to a record $11-billion deficit projected in the last budget.
He is the second CAQ member to leave the party in a little more than one week, after economy and energy minister Pierre Fitzgibbon announced Sept. 4 he would leave because he lost motivation to do his job.
Chassin says he has no intention of joining another party and will instead sit as an Independent until the end of his term.
He has represented the Saint-Jérôme riding since the CAQ rose to power in 2018, but has not served in cabinet.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
MONTREAL – NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says he will not be taking advice from Pierre Poilievre after the Conservative leader challenged him to bring down government.
“I say directly to Pierre Poilievre: I’m not going to listen to you,” said Singh on Wednesday, accusing Poilievre of wanting to take away dental-care coverage from Canadians, among other things.
“I’m not going to listen to your advice. You want to destroy people’s lives, I want to build up a brighter future.”
Earlier in the day, Poilievre challenged Singh to commit to voting non-confidence in the government, saying his party will force a vote in the House of Commons “at the earliest possibly opportunity.”
“I’m asking Jagmeet Singh and the NDP to commit unequivocally before Monday’s byelections: will they vote non-confidence to bring down the costly coalition and trigger a carbon tax election, or will Jagmeet Singh sell out Canadians again?” Poilievre said.
“It’s put up or shut up time for the NDP.”
While Singh rejected the idea he would ever listen to Poilievre, he did not say how the NDP would vote on a non-confidence motion.
“I’ve said on any vote, we’re going to look at the vote and we’ll make our decision. I’m not going to say our decision ahead of time,” he said.
Singh’s top adviser said on Tuesday the NDP leader is not particularly eager to trigger an election, even as the Conservatives challenge him to do just that.
Anne McGrath, Singh’s principal secretary, says there will be more volatility in Parliament and the odds of an early election have risen.
“I don’t think he is anxious to launch one, or chomping at the bit to have one, but it can happen,” she said in an interview.
New Democrat MPs are in a second day of meetings in Montreal as they nail down a plan for how to navigate the minority Parliament this fall.
The caucus retreat comes one week after Singh announced the party has left the supply-and-confidence agreement with the governing Liberals.
It’s also taking place in the very city where New Democrats are hoping to pick up a seat on Monday, when voters go to the polls in Montreal’s LaSalle—Émard—Verdun. A second byelection is being held that day in the Winnipeg riding of Elmwood—Transcona, where the NDP is hoping to hold onto a seat the Conservatives are also vying for.
While New Democrats are seeking to distance themselves from the Liberals, they don’t appear ready to trigger a general election.
Singh signalled on Tuesday that he will have more to say Wednesday about the party’s strategy for the upcoming sitting.
He is hoping to convince Canadians that his party can defeat the federal Conservatives, who have been riding high in the polls over the last year.
Singh has attacked Poilievre as someone who would bring back Harper-style cuts to programs that Canadians rely on, including the national dental-care program that was part of the supply-and-confidence agreement.
The Canadian Press has asked Poilievre’s office whether the Conservative leader intends to keep the program in place, if he forms government after the next election.
With the return of Parliament just days away, the NDP is also keeping in mind how other parties will look to capitalize on the new makeup of the House of Commons.
The Bloc Québécois has already indicated that it’s written up a list of demands for the Liberals in exchange for support on votes.
The next federal election must take place by October 2025 at the latest.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante is defending her decision to turn off comments on her social media accounts — with an announcement on social media.
She posted screenshots to X this morning of vulgar names she’s been called on the platform, and says comments on her posts for months have been dominated by insults, to the point that she decided to block them.
Montreal’s Opposition leader and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association have criticized Plante for limiting freedom of expression by restricting comments on her X and Instagram accounts.
They say elected officials who use social media should be willing to hear from constituents on those platforms.
However, Plante says some people may believe there is a fundamental right to call someone offensive names and to normalize violence online, but she disagrees.
Her statement on X is closed to comments.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
