Valpy on Ignatieff

[iverglas]

Oh, the incestuous lives of the rich people. Valpy marries Deborah Coyne, mother of Pierre Trudeau's last rugrat, now writes about Ignatieff, who wants to be / is being sold as the next PET. Oh, whatever.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060825.wxboat26/BNStory/National/
"Being Michael Ignatieff"

Worth reading Valpy, usually. (He does point out that he and Mike are already on first-name basis.) The thing appears to be 18 pages long and I've only read 3 because I'm tired and irritable, and the tales of ambition and achievement at Upper Canada College are sick-making, but must needs. (I'll tell you my UCC story if you like. One of my best friends in undergraduate had been kicked out, followed the year later by his brother. Their sister was still ensconced at Havergal; I had never seen anyone with such shiny hair, such flawless skin, such pearly teeth, such exquisite 20-something ex-debutante looks, at 15. Money is good for you. Anyhow, my buddy still had old boy chums, and some of them were on the bd of govs of Maple Leaf Gardens, so we got 4th row seats for the Stones.)

Not seeing much else about the man who would be king. (Oops, 'scuse the Rudyard reference.) Maybe I haven't been looking, but that seems to be Valpy's thesis: who is this person?

Girls found him sweet and solicitous, with a pixie-ish sense of humour. In his final years, he had an adoring girlfriend at Bishop Strachan, the nearby private school for girls. (His sexual initiation took place at a campground north of Toronto; he remembers the gravel against his knees and elbows was excruciating.)

... Boys were less enamoured. Chris Gilmour, who went on to become a commodities broker, disliked encountering him at school. "Michael Ignatieff was one of the people who was always implying that I was stupid. I used to dread seeing him because he was going to make some kind of put-down statement."

Another former classmate recalls him walking around with a copy of Paris Match under his arm, saying his goal was to be prime minister. ... The final four words beside his unsmiling graduation photograph in the yearbook read: "Intention: journalism or politics."

Forty-one years later, sitting in his office in the Confederation Building, Mr. Ignatieff is amused by this certainty of adolescence. "I'm slightly appalled at my younger self. I've wandered around a lot in my life being very, very unsure. But there must have been some moment back when I was 18, and thought, 'This is what I want to do.'"

Well fucking duh. He was maybe dreaming of teaching public school, or toiling in a legal aid clinic ... or on the floor at GM? The grandson of the Czar's minister of education, nephew of George Grant ... the blood don't get a whole lot bluer.

I myself have waxed rather effusively admiring about some of his rights theory thinking. But I managed to fall out of love with P.E.T by the time I turned 17, and I think I can avoid drooling on Mikey here, for many of the same reasons.

Okay, I'll make my pick for Liberal leader, like I or anybody else cares. Stéphane Dion, just because he's actually a Liberal and in recognition of playing the game like you oughter. Perhaps I've just watched too much Big Brother this year. But I say give Mike the $50,000 runner-up prize and send him home, wherever it might be this week.

[MrPrax]

1. Vomit-Inducing Indeed...

but I struggled through and if Valpy was trying to lionize Iggy in the Trudeau mold -- then he does provide a lot of ammo to the critics as well. Valpy inadvertantly keeps track of places and you truly get a picture of a guy who hasn't been in Canada a hell of lot. Valpy keeps name dropping Canuck people and places, but this only draws attention to this fact.

One of the centerpieces is when Iggy writes the book Scar Tissue and confesses:

It is a first-person narrative of a man who cares for a mother with Alzheimer's and whose brother is intellectually and emotionally detached from her illness. Many reviewers described the novel as autobiographical, but only in a handful of instances was Mr. Ignatieff quoted as saying that Andrew, not he, was Alison's primary caregiver. "I was the absent brother," he told The Guardian.

Not really too sure that is a strong card to play...

Or this excerpt:

He was referred to in print as "the elegant television pundit Michael Ignatieff," whose wife had an excellent recipe for fish pasta (so much for Susan's intellectual status). He was photographed in a pink suit for the cover of British GQ, and included in the lists of celebrities' birthdays published annually by The Times and The Guardian.

He was one of the first members of Groucho's, the fashionable Soho club for writers and editors that opened in 1985 — although he had a reputation for being shirty with the staff when service fell beneath his standards.

His opinion on Madonna was given media currency: "I don't mind that I see her face on every magazine cover; I certainly don't mind that she is obscene; I don't even mind that she can't sing, can't dance, can't act and is nonetheless the most famous person on the planet. What I can't stand about Madonna is that she thinks she's an artist."

Some of it is just fawning, but some shows that he much more admired in the UK (so familiar that some reference to his wife's cooking is mentioned), and is deeply dismissive of serving staff and popular culture. I don't care for Madonna, but I accept received opinion that he is very talented, well respected and has been quite innovated in her field, especially in staged dance and theatre. This shows not a intellectual that is eager to learn, but an intellectual that has it all figured out.

I think you might be right that Valpy is trying to emphasize comparison to the early Trudeau 'fancy free' spirit and attempting to place him in this pantheon.

But Trudeau was intimately involved in the politics of the Montreal School and Quebec society. Trudeau's network was forged in Canada -- not over tea at the BBC or glad tiding political celebrities at the JFK school at Harvard. Trudeau lived through Dupleissis and it affected him. Like Levesque, Trudeau lived through the momentuous CBC strike in 1959 and the Quiet Revolution under Lesage.

Iggy didn't stay in this country long enough to experience even the whole of the Trudeau dynasty... hell I doubt he was here long enough to make it through the Joe Clark's dynasty.

I really don't like Iggy, so I am likely to find fault in the piece. But if the piece gets wider play for people who have to make their decision in December, then there are few little nuggets that might force people to see Iggy's absentee residency in a harder light, given his intellectual arrogance.

Also in reading over it, you find after each 'family' event, Iggy writes a book. If he turns his families tragedies into literary fodder, then is that not some defect. Do people really want to elect a guy who probably looks upon his time in politics here in the colony as a source of inspiration for a possible 3 part book deal...Iggy Armed, Iggy Unarmed and hopefully, Iggy Outcast is volume 2.

:shrug:

[daleo]

2. He is the ultimate example of belonging to the "in group"

He was born into privilege, but I don't think he really understands what that means. He has been too close to it all his life to appreciate the advantages it has given him. Some people can rise above privilege, so to speak, but he doesn't strike me as one of them. He may have some good qualities, but when it comes to the lot of the average person, he will always be on the outside looking in.

I like the idea that Kennedy started the Edmonton food bank in the early 1980's, when he was only in his early 20's. I was about the same age, and working for an Edmonton non-profit at the same time. That kind of experience is the exact opposite of Iggy's. Kennedy must understand the average person (especially when they are going through hard times) in ways Ignatieff couldn't begin to.