An old article by Canada's new Liberal leader..

[Oregone]

For anyone who cares to pay attention or get to know Ignatieff better (who is actually well-known in the US), I thought it could be useful to post this article. He seems to be a true intellectual with an incredible understanding of history (he has a PhD in History from Harvard). Although Ive read a lot of mixed things about him, his work in the New York Times is quite amazing.

He may soon be the new Prime Minister of Canada, which may be an incredible step in the right direction with both the US and Canada working together united. I often feel its important if the US's trading partner, friend, and ally is prosperous, so perhaps others may be interested.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/26/magazine/26EXCEPTION.html

Who Are Americans to Think That Freedom Is Theirs to Spread?

By MICHAEL IGNATIEFF
Published: June 26, 2005

As Thomas Jefferson lay dying at his hilltop estate, Monticello, in late June 1826, he wrote a letter telling the citizens of the city of Washington that he was too ill to join them for the 50th-anniversary celebrations of the Declaration of Independence. Wanting his letter to inspire the gathering, he told them that one day the experiment he and the founders started would spread to the whole world. ''To some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all,'' he wrote, the American form of republican self-government would become every nation's birthright. Democracy's worldwide triumph was assured, he went on to say, because ''the unbounded exercise of reason and freedom of opinion'' would soon convince all men that they were born not to be ruled but to rule themselves in freedom.

It was the last letter he ever wrote. The slave-owning apostle of liberty, that incomparable genius and moral scandal, died 10 days later on July 4, 1826, on the same day as his old friend and fellow founder, John Adams.

It's impossible to untangle the contradictions of American freedom without thinking about Jefferson and the spiritual abyss that separates his pronouncement that ''all men are created equal'' from the reality of the human beings he owned, slept with and never imagined as fellow citizens. American freedom aspires to be universal, but it has always been exceptional because America is the only modern democratic experiment that began in slavery. From the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, it took a century for the promise of American freedom to even begin to be kept.

More at link...

[applegrove]

1. I'm so excited he is leader. The left in Canada could actually win the next election.

[Telly Savalas]

2. Isn't Iggy pretty much the only high profile Liberal who thought the Iraq War was a good idea?

[Oregone]

4. Yeah, other than the US "liberals"

That concerns me. He has changed course he claims.

[HEyHEY]

3. Harvard? What? Canadian University not good enough for him?

I kid, of course, just getting you ready for the BS attacks on Ignatieff's love for Canada that are sure to come.

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. Thanks - the actual selection of Ignatieff seems to have not been reported on the main forums

I'd seen a thread from Early Wednesday saying it was likely, but hadn't realised a decision had been reached (our British media is largely ignoring all the Canadian news).

[Oregone]

6. There was no selection. He won by default after two others dropped off.

That being said, he had so much support it was near pointless to run against him.