Angry in the Great White North

The Conservative attack ads are being panned by the press.  Frankly, that doesn't matter whatsoever.  It is the impact on the voters that counts. 

But put that aside for a moment.  These so-called attack ads are not sly insinuations of the sort the Liberals and the NDP throw around (the classic is the Conservative "hidden agenda", which by definition has to be insinuated, or else it wouldn't be hidden).

As with Stephane Dion, Michael Ignatieff's own words come back to haunt him.  Michael Ignatieff treats citizenship as some sort of trivial contrivance to be used to influence lesser minds:

But the fact is that America is neither the redeemer nation, nor the evil empire. It isn't always right, but it isn't always wrong. Ideology cannot help us here. In the weeks and years ahead, the choices are not about who we are or what company we should keep nor even about what we think America is or should be.

This is not a quote from the attack ad.  It is another quote from Michael Ignatieff in which he pretends to be an American.

Why does he keep doing this?  And why am I asking that question?  That's the job for the mainstream media.

Since they don't seem to be doing it, the Conservatives will do it for them.  If the media is offended by someone else doing their job, then they should just start doing their job instead of complaining about it.  If they don't like the job the Conservatives are doing ("too partisan!"), then do it themselves and show everyone how it's supposed to be done.  But don't complain because the Conservatives have stepped in to fill the gaping vacuum left by the media on this important point.

And what point is that?

Michael Ignatieff lied to millions of Americans through his writing and his television appearances every time he talked about "we Americans".  He's not an American.  To Americans, he's a foreigner.  Foreigners have opinions about American policy, and certainly Americans will listen to opinions from all sort of people.  But Michael Ignatieff won't risk his opinions being relegated to some second tier status on the basis of being an outsider looking in. 

He's freekin' Michael Ignatieff!

Americans must listen to him, and if that means telling them the bald-faced lie that he is an American too, then so be it.

It's just citizenship, after all.  Only rubes who salute flags care about nonsense like that.

Canada has rubes too.  They also care about citizenship.  So Michael Ignatieff churns out a pamphlet called True Patriot Love in which he pretends he's in love with Canada.  That'll fool 'em.

Michael Ignatieff lied to Americans about who he is.  Is he lying to Canadians too?  That's a pertinent question.   The media ought to be asking it.  They're not.  So the Conservatives have stepped in. 

If the media took questions like this seriously, there wouldn't be attack ads.  Well, probably not. 

Maybe the media doesn't take the question of citizenship all too seriously either.  Maybe the media thinks proud Canadians who would never deny being Canadian, and who would never claim to be anything but Canadian, are just a bunch of rubes too.

Not much of an American: Michael Ignatieff went to the US to get his PhD in 1976.  Two years later, he moved to Britain, and spent 22 years there.  Then it was back to the US for another five years.  Does five years in Harvard make you an honourary American?  Maybe, but then started using the "we Americans" schtick almost immediately after getting there.  It's not like he spent a decade in the US before pretending to be an American. 

Fooling Google:  In the article I quote, Michael Ignatieff makes no mention that he is a Canadian, barely two years in the United States, after spending two decades in England.  Of course not.  That's what makes it all a lie.  But look at the ads at the bottom of the page:

Now why would Google put an add about Canada's National Historic Sites on a page about Iraq, Vietnam, and terrorism?  Simple, really.  Google probably detected "Michael Ignatieff" as the author, and inferred that the article might have something to do with Canada as well.

Maybe Michael Ignatieff is hoping that we're as easily fooled as a text-matching program.  Or as easily as the Americans he addressed in his articles and television appearances.  But then that's part of the role of the media, isn't it?  To keep us informed so that we can make wise decisions?