Things are going to get interesting in Canada. Ignatieff poised to replace Dion

[Monk06]

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/12/07/liberals-dion.html?ref=rss

Ignatieff is going to skin Harper like a ripe onion now that he
doesn't have to pull his punches.

Way in Canukophiles

[Jennicut]

1. Yeah,I have been following that. Dion was not well liked, hopefully Ignatieff

will be better. Is the coalition being stopped now? Can it be stopped? Parliamentary govt. is so much different then here.

[liberalpragmatist]

2. Not clear

Polls show the idea of the coalition govt. is very unpopular (despite the fact that the combined center-left parties won something like 60% of the vote -- weird). The concern is that if he loses a no-confidence vote, Harper would ask the Governor-General to call another election, in which the Conservatives would likely win a majority.

There were reports that the Liberal leadership have turned away from the idea of a coalition govt. to replace the Conservatives -- for now. But we'll see what happens in January.

[Jennicut]

3. Thanks, I just started following Canadian politics, Harper does not seem

like he is that great a leader.

[grasswire]

4. I know nothing of Canadian politics...

...but the stuff I've read of Ignatieff's generally has opened my eyes and made me think about whatever subject he's discussing. I had no idea he was a politician now.

[liberalpragmatist]

5. He's somewhat controversial though b/c he backed the Iraq War

... and also, right after 9-11, made some noises about having to consider "harsher" intelligence techniques.

He has since backed away from both of those stances, saying in the case of torture that he was taken out of context and in the context of the war, saying he was wrong.

No doubt that's an incredibly smart guy, and he'll certainly be one of the more interesting world leaders should he become Canada's PM. But those stances have cost him support in the past -- he made a leadership bid in 2006 and it was his stances on those issues that largely did him in.