Ignatieff counters riding critics
Candidate rejects charges over book To be acclaimed as Liberal candidate
Academic Michael Ignatieff has rejected charges he has made anti-Ukrainian comments in the past.
Ignatieff, 58, who hasn’t lived in Canada full time for more than 30 years, is to be acclaimed as the Liberal candidate in EtobicokeLakeshore tomorrow night.
That has brought charges that the party has made it impossible for anyone to run against him. And Ignatieff is on the hot seat for remarks he made in his 1993 book Blood and Belonging. In the book, he makes a reference to “ embroidered peasant shirts, the nasal whine of ethnic instruments, phoney Cossacks in cloaks and boots.” The passage has been seized on by some local Liberals who oppose his candidacy in Etobicoke-Lakeshore, which has a significant Ukrainian population.
Ignatieff said his words have been taken out of context.
“ What I said in those words that were quoted were repeating some of the vile stereotypes that are told about Ukrainians, and the whole chapter from which that’s taken consists of a systematic rebuttal to show that those statements are not true,” he said.
Myroslava Oleksiuk, a membership secretary for the riding association, said the nomination meeting is going ahead tomorrow night.
“ His position with regard to the certain ethnic communities, for example the Ukrainian community, shows that he does not reflect Canadian values and our multicultural society which we so value,” she told the Star.
Ignatieff said his ties with Ukraine go back a century. “My Russian ancestors are buried in a Ukrainian churchyard and their bodies have been looked after by Ukrainians for 100 years, so I have a deep, close relation with Ukrainians. At Harvard where I have been teaching, I teach the Ukrainian genocide of 1931- 38 where six million Ukrainians died . . . and I have taken my children to see the places in Western Canada where Ukrainians were shamefully interned,” he said. Members of the EtobicokeLakeshore riding association have also claimed the Liberals were trying to push Ignatieff’s bid ahead at the expense of two other contenders with Ukrainian backgrounds and ties to the community. But Michael Crawley, president of the Liberal Party of Canada (Ontario), said yesterday the party correctly followed procedures in acclaiming Ignatieff as its candidate.
Crawley said one application was rejected because, among other things, the prospective candidate has never been a member of the Liberal Party of Canada. The other application was rejected because the candidate had not complied with the Liberal constitution by resigning his position on the executive of the riding association after putting his name forward for nomination, Crawley said. The opening in EtobicokeLakeshore was created when Jean Augustine made it official in the House of Commons she would not be seeking re- election after representing the riding since 1993. Local Liberals say her retirement wasn’t entirely unexpected, but that the local executive didn’t find out until Friday night.
Meanwhile, Ignatieff said campaigning in the riding of EtobicokeLakeshore is going to take a backseat today to his Ivy League Harvard students. When other Liberal candidates hit the hustings today, Ignatieff will be in his classroom at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge, Mass.
“ I’m teaching my students and I don’t care what political commitments I’ve got, my students come first,” he said.
Ignatieff winds up his duties at Harvard next month before taking up a job at the University of Toronto.
Ignatieff was met with protestors from his own riding association when he showed up yesterday for a speech at the University Club, sponsored by the Institute for Research on Public Policy. John Capobianco, the Conservative candidate in EtobicokeLakeshore, said unlike Ignatieff, he was born in the riding.
“I put the constituents first and foremost. He has been out of country for 30 years and has absolutely no connection with Etobicoke- Lakeshore,” said. Both Capobianco and national NDP president Adam Giambrone said they find it strange that Prime Minister Paul Martin keeps talking about the need for democratic reform and then turns around and pushes a candidate on a local riding.
“ As New Democrats, we believe in democracy at the local level,” Giambrone said.
Conservative Peter Van Loan ( York- Simcoe) said in the House of Commons that the Ignatieff appointment shows that the “ democratic deficit is alive in the Liberal Party of Canada.”