ALLAN FOTHERINGHAM on Michael Ignatiaeff – Maclean’s May 11th issue.

It’s great to see the old warhorse back in your pages. For 27 years he soldiered on at Maclean’s, through some erratic periods of Maclean’s publication. He was the one stalwart I always read, whether I agreed with him or not. In this issue he aims his verbal gun at Michael Ingnatieff –somewhat unfairly, I hasten to say. While I did not and still do not, think that Iggy was the ideal Leader for the Liberals –I would have chosen Bob Rae –I do think he has the smarts to lead the party out of the wilderness. He is a tactician and a strategist –in every way Harpers equal. That said, I do think he needs a makeover. He is still stiff and formal; uses highfalutin language that might go well with the college crowd, but misses the great unwashed masses. As an intellectual, he equals John Ralston Saul, but as a politician, he must learn to smile, not only with his mouth, but also with his eyes. There is a definite disconnect between his lips and his eyes (see p.14). In many ways, he is Dion speaking English.

I have not read his last book, True Patriot Love, nor do I plan to. I have read other writings of his, and he is eloquent, concise and unambiguous in his dissertations. His Empire Lite was only 127 pages, but there are few words wasted. But, writing for the intellectual elite and writing (and speaking) as a politician is polar opposites. A politician’s first duty is being elected, and while brains and intelligence are requirements, cordiality and joviality is a necessary attribution. Dion butchered the Queens English, but so did Chretien. However, he did it with humour and wit, and thus got away with it.

If for no other reason, I won’t read Ingnatieff’s latest paean to Canada because of his 37- page worship of George Monro Grant, and in particular, his uncle, Chicken Little George Parkin Grant. I was made to read Lament for a Nation in University – Political Economy 101 –and I have not yet recovered from that ordeal.

However, one bad book does not exclude him from high office. Hyperbole has always been the crutch of the scoundrel and the successful politician (sometimes in the same person). I see Mr. Ingnatieff firmly as the latter.