Student Tories upset over 'partisan' tactics
Michael Ignatieff's visit to Dalhousie University on Monday was billed as a non-partisan "conversation," but a spokesman for the Dalhousie-King's Conservatives says Grit handouts show the Liberal leader isn't leaving partisan jabs behind on his cross-country campus tour.
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Chad Bowie, spokesman for the Dalhousie-King's Conservatives, says Liberal handouts at the event suggest Ignatieff's visit to Dal wasn't as "non-partisan" as advertised. Photo: Geoff Davies
Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff stopped by Dalhousie University Monday, but the university's Conservative society says it's disappointing the event didn't check partisan jabs at the door.
The event, entitled "a conversation with Michael Ignatieff," was the second of 11 stops the Liberal leader will make at Canadian universities in the coming week.
On the Liberal website, this cross-country speaking tour is described as the beginning of a "national conversation" leading up to a "non-partisan conference" on the country's future.
Chad Bowie, a spokesman for the Dalhousie-King's Conservatives, said he was disappointed with some of the conversation's messages.
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This postcard-sized handout authored by the Young Liberals of Canada says Stephen Harper believes "in republican-style divisive politics and petty attack ads."
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"It wasn't supposed to be a Liberal rally for Michael Ignatieff, it was supposed to be a non-partisan discussion."
"And then when you walk in they're handing out anti-Harper propaganda and he's taking snipes at the government, then it's really not what it was billed to be," said Bowie, referring to a post-card sized handout authored by the Young Liberals of Canada, the official youth wing of the party.
The handout, inspired by the "Hope" posters of the Obama presidential campaign, portrays a painted profile of Prime Minister Stephen Harper above the word "Nope." On the back, it criticizes him for believing in "Republican-style divisive politics and petty attack ads," among other things.
Glen Kruger, who heads up the group's Dalhousie branch, said the handouts are appropriate because they took aim at Harper's policies rather than getting personal.
"I don't believe anyone going to a rally with the leader of a political party believes it's going to be completely and utterly non-partisan," Kruger said, adding that the postcards were just made available on an out-of-the-way table and not distributed.
"When you're having a legitimate discussion about where you want to see this country you have to really talk about where it is right now."
Kruger said his group worked with Ignatieff's organizers to put together and run the event. Kruger himself could be seen throughout the 90-minute meeting wading through the audience with a microphone, managing questions from the crowd.
"All in all, this was open to anyone, this was totally non-partisan," Kruger said.
At one point, Ignatieff was asked to address the issue of attacks ads. A young woman in the audience asked the Liberal leader, who had said earlier that young people are disillusioned with politics, how such ads "give us something to believe in."
"Political systems are adversary systems," Ignatieff responded.
"It's appropriate for us to attack on policy. It's not appropriate to attack (the private person)," he said, referencing his party's anti-prorogation ads that are running this week.
"I believe in partisanship. I'm a proud Liberal. But part of the discipline of politics is keeping that partisanship under some kind of control."
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