I thought the Liberal party of Canada was supposed to provide a kinder, gentler alternative to the reigning Conservatives that seem these days to be a party tolerant of exclusionary views, racism, homophobia, and in general everything that I thought Canada was not.

I thought the Liberal party was supposed to be a party of inclusion, and progressive thinking something that Canada has, and always should be.

While I do not in any way ever want to turn my little bit of cyber space into a political blog I will on occasion feel compelled to voice my views. Two months ago I vented about that horrible Sarah Palin woman in the USA and her dangerous views....now I feel I must for the sake of my family speak out against the possibility of Michael Ignatieff taking the leadership of the Liberal party of Canada. Here in a very small part is why....

Some quotes from Mr. Ignatieff from his 1993 book "Blood and Belonging":

"My difficulty in taking Ukraine seriously goes deeper than just my cosmopolitan suspicion of nationalists everywhere. Somewhere inside I'm also what Ukrainians would call a great Russian and there is just a trace of old Russian disdain for these little Russians. "

"From my childhood, I remember expatriate Ukrainians nationalists demonstrating in the snow outside performances by the Bolshoi Ballet in Toronto. 'Free the captive nations!' they chanted. In 1960, they seemed strange and pathetic, chanting in the snow, haranguing people who just wanted to see ballet and to hell with politics. They seemed fanatical, too, unreasonable. Hadn't they looked at the map? How did they think that Ukraine could ever be free?"

In an interview Mr. Ignatieff describes Ukrainian culture as "embroidered peasant shirts, the nasal whine of ethnic instruments, phony Cossacks in cloaks and boots."

I am the daughter of one of those pathetic peasants. I am the granddaughter of a pathetic peasant who lies in an unmarked mass grave somewhere we believe near Odessa. And finally I am the great grandaughter of a pathetic peasant who starved to death because of a genocidal famine known as Holdomor. Therefore I will find it impossible to support a party that would elect this person as their leader. I am sorry if our right as Canadians to peacefully protest upset someone going to a ballet. Oh heaven help if their evening out, was ruined by some pathetic peasants wanting to bring awareness of the plight of their former home.

For those interested here is a review of the same book that was published to Peace Magazine. It is called What Michael Ignatieff Left Out. If you are a supporter of Mr. Ignatieff and have not read his books maybe you should, and see if you still agree with him.

Hopefully saner heads will prevail in the Liberal party as it did just a couple of weeks ago in the United States when they elected Barack Obama. Surely there are far better candidates to lead the Liberal party, and hopefully this country one day.

I have also heard (but am not 100% certain on) that Mr Ignatieff has spent most of his adult life in the USA and U.K. Huh?!

And to sign-off entry on the very slim chance that this may be read by someone close to the Trudeaus -> Justin please run for the leadership and soon!

Cheers!
Sue
XOX