Fire and Ashes

Success and Failure in Politics

Michael Ignatieff

• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9780674725997
• eBook ISBN: 9780674729674
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Political Biographies
• Index: Politics & International Relations

In 2005 Michael Ignatieff left his life as a writer and professor at Harvard University to enter the combative world of politics back home in Canada. By 2008, he was leader of the country's Liberal Party and poised—should the governing Conservatives falter—to become Canada's next Prime Minister. It never happened. Today, after a bruising electoral defeat, Ignatieff is back where he started, writing and teaching what he learned.

What did he take away from this crash course in political success and failure? Did a life of thinking about politics prepare him for the real thing? How did he handle it when his own history as a longtime expatriate became a major political issue? Are cynics right to despair about democratic politics? Are idealists right to hope? Ignatieff blends reflection and analysis to portray today's democratic politics as ruthless, unpredictable, unforgiving, and hyper-adversarial.

Rough as it is, Ignatieff argues, democratic politics is a crucible for compromise, and many of the apparent vices of political life, from inconsistency to the fake smile, follow from the necessity of bridging differences in a pluralist society. A compelling account of modern politics as it really is, the book is also a celebration of the political life in all its wild, exuberant variety.

INDEX

Note: “MI” references denote Michael Ignatieff.

aboriginal peoples

—and politics, 146

—on reserves, 65, 74

—residential school apology, 145–46

adversaries

—as allies, 152

—as enemies, 150–52

—as opponents, 181

advertising. See attack ads

Afghanistan

—detainee transfers, 98, 144

—troop commitments, 99

“An Agenda for Nation Building” (Ignatieff), 72–74

Aggarwal, Sachin, 28, 41

Alexandar, Georges, 154

ambition, 7–10, 13

Apps, Alfred (“the men in black”), 1–2, 24, 25, 38, 47

Arab-Israeli wars, 15–16

asbestos exports, 149

attack ads, 132, 133

—against Dion, 99–100, 106

—in 2011 election, 157, 158–59

—against MI, 120–24, 157

—MI’s response, 123–26

—as permanent campaign, 71, 133

—truth in, 122, 123

—in United States, 121–22

—and voters, 129, 132

Attila, József (“By the Danube”), 45–46

Augustine, Jean, 35, 36, 38, 41

automobile industry, 118

bad faith, 38, 79

Bagnell, Larry, 149

baseball, 174–75

Berlin, Isaiah, 77

Blair, Tony, 30

Bloc Québécois, 60, 63, 160. See also Duceppe, Gilles

—and coalition crisis, 108–9

—in Parliament, 96–97

—as rival party, 110

Blood and Belonging (Ignatieff), 36

Book of the Courtier (Castiglione), 57–58

Brison, Scott, 158–59

Brock, Dan (“the men in black”), 1–2, 24, 25, 38, 47

Brown, Gordon, 24, 30

bureaucracy, 17, 104–6

Burke, Edmund, 169

Bush, George W., 122

—MI as apologist for, 35, 37, 52

“By the Danube” (Attila), 45–46

Canada. See also elections; Parliament

—constitution, 62

—divisions in, 63–65, 73

—federal-provincial relations, 74

—as “imagined community,” 64

—MI and, 27–28, 63–64

—monarchy’s role, 93

—national unity, 61–63

—as political entity, 27, 64

—recession in, 106–7, 112, 117, 119, 138, 139

—in Second World War, 11

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 27

Canadian Foreign Service, 15

candour, 7, 80

canvassing, 38–40, 42–43, 44

Caplan, Elinor, 175

carbon tax, 107

Casteura, Expie, 116

Castiglione, Baldassare, 57–58

Chalifoux, Marc, 53, 86

Chalk River Nuclear Laboratories, 17, 99

Chan, Milton, 28, 41

China, 180

Choudhry, Sujit, 28

Chrétien, Jean, 24, 42, 60, 116

Churchill, Winston, 94

Cicero, Marcus Tullius, 169

citizenship

—as binding force, 64, 73, 124

—as freedom, 73

Citizenship and Immigration, 105

civil servants, 17, 104–6

Clausewitz, Carl von, 151

Clinton, Bill, 57, 127

coalition crisis (2008), 108–12, 116, 117–18

—MI’s position, 109–10, 116–17, 147

communities

—countries as, 64, 95

—distinctiveness of, 61–65

—as political blocs, 82

—reaction to attack, 77–78

Conant, Armand, 38

conscription debate (1944), 116

Conservative Party of Canada, 73, 152. See also Harper, Stephen

—in 2006 election, 46

—in 2011 election, 157, 161

—in Etobicoke–Lakeshore, 40, 44

—during Liberal leadership campaign, 62–63

—in opposition, 25

corruption, 44, 60, 72

cosmopolitanism, 27, 124

Cotler, Irwin, 110

“data monkeys,” 41, 44, 119

Daughters of the Empire, 17

Davey, Ian, 45, 69, 76, 137

—as “man in black,” 1–2, 24, 25, 38, 47

Davey, Keith, 1

Davis, Brad, 41

defence issues, 99, 143

DelZotto, Elvio, 28, 172

democracy

—civility in, 151

—connection to place, 54–55

—as daily plebiscite, 39–40

—entitlement in, 13

—Harper’s contempt for, 102–3, 145

—House of Commons and, 95–98

—Internet and, 55

—opposition’s role, 150–51

—persuasion in, 95–96, 150–51

—public involvement...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• One. Hubris
• Two. Ambition
• Three. Fortuna
• Four. Reading the Room
• Five. Money and Language
• Six. Responsibility and Representation
• Seven. Standing
• Eight. Enemies and Adversaries
• Nine. What the Taxi Driver Said
• Ten. The Calling
• Notes
• Index