After cleaning house in the Opposition leader’s office, Ignatieff is expected to put so many of his former Toronto faithful in prominent backroom jobs that some are already calling it the “Rosedale gang.” — Toronto Star, January 9th 2009
“Should [Ignatieff] follow his Quebec lieutenant while working closely with a credible team? Or his Toronto advisers who know nothing about the social and political realities of Quebec?” — Denis Coderre
Michael Ignatieff recently filmed some relatively bland ads where he told us that Canada needs to reach out India and China and make the new green jobs of tomorrow. The ads were largely panned as too light and I speculate that they served to re-introduce the Liberal leader through a softer lens rather than allow the Tories to solely define Ignatieff as “Just Visiting”. Andrew Coyne joked that the ads looked like they were filmed in Narnia, and I was only too happy to take the meme and run with it.
Today, I’m pleased to report that Narnia has been located! The ads were shot at Cherry Beach in… wait for it… downtown Toronto. As critics rip into Michael Ignatieff for taking his advice from a tight circle of downtown Toronto Liberal advisers, as the Liberal leader appears out of touch with Quebec (let alone the rest of Canada), and as the Liberal Party is lovingly dubbed the Liberal Party of Toronto by both its detractors and realist supporters, Michael Ignatieff shoots his definition ad in downtown Toronto.
Michael Ignatieff in Narnia? Algonquin park? The hundred-acre wood?
Michael Ignatieff’s new favourite park. Cherry Beach in downtown Toronto.
Michael Ignatieff once famously said “The only thing I missed about Canada was Algonquin Park”, it appears that Ignatieff doesn’t miss it too much these days as he couldn’t be bothered to drive more than 3km from the airport, or 15 minutes from Rosedale or Yorkville.
Michael Ignatieff tells us that we need to reach out to India and China, while he himself is loathe to reach out past his Toronto bunker. Ignatieff tells us that we need to create green jobs as he lectures us from a park located on an man-made island peninsula in Toronto.
We now join Michael Ignatieff in the enchanted woods where he has returned — after what he perceived as an insignificant flash of time — to rule this fabled land decade upon decades after his departure.
(thanks to Andrew Coyne for some inspiration)
