Angry in the Great White North

Liberal Party leader Michael Ignatieff, stung by real politics, is retreating to academia:

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff will start the New Year with a cross-Canada campus tour to meet with young Canadians in the lead-up to Canada at 150: Rising to the Challenge - a non-partisan conference being held in Montreal in March 2010.

"We're starting a national conversation about the Canada we can be on our country's 150th birthday," said Mr. Ignatieff. "We'll be talking about the kind of Canada we want in 2017-and what we need to do today and tomorrow to get there."

Now I think it's safe to say that students in liberal arts programs who bother to vote will tend to vote Liberal or NDP.  It is much less likely in engineering faculties, I think, but then those students are actually working towards a goal that goes beyond school.

So when Michael Ignatieff announces that he is going to be meeting with these liberal arts students, he is meeting with committed Liberal voters (along with NDP supporters who would strategically vote Liberal). 

How many votes will he swing as a result?  Well, none, of course. 

Is meeting with students important?  Sure.  So send Justin Trudeau to do it.  Or if it has to be a professor, give it to Stephane Dion. 

As leader, Michael Ignatieff needs to be targeting those communities that vote Conservative, or are slipping to the Conservative side.  Visible minorities, for example.  People who work in the energy sector.  Churchgoers.

In other words, Michael Ignatieff is going after the low-hanging fruit.  He is taking the easy route, appearing in front of friendly audiences (students) in an environment in which he is comfortable (the lecture hall).

Michael Ignatieff is acting like someone who has already retreated.  He is not challenging himself, or the Conservatives, even as the Conservative continue to challenge Liberal strongholds.

There is a rule engineers are taught in school: tackle the hardest problems first.    Obviously this is not what they teach kids in liberals arts programs.  It's not the rule Michael Ignatieff is using to guide his decisions, it seems.

Hey, I bet there are engineers in the Liberal Party.  Let me ask them a question.  Do you think the hardest part of fixing what ails the Liberal Party is selecting the right leader?

You do?

Then you know the problem you need to be working on right now.