Angry in the Great White North

There is a quote today that explains perfectly why Michael Ignatieff led the Liberal Party to such a historical loss in the last election.  Without even seeming to try, he manages to insult Canadians everywhere.

The context is Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's announcement that future health care funding would tied to GDP, and that provinces would be allowed to pursue whatever strategies they want to improve health care.  To that, Michael Ignatieff drops this one:

On his Facebook page after the Flaherty announcement, Ignatieff wrote: "Let's be clear where this will take us. We will cease to have a national health-care system. Instead we will have 13 systems, with different standards of treatment and care, and no incentives to learn from each other, share best practice or collaborate to lower costs."

Wow.  Can there be any doubt about the arrogant and elitist nature of the Liberal Party in general, and of Michael Ignatieff in particular?

No incentives to learn from each other?  No incentives to share best practices?  When Michael Ignatieff sees average Canadians (rare as that occasion is, given he has retreated back to the rarefied air of academia), he sees people who are ignorant and slothful and incapable of mustering the energy to better their lives, should if by some miracle they knew how to do that.  For Liberals in general, and for Michael Ignatieff in particular, destiny requires the Liberal Party and its glorious leader to lead the shuffling herd for the herd's own good.

Here's what's really going to happen with regards to health care.  The quality of delivered of health care might indeed start to differentiate across the country.  And that's a good thing!  If I'm in Nova Scotia, and I hear in a news report that wait times in New Brunswick are 25% lower, or that Albertans enjoy access to three times the number of MRIs per capita, then I've got something to work towards.  As a voter, I would get to my MLA and demand an explanation.  I might start a group dedicated to finding areas of improvement and agitating for change.   I'll work to support an Opposition party that is promising to make some serious changes.

Heck, I might even move to a different province!

And the effect of these things will be to push the laggards up the hill, the provincial politicians not wanting to face an angry electorate.  The improvements might be the re-allocation of funds, or underwriting the cost of taking patients to where the specialized services are best, or indeed, looking at the economic fundamentals of the successful provinces and wondering if maybe, just maybe, there are structural problems with high tax rates and over-regulation that are acting as a drag on the local medical community.

Honestly, the details don't really matter.  Indeed, the solution might be something we haven't even thought of, and that's rather the point.  What matters is that differentiation is what powers change.  What needs to happen is for the federal government to allow provinces and people to become empowered, and then use that power to strive to improve, ideally having some sort of example to follow or emulate.

Of course, all this self-empowerment and local problem-solving is anathema to the Liberals.  So much so that Michael Ignatieff honestly believes it won't happen.  He really thinks that we average Canadians will wallow in confusion and ignorance until such time as the Liberals will come to wipe the drool off our chins, we being too stupid to improve our situation on our own.

Of all the insufferable and insulting...

So there you go.  That's why Michael Ignatieff led the Liberals to such a disaster and why he couldn't hold on to his "safe" seat.  If the Liberals want to fix their party, they should stop apologizing for Michael Ignatieff, stop making excuses for his dismal performance, and instead admit that yes, Michael Ignatieff thinks we're all idiots, and that yes, he really was a terrible example of a party leader.

And then promise that the next batch of Liberals will be different.  That the next batch will ask themselves, "What would Michael say?", and then say something quite different.

I'm not holding my breath.