Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Ignatieff can learn from Chretien's history

I'm in Denver this week covering a conference so I won't have too much time for blogging, unless it's about Avnet's solution plans or how Oracle is trying to win over Sun's channel partners. Not what you come here to read though, I don't think. Before I left though, I filed a dispatch for the folks at The Mark.


It's part of a feature examining historical precedents for Canadian political comebacks that Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff can (and should) learn from. My contribution looked at Jean Chretien's early days as opposition leader, which had some interesting parallels to Ignatieff's challenges today, and some interesting lessons that can be applied to the current situation. The bottomline:
Don’t try to be something or someone you’re not because the voters can spot a phony, and if you’re uncomfortable with yourself, they will be uncomfortable with you too. The ones that brought you to the leadership aren’t always the ones who can take you to the next step. Organization matters. It takes a strong team. If you don’t stand for something, you stand for nothing. Oh, and tell the nervous nellies to shut it.

And be sure to check out the other historical precedents explored in the feature.


Rob Silver tackles Chretien a few years later.

Lanny Cardow looks at Robert Borden.

And Michael Valpy looks at Pierre Trudeau's comeback against Joe Clark.

(Step one for Michael: Find Snow. Step two: Walk in it. Step three: Run against Joe Clark.)

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2 comments:

CanadianSense said...

Great advice, we agree. Let Iggy be Iggy.

Michael said...

"Ignatieff can learn from Chretien's history"
++++++++++++++++
Of course he can. All he needs to do is divide the right. That is not bound to happen?

Oh.