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Canadian party taps Ignatieff as leader
AFP - Sunday, May 3
VANCOUVER, Canada (AFP) - - Intellectual Michael Ignatieff was acclaimed as leader of Canada's official opposition, at the Liberal Party convention in this western Canadian city.
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In his acceptance speech Ignatieff slammed Prime Minister Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservative minority government, accusing him of dividing Canadians.
"You have played province against province, region against region, individual against individual," Ignatieff told a hall of some 3,000 party members. "You have failed to understand that a prime minister of Canada has one job and one job only, which is to unite the people of this country."
An academic, author, broadcaster and human rights advocate, Ignatieff left Canada in 1978 for a career in England at Cambridge and Oxford Universities, and later in the United States at Harvard University.
He said his experiences writing about conflicts in Bosnia and Afghanistan made him decide to return to Canada in 2005, which he called a light "in a world ravaged by hatred."
Ignatieff ran unsuccessfully in the 2006 Liberal party leadership race. He lost to Stephane Dion, whom he served under as as deputy leader until last December when Dion resigned amid a political crisis.
Ignatieff was appointed interim leader after his two declared rivals for the post, Bob Rae and Dominic LeBlanc stepped aside to support Ignatieff as leader.
More than 97 percent of 2023 voters at the convention supported Ignatieff, the only candidate, on a symbolic leadership ballot. Party delegates also voted to make a major change in rules for choosing future leaders, by giving each party member a vote instead of using delegates.
Ignatieff, who has previously been close-lipped about what policies he would promote in a future election, stressed education in his acceptance speech.
Canada needs to be a knowledge society "where what counts is what you know, not who you know," he said, adding that a Liberal government would "create a society where learning is a way of life and learning is life long."
Ignatieff said Liberals would support early education and child care programs, equal pay for equal work by women, and a "world class" education for Canada's aboriginal children, whose drop-out rate is much higher than average.
Ignatieff used the last part of his speech to "speak directly to Stephen Harper."
"Mr. Harper, you have failed us. If you can't appeal to the best in all Canadians then we can," shouted Ignatieff, promising that a Liberal government would promote confederation "based on cooperation and not confrontation."
Liberals "are the big tent of Canadian life," he said, calling for courage during tough economic times. "If we offer citizens a message of hope ... Canadians will ask us to form the next government of Canada."
But Ignatieff did not indicate when the Liberals might try to overthrown Harper's minority government.
Harper's Conservatives won minorities in Canada's last two federal elections, forcing the party to rely on the opposition Liberals, New Democrats and Bloc Quebecois.
Two separate national polls, released Friday and Saturday, suggest support for the Liberals has increased to about 36 percent, compared to 33 percent for the Conservatives, but respondents favoured Harper as leader over Ignatieff.
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US President Barack Obama with Michael Ignatieff, who was acclaimed as leader of Canada's official opposition, at the Liberal Party convention in this western Canadian city
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