Friday, September 01, 2006

Kennedy Shows Class

Ignatieff has made another apparent “gaffe’, in using the term “civil war” with reference to Quebec. I found this quote from Gerard Kennedy quite telling and a good measure of the man:
About Mr. Ignatieff's frank statements of late, Mr. Kennedy said, "Each of us has to find a way to express ourselves.
"Maybe certain weeks we'll all have challenges. I prefer not to see it as a characteristic, per se. . . “

A golden opportunity to take a shot at the perceived frontrunner, and yet Kennedy takes the high road and essentially defends Ignatieff. Obviously the question was asked in the hopes Kennedy would take the bait and slam Ignatieff. The fact Kennedy resisted demonstrates integrity, that he wouldn’t use the opportunity for personal gain. It is refreshing to see Kennedy isn’t so political that his first instinct is a calculation. Kudos for keeping the debate high signal.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree. It also shows that unlike Iggy, GK is an experienced politician who understands that your words matter.

GK has had a fantastic two week stretch chock full of deep policy announcements (Women's Economic Performance, the most thoughtful Afghanistan position released to date, a preview of his education platform) as well as class. I think when the campaign is over, the last 2 weeks of August will be when the race swung from Iggy to Kennedy.

Peter Loewen said...

It appears to me that Kennedy is just bad at making backhanded compliments.

DM: the most thoughtful Afghanistan position? Where can I get this koolaid?

Steve V said...

Certainly the most interesting Afghanistan position.