There is something afoot when a Canadian politician grabs the attention of the style and trend setters in the Big Apple. Assuredly, this means more to the chattering classes in Toronto, smiling over their Starbucks no-fat lattes than to the locals gathering at Tim’s after services at the United Church in Biggar. Nevertheless, today’s Sunday Styles section in The New York Times front-pages an in-depth profile of Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff. The International Herald Tribune carries the feature to a European audience as well.
Somewhat derisively, the author, Eric Konigsberg, describes that part of Ignatieff’s character that was shaped at Harvard, and brought him to celebrity in The New York Times Magazine and The New Yorker, and some Canadians’ reluctance to embrace him after many years spent abroad. “David Rife an American friend and author, said; ‘Canada , like a lot of culturally small countries, has an ambivalent relationship with countrymen who leave and make it big in the United States or Europe. He’s considered a celebrity at home, and they’re proud of him, but there’s also some graceless carping“.“ writes Konigsberg.
In contrast, Konigsberg also describes the influence his father’s and ancestors’ life of public service have had on Ignatieff’s desire to move from writing to doing. ”This is the only place where I can be a participant, not a spectator. I’ve been a spectator, and now I am in the boat fishing. That part of it, from a spiritual point of view, it feels good“, he quotes Ignatieff.
Referring to Ignatieff’s upcoming book, True Patriot Love: Four Generations in Search of Canada , which he notes will be published in April - just before the Liberal Party’s national policy convention which also will confirm Ignatieff’s leadership - and describes as an exploration of four generations’ Canadian identity, Konigsberg identifies why, introspective as we are, Canadians, like him or not, are sitting-up and taking notice of Michael Ignatieff.
