Gang of Four wrote:
Yeah, I think Ignatieff's defeat was more about anti-intellectualism than anti-Americanism.
Anti-intellectualism would be a consistent theme for the Conservatives in government, with their muzzling of scientists, the spending of billions of dollars on "new prisons for unreported crimes", and of course the killing of the long form census, among other things.
Things like facts and knowledge simply don't fit well with right-wing ideology.
I don't really recall the Cons pitching anti-intellectualism attack ads against Ignatieff. In fact, I don't think it was really that big a thing with voters either. Okay, yes, you could say the Cons ran an anti-intellectualism gov't, but they certainly didn't campaign on it. Are you saying voters voted for anti-intellectualism? Sure, some do, but it's not something that wins and loses elections.
I do know the Cons consistently attacked Ignatieff for being barely Canadian. Yes, Ignatieff was also anti-charismatic and a bad political leader--that's a large part of it--but the main thrust of the Cons' campaign against him was that he was more American than Canadian. It's unfortunate that twitter was still in its infancy yet because if it were, I'm sure a lot of the pro-PC tweeters would have hammered Ignatieff hard on that point.
The point is, everyone at some point buys into nationalism when it suits their own personal agenda. Canadians may be "less" patriotic than Americans, but we're no different than anyone else in the world in that we'd wrap ourselves with the Canadian flag when it suits us to make a point.
