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Calgary Stampede 2009


Michael Ignatieff at the Calgary Regional Stampede Breakfast on July 4th, 2009


 
Michael Ignatieff addressing the crowd at the Liberal Stampede breakfast
(Michael Ignatieff's photostream)


"Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff also spoke in Calgary earlier in the day as part of a Stampede breakfast. He blasted Harper for negative attack ads and said the Liberals are presenting a solid alternative for people fed up with the way the Tories are running the country."
- Harper touts party's success, weaknesses of other parties at Stampede speech,
Canadian Press, July 4th, 2009


 
Adjusting the hat of a young supporter. (Michael Ignatieff's photostream)


"Ignatieff urged his supporters to start getting ready for an election, but admitted it’s not going to be easy to reverse the tide. “I’m not dreaming in technicolour, I know how tough the ground is,” he said. Disgruntled Albertans are seeking for a real alternative to the Tories and the Liberals just need to figure out how to give it to them, he added. “We don’t give (The Tories) a thing, we fight in every riding.”... “We have to be a party that understands that the beating heart of the Canadian economy, the beating heart of the future of our country, is in Alberta.”
- Ignatieff blasts Harper in Stampede stump-style speech, Shannon Montgomery,
Canadian Press, July 4th, 2009


 
Chatting with supporters while serving breakfast. (Michael Ignatieff's photostream)


"Ignatieff went after Prime Minister Stephen Harper with all guns blazing in a stump-style speech at a Stampede breakfast in Calgary."
- Iggy attacks "slurs", Canada Sunflashes, July 5th, 2009


 
Wascana MP and House Leader of the Official Opposition, Ralph Goodale introducing Michael
to supporters. (Michael Ignatieff's photostream)


"Ignatieff, meanwhile, urged supporters Saturday during a party fund-raiser breakfast at the Calgary Zoo to prepare for the next election. He lambasted Conservative attack ads and accused the prime minister of taking Alberta voters for granted."
- PM dares rivals to force election, Renata D’Aliesio and Jason Feteke,
Calgary Herald, July 5th, 2009


 
Talking to the 750 Liberals in attendance. (Michael Ignatieff's photostream)


Grit leader flatters Alberta, criticizes Tories
- Renata D’Aliesio, Calgary Herald, July 4th, 2009

Political leaders rev up campaign machinery
- Jason Fekete, Calgary Herald, July 4th, 2009

Ignatieff's awesome Alberta
- Gillian Steward, Toronto Star, July 7th, 2009


"Stephen Harper’s federal Conservative Party has hit a new low with their attack ads on the Bloc Québecois. Their latest fantasy, an attack on the Gilles Duceppe-led party... And give Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff full marks for having the guts to take issue with Harper and the Conservatives on this matter in the heartland of the right wing nation, Calgary.
Attending the Calgary Stampede, he climbed up on a stump and challenged the Conservative trash ad that suggests the Bloc, by voting against a law imposing minimum sentences in child traficking cases, are soft on pedophiles. The Grit general correctly stated that it is a dirty tactic, and completely unworthy of Canadian politics.
A few short years ago, the Progressive Conservatives and the Reform/Alliance merged into one, with the latter seizing the agenda. From that day forward, our national political stage has been mud-covered, and they’ve slung more dung than that which flows into Halifax Harbour on a daily basis.
There was no love lost between John George Diefenbaker and Lester Bowles Pearson. Pierre Elliot Trudeau and Robert Lorne Stanfield were hardly bosom buddies. And yet, each of these individuals respected one another and civility ruled the day. Even Martin Brian Mulroney and Joseph Jacques Jean Chrétien kept their political debates on a higher plain.
So it was refreshing to hear, and read, the Liberal leader’s response to the attack ads.
“I’m in politics to defeat the Bloc Québecois with real arguments rather than slurs and vicious ad hominen personal attacks,” Ignatieff told supporters at a Stampede breakfast.
 ...I also agree with Ignatieff’s response to the ad attacking him for spending 34 years outside the country. His view is that there is plenty to criticize about the Liberals’ Ottawa opponents without stooping to character assassination or casting doubt on a politician’s patriotism. Even those who do not follow politics are getting sick of this ad, and in my view it says more about the ruling Conservatives than about their target, the Liberal leader.
While I pine for a return to civil debates and issue discussions instead of personal attacks, I am afraid I’ll have a long wait. Stephen Harper is probably the most mean-spirited individual ever to occupy the office of Prime Minister of Canada. Make no mistake, he is in charge and he alone makes all the balls and carefully selects who will throw them.
- Federal Conservatives hit new low, if that’s possible, Al Hollingsworth, Halifax Live, July 9th, 2009


For more great photos please visit cdub's photo gallery of Michael Ignatieff in Calgary, July 4th, 2009 



 

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