Michael Ignatieff
Michael Ignatieff
Michael Grant Ignatieff, PCis a Canadian author, academic and former politician. He was the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and Leader of the Official Opposition from 2008 until 2011. Known for his work as a historian, Ignatieff has held senior academic posts at the universities of Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard and Toronto...
NationalityCanadian
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth12 May 1947
CountryCanada
men thinkers ways
Thinkers too often disparage men of action in ways that do them no credit.
busy change emergency jobs lots nurse people places politics remember saturday tough tougher trauma
Politics is a tough game. But would I change places with a trauma nurse in an emergency ward on a busy Saturday night? No way. There are lots of jobs in the world that are tougher than politics. And politicians and people who've done it need to remember that.
absolutely access canadian-politician guys hours spin
There's a way in which these guys all think absolutely media, day and night. Access is what it's all about, so they spin 24 hours a day and that's a problem.
admire five respect spent united
I spent five years in the United States. I admire and respect American institutions.
acts arises justified legitimacy proceed process public recognized regard
The legitimacy of coercive acts in a democracy arises from the process by which they are justified and by the degree to which we regard decisions as rational. If the justifications proceed properly, through recognized public institutions, and if they make sense to us, they are legitimate.
actual enforce exempt franklin hook leadership legal nations norms nuremberg promoted setting since united universal
Since Franklin Roosevelt's leadership in setting up the United Nations and the Nuremberg trials, the U.S. has promoted universal legal norms and the institutions to enforce them while seeking, by hook or by crook, to exempt American citizens, especially soldiers, from their actual application.
politics
In politics, there's a kind of literal-mindedness. It's what you say, not what you mean, and you have to say only what you mean.
bosnian happened historical huge war
I was with the U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali on the day that Srebrenica fell, which happened to be a huge historical turning point in the Bosnian war.
arena business common contest define life politics ready reality rough ugly winners
Politics isn't a reality show or a gong show. It's not show business for ugly people. It's the arena where we define our common life in a rough and ready contest that has winners and losers.
cross designed endured far fire forms government handling hazardous liberal morally power puts question
Liberal democracy has endured because its institutions are designed for handling morally hazardous forms of coercive power. It puts the question of how far government should go to the cross fire of adversarial review.
america nation patriotism politics test
Affirming belief that America is an exceptional nation has become a test of patriotism in American politics.
almost canadian-politician country defined feeling intense national
Nationalism could almost be defined as intense national feeling for a country that does not yet exist, or for someone else's country.
hope iraqi leave rather sooner support
I don't support the Americans any more and I, in many ways, would hope they would leave sooner rather than later. But I do support Iraqi democracy.
ideas intellectual may
An intellectual may be interested in ideas and policies for their own sake, but a politician's interest is exclusively in the question of whether an idea's time has come,