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
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.
bothered criticize faith five good half message politics reasonable thinking
I went into politics thinking that, if I made arguments in good faith, I'd get a hearing. It's a reasonable assumption, but it's wrong. In five and a half years in politics up north, no one really bothered to criticize my ideas, such as they were. It was never my message that was the issue. It was always the messenger.
claims front legitimacy nations source united
What makes the United Nations an appropriate source of legitimacy for intervention is that it is the only place where the claims of the strong are put through the test of justification in front of the weak.
harry truman
Some of our finest leaders were not intellectuals at all, and I admire them enormously because they weren't. Harry Truman wasn't.
allow convert democratic enemies reconcile resort societies speak temptation unlikely
Free societies, which allow differences to speak and be heard, and live by intermarriage, commerce, and free migration, and democratic societies, which convert enemies into adversaries and reconcile differences without resort to violence, are societies in which the genocidal temptation is unlikely and even inconceivable.
state wait
I don't think you'll have to wait long. I'm not in a Hamlet-like state of indecision.
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.
founding james laws learned lincoln understood
Lincoln was not an intellectual, but no one in 200 years understood the language of the King James Bible or learned Blackstone's Laws of England, or Cicero, or the language of the Founding Fathers, better than he did.
invest learn listen
We have to invest in Saskatchewan and . . . listen to Saskatchewan . . . and learn from Saskatchewan.
appears canadian-politician chief concern giving moral precision weapons
My chief concern about the way we're going is that new technology, precision weapons technology, appears to be giving us a new moral alibi.
almost call cry foul politics teams trouble
Trouble is, we call politics a game, but it isn't one. There is no referee, and the teams make up the rules as they go along. You can't cry foul or offside in politics. Almost anything goes.
chance changed elected finally life people political school speeches walked
For someone like me who, as a kid, walked to school muttering little political speeches to myself, it was irresistible to finally get a chance at political life for real. When the people of Etobicoke-Lakeshore elected me their MP, it changed me forever.
chair life mum rocking sitting
I don't want to be someone sitting in my rocking chair at the end saying, 'Well, I passed.' My mum used to say life isn't for sissies.
inspirational teacher fear
Living fearlessly is not the same as never being afraid. It's good to be afraid occasionally. Fear is a great teacher.