Bringing out the worst in Ignatieff

[Locutus]

Hmmm...mayhaps.


In any multiparty election contest, the #2 candidate always wants to be alone with #1. Stephen Harper would have known that before he made his offer to debate Michael Ignatieff one-on-one this week. Why did he make the offer — which he presumably knew that Ignatieff would accept — if he was just going to retract it?

Here’s why. During this election campaign, the natural tendency is for all three election parties to concentrate their fire on the government. Even when the opposition parties are relatively weak, as during this campaign, the attacks take their toll. So the government party must look for ways to stir the pot, remind the opposition parties that they also hate each other. The prime minister’s comment does just that. He has goaded Michael Ignatieff into publicly pooh-poohing the NDP and BQ with his comment that neither Jack Layton nor Gilles Duceppe can hope to become prime minister. The obvious truth of the comment makes it all the more annoying.


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David Frum: Bringing out the worst in Ignatieff | Full Comment | National Post

[Mark]

Well that would work fine if the NDP hadn't given up their fight to a Liberal in order to stop Harper from achieving a majority. I think it is more likely that Mr. Harper sees Mr. Ignatieff as weak and issued the challenge based on the belief that Ignatieff would decline out of respect for his coalition partners. When Ignatieff accepted I would speculate that Harper's people realized they overplayed their hand and that a one on one debate could actually energize Count Chokula's likability.