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Quote by Michael Ignatieff

“You can't get back to power by defining your project in negative terms. But it helps to have somebody in office who represents the opposite of what you believe.”

Quote by Michael Ignatieff

Author

Michael Ignatieff

Michael Ignatieff is a prominent Canadian politician, scholar, and writer. He has held several academic and public positions and is well-regarded both in Canada and internationally. more

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“The politics of personal destruction, the politics of division, the politics of fear, it's all there. It helps you to define the politics of moderation - the politics of democratic respect, the politics of hope - more clearly.”

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“We can't afford to waste people. We can't afford to have people think the game is over before it's begun. We've got to be saying to the Canadian people: you can't tax cut your way to a productive 21st-century economy. You can talk that talk, but it's not going to give you a productive 21st-century economy, because it will scythe apart the public goods that make prosperity possible. That's what we've got to say, and so we shall.”

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“You're never really out of politics.”

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“I'm very struck by what you can do in a classroom. I've got 200 students. You don't do partisan politics in a classroom, that's not appropriate. But you want to give them a strong sense that these are the issues that matter.”

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“No kid graduating in a political science class in Canada should not understand what's happened to income inequality since the 1970s, period. And then, what do we do about it? It's the biggest problem out there, in all western liberal societies.”

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“There are a lot of young Canadians who want to be politically active at their college or their university who can't go to the party convention, who can't take part in politics, because they're holding down a job to pay their tuition. These are kids who want to do public service, who want to get involved politically, but their financial situation is precarious.”

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“Public service does not necessarily mean service in the House of Commons, and public service is not synonymous with partisan political activity. It comes in a thousand colours, but the common denominator is: it's not about me - it's about we.”

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“There are all kinds of different forms of public service, but there's no form of public service that can make more difference for more people than partisan political activity.”

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“I've gotten hernias from drummers when they drop tempo.”

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“The party's got to see itself as being one public service organization in a very competitive field, all of whom are competing for the allegiance and commitment and brains of the next generation. They've got to be big enough to reach out to those groups and say "come on in."”

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Author:Michael Ignatieff