From Iraq to employment insurance, Michael Ignatieff's thinking has evolved over time. But the federal Liberal Leader has exhibited noteworthy consistency in his conception of Canada as an “imagined community.”
Few would disagree with the idea of Canada as a political invention. It did not emerge organically from the shared ethnic lineage of its early inhabitants but was cobbled together as an antidote to creeping U.S. republicanism.
The primary ties that bind us are consequently ones of convenience. According to Mr. Ignatieff, appealing to shared “myths of origin” won't keep the country intact because we have none – or at least none strong enough to counter our centrifugal forces. No, only empathy can save us.
Mr. Ignatieff opens True Patriot Love with a meditation worthy of Atticus Finch. “To imagine Canada, you have to walk a mile in the moccasins of others. … [T]o survive as a country, we have to imagine what we have trouble understanding.”
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