OTTAWA – In order to temper their early-campaign momentum and avoid “growing too quickly,” the New Democratic Party of Canada has hired academic and former Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff as their campaign advisor.
“In politics, there is a very real danger of becoming too popular,” cautioned Mulcair. “This is why we need someone like Michael on board to guide us to a more reasonable third place, where we can remain comfortably until and beyond the upcoming election.”
Even before Ignatieff was officially part of the campaign team, Mulcair was already embracing Ignatieff’s methodical and impersonal debate style, which lost his party “just the right amount” of support. Now, sources close to Mulcair say that Ignatieff’s first-hand experience with political opportunism, a poor House of Commons attendance record and the loss of 43 of the party’s seats, including his own, will be an invaluable resource to NDP’s new “First is Worst” strategy.
The Conservative Party has already responded to these developments with a series of “Thomas Mulcair: Just Visiting” attack ads, which reference the professorship Mulcair had just accepted at Yale under Ignatieff’s instruction.
At press time, the Bloc Québécois replaced leader Gilles Duceppe with Stéphane Dion in the hopes of maintaining current poll numbers.
