Michael Ignatieff addressed members of the Liberal Party in Quebec on March 22, 2009 for the first time since being elected as leader of the Party almost four months ago. The speech, conducted wholly in French, aimed to revitalize the party; the Liberals suffered heavily in the most recent election, taking only 14 seats of a total 75, compared to the 49 attained by the Bloc Quebecois.

Ignatieff stressed the compatibility of the Quebecois identity with the idea of Canadian citizenship, and how it strengthens the Canadian identity, rather than diminish it. Quoting John A. Macdonald, Ignatieff warned that if the government’s policy was to “treat Quebec as a nation…they [would] respond as a nation; treat them as a faction and they [would] respond as a faction.” He spoke to the party faithful about facilitating a fair employment insurance system, training all citizens for the jobs of the future, helping the poorest and aboriginal peoples, and supporting “our artists and our creators and make sure that Quebec culture is known all around the world.”

While Ignatieff was short on any actual platform points, he said that they would be revealed closer to an election. He criticized the conservative Prime Minister Harper for what he saw as using the differences in political parties to divide Canadians, running negative advertisements rather than focusing on getting Canada out of the economic crisis. He also accused Harper of being isolated from the crisis and that “as a party [the Liberals] must live this crisis with the workers and find solutions for them.” Other criticism of Harper policy included his strategy in Afghanistan, which was apparently “determined by Washington.”

Ignatieff has himself been criticized in past months by both the Conservatives and the NDP; many have questioned where the Liberal leader’s loyalties lie after spending 36 years outside of Canada. The leader of the NDP, Jack Layton, accused Ignatieff of backing the Conservatives’ budget and falling short of the rumoured promise of a coalition government, prospectively comprising the Liberals, the Bloc and the NDP.

The Liberals have alluded to the possibility of a forced vote of confidence in order to hold another election, presumably in a bid to replace the current Conservative minority government.

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