IGNATIEFF PROBED BY UVIC STUDENT BODY

There was standing room only in the Michelle Pujol Room on Jan. 15,
as Michael Ignatieff, leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, fielded
a series of increasingly difficult student questions about some of
the hottest topics in Canadian politics today.

However, some students didn't quite receive the answer they were
looking for - namely, a 9/11 conspiracy theorist and an activist for
the legalization of marijuana, who were both told their ideas would
not receive Liberal Party support.

When asked if he would convene a Canadian inquiry into the 9/11
terrorist attacks, Ignatieff went into detail about his vision for a
world in which "no 23-year-old thinks it's acceptable to blow up a
plane and kill innocent civilians," referring to the Boxing Day
bombing attempt aboard a Delta Airlines flight into Detroit.

When pressed to answer the question still, he responded: "No, I would
not initiate an inquiry of that kind."

Another student welcomed Ignatieff to "the land of B.C. bud," and
asked him if he would support legalizing marijuana. While he used
this question as an opportunity to outline his support for
Conservative policies of harm reduction, and other Liberal party
policy goals for addressing addiction, he refused to publicly support
the legalization of marijuana, whereupon he was booed by the
questioner and a few other audience members.

He was also asked about his support for the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
And while he went into greater detail about his reasoning for
supporting the invasion he simply said: "I got it wrong, and I've said so."

In the last 10 minutes of the presentation, Ignatieff was asked about
his decision to force the Liberal caucus to vote "yes" on the HST,
despite public dissatisfaction with the bill.

"If I come out against the HST, then I have to go into the next
election promising I'm going to abolish it for you; and then I'm
doing false, populist politics that I detest," he said.

Despite the current Conservative government's best efforts to
convince the public that Ignatieff is a poor, uncharismatic speaker,
the speech drew both laughter and applause from the audience.

His Friday visit was part of the "Canada at 150" program, a series of
conferences and discussions aimed at providing policy goals to
improve Canada before its 150th anniversary in 2017. This particular
tour, which took Ignatieff to nine campuses across Canada in five
days before coming to UVic, is a lead-up to a conference in March.

Perhaps more importantly, it was a chance for students to see the
Liberal leader face-to-face and get a sense of his stance on the
various issues of importance to Canadians. It also provided a chance
to hear Ignatieff's response to the numerous Conservative ads that
have attacked his character.

"I am much reproached for having spent a certain amount of time
outside the country; I've got nothing to apologize for," said
Ignatieff, while outlining his vision for increasing Canada's
participation in the international arena. "The killer for Canada is
provincialism . and we've got to stand now and say we want to be the
most international society in the world."