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Michael Ignatieff Quotes
born 1947 Canada
Michael Grant Ignatieff (born 12 May 1947, in Toronto, Ontario) is a Canadian scholar, novelist and former Liberal Member of Parliament in the Canadian House of Commons. He also was the leader of the party from 2008 until 2011.
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The [Afghans] understand the difficult truth that their best hope of freedom lies in a temporary experience of imperial rule.
To defeat evil, we may have to traffic in evils: indefinite detention of suspects, coercive interrogations, targeted assassinations, even pre-emptive war.
You shouldn’t go into politics just to prove yourself—skydiving would be an easier path.
Coalition if necessary, but not necessarily a coalition.
A liberal society cannot be defended by herbivores. We need carnivores to save us, but we had better make sure the meat-eaters hunt only on our orders.
I’m in politics to speak up for a Canada that takes risks, that stands up for what’s right. A Canada that leads.
Canada in the World Speech, University of Ottawa (2006)
I believe in Canadians. I believe in you. As I said at the beginning, we are a serious people.
Canada in the World Speech, University of Ottawa (2006)
As Interim Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada.
Moral globalisation is best understood not as a tide of convergence in which we are swept together into a single modernity, but instead as a site of struggle over whether, and to what extent, the cash nexus can be made to serve moral imperatives of equity and justice and which civilisational model – Chinese, American, or some other rival’s – will define the order of the twenty-first century.
Ever since I entered Parliament in January, people have been asking me: Why have you gone into politics? As in: “Are you nuts?” No, I’m not nuts. This is my country, after all.
Canada in the World Speech, University of Ottawa (2006)
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