Stay Where You're From and You'll Lead Where You're To

First, let me say that I am neither for nor against the Liberal party. I have no party affiliation, and in all honesty, I still have no idea who I'm going to vote for on June 9th.

In fact, I'd write this same article about any Prime Ministerial candidate from any party, if he or she had been living in another country for the past 34 years.

The first time I saw the "Michael Ignatieff: Just Visiting" ad on television, my first thought was, "Wow, whatever low-level Tory researcher dug up that little nugget must have just got a HUGE raise." I am of course talking about the C-Span clip of Ignatieff calling himself American.

Political attack ads are interesting. Each party will say they're ineffective, yet each party will run them. Analysts will say they don't work, yet they often do (if in no other way than putting people off to the extent that they decide not to vote). I tend to think that the public has such a negative view of politics overall, that we dwell on the negative and end up choosing the lesser of all evils, but maybe that's just me.

Regardless of what I think, the Progressive Conservatives came up with this television ad to try to portray Ignatieff as somehow "un-Canadian", and really, how can someone un-Canadian be the Prime Minister of Canada, right? At least that's what the intention was.

The question is, do the Tories have a point?

You have to give it to Ignatieff, he's a charismatic type of guy. He's educated and intelligent, family oriented and friendly, and he talks a very good game. He was born in Canada and spent the first 31 years of his life here, making him as Canadian as anyone else. His recent residency does not call any of that into question.

It's gets a little stickier, though, when you start talking about whether or not he's right for PM. Can a Canadian-born citizen become less qualified to represent our country by being absent for so long?

There's no doubt, when you're Canadian, you're Canadian. You were born here, went to school here, your family lives here, you understand the way things work. Being gone for a period of time does not take away your birthright, but only living amongst other Canadians on Canadian soil can you understand the way things work here.

It's a bit like education versus work experience. You were a child yourself once upon a time, so you decide to be a teacher. You could study children for years and years, reading every book about them, learning all there is to learn about development and behavior and the like. You watch videos of them playing and hear testimonials from teachers who have worked with them. But, does all of this education make you qualified to be thrust in front of a classroom of a few dozen children? Did all the books and videos and your own childhood really prepare you to deal with the real thing?

Or, would you rather trust your children to someone who, while they may not have a Harvard diploma hanging on their wall, has worked with children on a daily basis for the past thirty years? Isn't experience more valuable than education in some instances?

I tend to think so. While I have respect for Ignatieff's professional credentials and political chops, I have my doubts as to how well he could possibly understand the 2009 Canada, since it's much different than the 1978 Canada he left behind. A lot has happened in 34 years, and no amount of watching C-Pac could have brought him up to speed on the realities of everyday Canadian issues. Everything is different now than it was when he last lived here, from business and the economy, to infrastructure, to common values and beliefs.

He wasn't here to share the past quarter-century with the people he hopes to speak for, and I think that makes him unqualified to speak for them at all. He chose to leave, to call himself American, and now he should have to deal with the consequences of choosing to stay gone. Hopping back on board doesn't mean he should become captain, so to speak.

Perhaps if he spent the next few years getting to know his homeland again, catching up on all he has missed, talking to the people, and re-examining the Canadian experience, he'd find himself in a much more favorable position. But, at this point, he's an outsider to me.