Ignatieff thanks Harper for popularity boost

With the economy in disarray and Harper's government under close scrutiny, Ignatieff relished in the fact that the Liberals' support is quickly growing, even going so far as to thank the Prime Minister.

Stephen Harper's days in office could be numbered. In recent polling, Michael Ignatieff's approval rating had edged above the Prime Minister, at 45 to 44 percent, respectively. The boost in Ignatieff's ratings comes as a boon for a newly rejuvenated Liberal party, who just months ago were handed their most resounding defeat as Harper cruised to yet another minority government. Ignatieff even gave some of the credit to Stephen Harper, who's government has been under tight watch since the start of the economic downturn.

"We have a unified party, we have a party out of debt and we have a party basically ready to fight an election," Ignatieff told reporters Thursday.

"And, again, who would have thunk it? Who would've thought that this would be the result. And some of the credit, ironically enough, has to go to my chief adversary, Mr. Stephen Harper."

Much of the initial boost to the Liberals came shortly after their disastrous October election results, when the Conservatives sparked a loud and public commotion by trying to financially cripple the opposition parties in a fiscal update, while the economic slide quickly worsened without their response. After the Coalition-government bid failed, Harper came under more negative PR when parliament was prorogued for 6 weeks - leading to more delays in attacking the financial crisis. This provided more than ample time for the donations to the Liberal party to gather steam, while in the meantime the party themselves scrapped their 5-month party leadership campaigning and hastily unified under Ignatieff.

The party raked in $1.8 million in the first quarter of 2009 - more than double the result during the same period last year.

The newly debt-free opposition leader's rise has been somewhat perplexing, however, considering Ignatieff himself has not come out with many platform declarations - not to mention moving his policies from the centre-left to the centre. This prompted many editorials to lash out at Ignatieff, quickly pointing out the policies that he has agreed with Stephen Harper on:

To win support in western Canada, he has championed the development of Alberta's oil sands, which worries environmentalists concerned with massive pollution associated with the projects.

And he is aligned almost perfectly with Harper in agreeing to end Canada's military role in Afghanistan in 2011, in their visions of Quebec and free trade, and in their unqualified support of Israel.

In the meantime, other criticisms have come from Ignatieff's weak response to the Conservative budget, as the opposition leader did not oppose any of Harper's initiatives, and even backed away from asking for more EI improvements, children's education, and high-speed rail lines - all topics Ignatieff had previously been in strong support of, and all projects that did not appear in high quantities on the yearly budget. Even more strange than Ignatieff's popularity increase without action is the Liberal party's improved image simply by Ignatieff's presence. This National Post editorial praises the transformation of the party under Ignatieff's 'leadership':

A decade ago, Liberal ranks were full of America-bashers and noisy cultural nationalists. The party supported anti-Israel resolutions at the United Nations and adopted the fashionable, amoral posture of "honest broker" in international relations. Mr. Chrétien himself flippantly defended slush-fund politics in Quebec and disdained his successor's efforts to investigate the most disgraceful abuses. The party's bosses had one goal - to win votes, principles be damned. All this has changed - slowly at first under Paul Martin and the unpopular Stephane Dion, and now decisively under Michael Ignatieff. Like all political parties, the Liberals still often resort to cynical messaging when it suits them (especially in regard to Stephen Harper's fiscal policies). But overall, the Liberals of today are night-and-day compared to their 1990s-era forebears.

However, much of this transformation has come without Ignatieff saying or doing anything; in fact, there's a real chance the Liberals won't have a public platform released until the next election is called - a troublesome fact that could very well allow the Conservatives to regain strength by pointing out just how indecisive their main opposition is. One factor that really is working in Ignatieff's (and the Liberal's) favour is the economic crisis - with Harper's government under such close watch (as many governments around the world are), the already brewing dissent amongst non-supporters has seemingly found a home with the Liberal party. And when most of the country is focused on the economy and how it recovers (or crashes), it seems Ignatieff stands to gain the most from keeping quiet and letting public opinion push the Liberal's approval ratings back into tight contention with the Conservatives. However, Ignatieff's bubble could quickly burst if he chooses to remain silent on key issues or structuring a Liberal platform. While he calls himself a "progressive Liberal," in his short time as leader he's isolated the more left-leaning Liberal members such as Justin Trudeau and Gerrard Kennedy. This could be a move to secure more votes by making the party seem more centrist, but until Ignatieff actually says what he's doing, the polls are doing the talking for him.