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April 23, 2009

Ignatieff was once arrested…

…for trying to overthrow the government and install a dictatorship?

That’s the rumour according to the New York Times. And that’s a little bit of a fun history for you this Thursday afternoon. Who knew that about 100 years later, another Ignatieff would be wrapped up in crafty political games?

Here’s the story from the December 14th 1905 edition of the New York Times.

Planned to Dispose Czar?
Rumor in St. Petersburg that Ignatieff has been arrested

LONDON, Thursday December 14 — The correspondent of the Times in St. Petersburg says a wild story is in circulation there that Gen. Count Alexis Ignatieff has been arrested by order of the Emperor for plotting to establish a dictatorship.

Inquiry at Count Ignatieff’s house, the correspondent says, failed to elicit either confirmation or denial of the story.

Of course, that’s Count Alexis Ignatieff that’s referenced in the New York Times piece.

Things do change and thankfully we favour ballots, though today’s Ignatieff now insists he was a reluctant party to the coalition takeover plan of the government in an attempt to circumvent the ballot box and overturn the result that came from the election just six weeks earlier.

Oh, that and the Times might be selling for a penny again sometime soon.

This entry was authored by Stephen Taylor at 01:29 PM | Tweet this | Add a comment
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  • Liz J
    Interesting little bit of Ignatieff family history. Wonder if that tidbit is included in any of his scratchings?

    Some bit of irony, Michael would aspire to a short cut to power, signing on to a coalition to oust the duly elected government of this democracy. Not that far fetched a comparison when one considers time and place.

    Who forced him to sign the coalition? If he had strong principles, he would have refused.
  • Ronald
    Who would have thought - eh?
    I hope it is not hereditary. LOL
  • Hmm, Michael never did get "elected" as leader by his party, did he? Seems he succeed where Alexis couldn't :-)
  • Ted
    A the leaders dinner a few weeks ago, Iggy noted that in some basement somewhere in Ottawa a whole bunch of Conservatives were busy ploughing through every book he has ever written, combing through every mention of Ignatieff anywhere, and that if he had known that earlier he would have written more of them.

    I don't think he has anything to worry about. If this is the kind of stuff they are producing in what Paul Wells calls "the Great Conservative Ignatieff Archival Core Dump strategy", the Liberals have nothing to worry about.
  • Ted
    Or, as Wells also put it, "You think it's easy to make negative ad campaigns?"

    I love how commenters here are attacking Great-Grandfather Iggy for trying to overthrow an autocrat. But I guess maybe there are some similarities to Canada today!
  • Kelly Jamieson
    Will the Conservatives put the descendants of Louis-Joseph Papineau, William Lyon Mackenzie, or Louis Riel on trial too? This angle of attack is desperate and it shows.

    But, if we're looking at hereditary dispositions, we better make sure Harper isn't one of the many people around the world descended from Genghis Khan. Otherwise we can only presume he wants to kill millions and rule the world.
  • MaryT
    Ted, iggowaffle did not write the above, or probably knew about it when talking in that meeting. He is the one that has mentioned his DNA, so is overthrowing a government in the iggy DNA.
    Funny how liberals can't handle the truth, when it is about them, but think nothing of outing a video made over 20 years ago by someone. I seem to remember many statements of PMSH from years ago being mentioned by libs in the HofC. And think of the millions the libs are forcing taxpayers to pay over the Brian thing, even tho no taxpayer money was involved. Now we see and hear the libs wanting to stop it, must be all those liberals mentioned that received money from KHS. What goes round comes around. Next up, perhaps an investigation into all the schemes, scams, etc of Chretain and his pals.
  • John
    I guess the raising the taxes line wasnt working. Its funny you guys are doing oppo research on newspapers from 90 years ago. You must be really short of material.
  • That Sounds interesting, I agree with you.Please keep at your good work, I would come back often.*
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Just found out abt the Ford denial. I called his cell today and he confirmed it to me in no uncertain terms that he was announcng in March.
Stephen Taylor - email@stephentaylor.ca
Stephen Taylor is a scientist, political analyst and a blogger. Taylor writes here regularly and is the founder of bloggingtories.ca. Taylor has contributed to Macleans, CTV, talk radio and has been a featured speaker on new media at numerous events including the Western Standard Cruise and the Forum for Public Policy. In December 2008, Taylor organized Rally for Canada, a series of rallies held coast-to-coast to protest the proposed coalition government.