I’m back – and I’m supporting Michael Ignatieff.

It is Michael, in fact, who has persuaded me to end my years-long “exile” from the Liberal Party of Canada.

Some months ago, I was in Montreal to give a speech to a group of Conservative, Liberal and Green Party students at McGill. Out of the blue, one of Michael’s staff people called me up, and asked if I would consider having breakfast with the Grit MP at a nearby hotel. I was a bit surprised.

I’m always up for a free breakfast – but, mainly, I was intrigued. As a columnist at the National Post, and on my personal web site, I had not hesitated to be critical of Michael Ignatieff. On Québec, on Iraq, on Israel, on torture – even on how he had won the Liberal nomination in his riding – I had been pretty tough on the former Harvard man. But, here he was, wanting to meet with me. How come?

At the breakfast the next morning, I sat across the table from a guy who was just like multiple media profiles had described him to be: articulate, educated and possessed of an intimidating intellect. But what I also encountered was a man with the attributes I tend to look for in a leader: he was confident, he was clear, he had a vision for the country, and he clearly had a burning desire to serve.

More particularly, he didn’t complain once (not once) about what I’d written about him – and he listened. He wanted to know why I was so preoccupied with human rights, and what I would do to protect human rights codes – then (as now) under assault from conservatives. He asked me about racism, and the books I have written on the subject. We didn’t actually talk about politics very much at all. He was friendly and engaging and self-deprecating. I was impressed.

I asked him why he’d been outside Canada. “I got a great job offer,” he said. “And I wanted to see if I could do it.”

As one of the millions of guys who has been in a father’s much-larger shadow for his entire life, that answer made sense to me. So did a lot of the other stuff he said.

After that get-together, I reacquainted myself with what I had written with Michael Ignatieff. In my most-recent book, and in my newspaper columns, not all of it had been critical. But on the above-noted subjects – Québec, Iraq, Israel, torture, and how he came to be an MP – I had been pretty tough on the guy. It’s all there in Google for you to see and read for yourself; reading it, I was frankly surprised he didn’t take a swing at me. Unlike a couple other prominent Liberals I could name, this fellow was clearly no thin-skinned prima donna/professional politician.

In case you don’t have time to poke through the Google entrails, here’s a summary of what I’d written about Michael Ignatieff, and what I think now:

• On Québec, I had opposed the “Québecois-are-a-nation” resolution with which Ignatieff had been associated. I still oppose it. But every non-separatist political party – and every non-separatist political leader – came to support it. And, I admit, the country did not fall into chaos or the vortex of endless constitutional gamesmanship. We are still here, the resolution notwithstanding. That is the reality.
• On Iraq, like many Canadians (but not Stephen Harper and not a few Liberals), I had opposed the invasion of Iraq by the U.S. and its allies. Ignatieff initially supported the war – as had the Clintons, and as had most of the Democratic Party establishment. By March 2004 – long before he became an MP, let alone a Liberal leadership contestant – he was writing in the New York Times that he had been wrong. That impressed me.
• On Israel, I and many others had been upset that Ignatieff wondered aloud if war crimes had been committed in Qana. Soon afterwards, he agreed that such determinations should be left to international bodies – and he went to Holy Blossom Temple to apologize, and accept personal responsibility for his error. That impressed me, too.
• On torture, I made an error myself. I relied upon some highly selective accounts of Ignatieff’s writings on war, terrorism and coercion – accounts cobbled together by Ignatieff’s partisan and academic detractors – and rushed to my computer keyboard. If I had read more widely, I would have seen that activists at places like Human Rights Watch had defended Ignatieff’s position – and I would have seen that his true position was a complete ban on torture, because the use of it places us all on the inexorable slide towards the appalling notion that, as he warned, “human beings are expendable.” I had fundamentally mischaracterized his views, and I regret that.
• Finally, on one occasion, I had been spun by a group of Ignatieff’s harshest critics in the party – to the effect that he and his team forced out Liberal MP Jean Augustine in Etobicoke Lakeshore. That, as it turned out, was simply false. Jean supported Ignatieff then, and she supports him now.

So, after all that, how did I come around to supporting Michael Ignatieff?

Because I believe the country needs a leader like him right now – one who has a broader view, and who can lead us through the tremendously difficult economic times we all face. One who inspires people, and doesn’t simply offer cutesy quips. One with intellectual depth (like a Trudeau), and one with an unashamed love of this amazing country (like a Chrétien). One whose values – as I have now learned – more closely correspond to the values of Canadians: tolerance; diversity; respect; integrity. One who – unlike the ones across the aisle – isn’t angry at the things which make Canada great, and who seems to actually like the place. One who listens, as he did with me.

Do political considerations enter into it? For sure. Of course! The Liberal Party needs a winner, and Ignatieff – in everything he has done in his life – is certainly that. The Liberal Party needs someone who can fundraise, and recruit, and who understands the crucial necessity of balancing the books. The Liberal Party needs someone who can communicate to Canadians that compassion and strength are not inconsistent concepts. The Liberal Party is hurting, badly, and it needs someone to bring every single Grit together, as Ignatieff has done – improbably, remarkably – with formerly fierce combatants in the Chrétien-Martin wars (eg., me, and people like me - who I never thought would agree on anything). We need someone who can bring the party back to the centre – where the votes are.

So, you might still want to know, how did I come around to supporting Michael Ignatieff?

Because he asked. And, since my friend Chrétien left the place, quite a few of us haven’t been asked.

I was waiting for the call, and Michael Ignatieff called.

Sometimes – in life as well as politics – it’s as simple as that.