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OTTAWA — Who’s behind a new political website that paints Michael Ignatieff as a hero to hard-core right-wingers?
Not us, say the federal Conservatives. Not us either, says the New Democratic Party. And the website isn’t linked to the American political party that shares its name.
Yet “Republicans for Ignatieff” purports to praise Canada’s Liberal leader for his “courageous stands on targeted assassination and coercive interrogation.”
It also focuses on his onetime support for the war in Iraq and love of the United States.
With video and audio of Ignatieff’s past statements as a professor and author, the site highlights views that seem closer to traditional Conservative thinking than that of the Liberals.
The site’s originators won’t identify themselves other than to say they aren’t affiliated with the U.S. Republican National Committee or any state Republican party.
Sun Media’s query to the group’s e-mail went unanswered, and a contact telephone number wasn’t in service.
In an e-mail to Maclean’s blogger Kady O’Malley, however, an anonymous group member said, “I admire Ignatieff for his willingness to admit hard truths ... particularly the strategic importance of the tar sands, the need for coercive interrogation as a tool in the war on terror, and the irrelevance of Canadian foreign policy under the Chretien and Martin administrations.”
Ignatieff spokeswoman Jill Fairbrother said Tuesday “the only people who could benefit [from the site] would be the Conservatives.”
But Conservative party executive director Dan Hilton said “Republicans for Ignatieff is not a website of the Conservative Party of Canada.”
“It was not us,” said NDP spokesman Rick Boychuk. “I want to be really clear about that.”
Fairbrother said whoever’s behind the site, the Liberals won’t let it distract them from issues such as the isotope shortage, the flu pandemic and the economy.
“They’re trying to change the channel,” she said. “We’re not going to bite.”
christina.spencer@sunmedia.ca