Toronto, Ontario

I want to thank Bob for that kind introduction.

We can say we are a united party tonight, thanks in no small measure to my friend of 40 years, Bob Rae.

In fact, we’re so united that we’ve got Bob sharing the stage with David Peterson.

I hear you guys used to play Queen’s Park. We’re going to book a national tour for you two.

Thank you all for being here tonight. For your staggering generosity.

Some of you are here because of Purdy Crawford.

Purdy helped save Canada’s financial system last year—

Others of you are here thanks to Frank McKenna—

Or David Peterson—

Or my good friend Jean Augustine—

Or the unstoppable Belinda Stronach.

Let me recognize another patriot here tonight—who served his party and his country with devotion: John Turner.

Thanks to everyone who helped make this wonderful evening possible.

Many of my colleagues from the House of Commons are here. At caucus today, Maria Minna gave me a piece of advice for my speech tonight. Smile, Michael, Smile! So I’ll give it my best shot.

Of course, the most important person here tonight is my wife Zsuzsanna.

She tells me to smile, and she also tells me: keep it short. So relax friends, quality control is on the job.

We’ve been at events like tonight all across Canada.

What strikes me is the new sense of possibility. People talk about momentum. I can feel it. I hope you can too.

I want to talk to you tonight about the transformation that’s going on in our economy.

This isn’t just a recession. It’s a great restructuring of the global economy.

Stephen Harper doesn’t seem to understand what’s happening. You can’t lead when you don’t understand.

He doesn’t realize that we’re in a storm and that sticking tape to the bottom of the boat won’t get us through.

And he hasn’t understood that if we can get the boat safely through the storm, we have an unprecedented opportunity to reinvent the Canadian economy.

The decisions that we are making now, in the heart of this crisis, will not only affect the speed and shape of our recovery, but they will also determine Canada’s trajectory in the next decade.

Will we support and sustain world-leading research, innovation, and entrepreneurship?

Will we harness the power of our rivers, tides, winds and fuels—and the powerful ingenuity of our people—to become the earth’s green energy superpower?

Will we keep faith with that fundamental belief in fairness which makes our country great?

We can’t escape these questions or ignore their urgency.

Stephen Harper is leaving them unanswered.

This party won’t let him.

We must seize the possibilities of the moment.

We will be ready to make critical decisions in our national interest—before they’re made for us by others.

That will take vision. It will require courage.

We’ve been here before. We dug this country out of the ditch after the last Conservative government. We will do it again.

Dalton McGuinty and Dwight Duncan made tough choices last week. We Liberals know that to govern is to choose.

Leadership in tough times means preserving our faith in our values, the values of the great men and women who built this party.

You can’t lead without principles to guide you. Our principles are clear. They are our ruling passions.

National unity.

Social compassion.

Fiscal responsibility.

Environmental sustainability.

Leadership on the world stage.

Principles that make us the progressive centre of Canadian politics.

This party planted the stake at the centre of our national life. We must own the centre. We must never surrender it.

Laurier, the founder of our party, told us a century ago that a party of the centre is a party of reform.

The Liberal Party is a party of reform.

The Liberal Party is a party of change.

And we are here to change our country.

We are a party of patriots. But we are impatient patriots, always asking: why not better? Why not the best? And why not now?

When the tectonic plates of our economy are shifting, we will be there for our people. We will not let any Canadian slip through the cracks.

I’m talking about auto workers and steel workers in Ontario, about forestry workers in B.C. and Quebec, about engineers in the oil patch.

I’m talking about Mackenzie, British Columbia, where all four sawmills have shut down and there’s nearly 100 percent unemployment.

I’m talking about Fort-Coulonge in Quebec, where nearly 400 people, out of a population of 1500 citizens, saw their forestry jobs disappear.

I’m talking about 700 jobs lost at XStrata in Sudbury. 1,500 lay-offs at Stelco in Hamilton, and 1,200 at Chrysler in Windsor.

I’m talking about 70 percent more people in line for EI in London and Kitchener. 60 percent more in Calgary. 50 percent in Toronto, Vancouver, and Edmonton.

And I’m talking about the thousands of Canadians who have lost their jobs but can’t get EI—after paying into the system for years.

We will defend them in opposition.

We will rescue them in government.

There are times when history and circumstance demand vision and insight. When governments have to tell hard truths and make tough choices.

This is one of those times. And the Conservatives have made their choices.

They could have chosen to tell Canadians the truth about the state of our economy. They chose a litany of deceit.

They could have acted last year to save our economy. Instead—in their autumn economic statement—they chose cynical partisanship and reckless indifference.

The Prime Minister could have chosen to unite Canadians behind a vision of recovery.

Instead he chose division and discord.

Make no mistake—that will be his downfall.

My deepest instinct about this Prime Minister is that he is a divider.

We Liberals are uniters.

We understand that the Prime Minister of Canada has one basic responsibility, and that’s to unite the country.

Mr. Harper has failed to do so.

I don’t like his policies. I don’t like the way he does politics.

Right now, the Prime Minister and his people are going through thousands of pages of books and articles, and hundreds of hours of tape.

Every word that I have ever written. Every syllable that I have ever uttered.

He’s looking for that one earth-shattering quote that he thinks will win him the next election.

It’s a full-time job—I wrote 16 books.

If I knew they’d tie up the Conservatives this much, I’d have written a few more.

We all know what he did to my predecessor.

Friends, he will not do it to me.

To the Prime Minister, everything is partisan. Every issue is a wedge. Divide and rule is his motto.

He’s played games with our economy and with our national unity.

Now he’s trying to divide Canadians on public safety.

He will not succeed.

The Liberal Party stands for public safety.

We stand with our police officers, who access the firearms registry more than 5,000 times a day. We stand for keeping guns off our streets.

Mr. Harper is trying to undermine our police officers and our public safety.

First he publicly endorsed a Private Member’s Bill that would have set gun control back decades.

There was a public backlash. So the Prime Minister reversed course.

Now he’s introduced his own bill into the Senate. He wants to end the gun registry.

We won’t let him.

We won’t pass his bills.

Canadians are asking us to raise our game. They are asking us to be equal to the challenges we face, and to act responsibly.

The Prime Minister is overseas, at a meeting of the G20—that great gathering of nations first envisioned by Paul Martin.

But Canada’s agenda is unclear.

On one hand, the Prime Minister is telling other countries to buck up and boost their stimulus.

Meanwhile, here at home, he’s telling Canadians not to worry, that he’s done enough already.

He’s doing interviews abroad—on Fox News and CNN—any foreign outlet that will take him. It’s sure easier than talking to Canadians, and a whole lot easier than actually listening to them.

But there’s a growing chorus of economists in this country and around the world calling for adjustments to the Conservatives’ approach. Today they were joined by Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank of Canada, who now says that our recovery will be slower and longer than anticipated.

So the question that the Prime Minister is ducking is this: has he done enough? Is more required?

He doesn’t want to face this question not because he thinks he’s done enough, but because he doesn’t like what we forced him to do.

The secret about Mr. Harper’s “economic action plan” is that its author doesn’t believe in it. And when you don’t believe in what you’re doing, you can’t do it well.

We’ve lost more jobs in the past two months than his budget says it will create in the next two years.

The Prime Minister talks about recovery, while the former governor of the Bank of Canada, David Dodge, says he’s “dreaming in technicolour.”

More than 100,000 Canadians under the age of 25 have lost their jobs.

Think about that for a moment.

100,000 young people are starting their working lives in the unemployment line.

That’s what Stephen Harper’s Canada looks like. Hope extinguished. Vision postponed.

We can do better.

We will do better.

This party will be the party of hope for all Canadians.

We will be the party that thinks big, not small. Even in difficult times, we will be a party of visionaries and nation-builders.

We know what a stronger, more united Canada looks like. We know what a Liberal Canada looks like.

National early learning and child-care for every Canadian child.

Employment insurance that provides people with the benefits and the training they need —no matter where they live.

Pay equity legislation that recognizes a human right to equal pay for work of equal value.

Infrastructure investment that builds the nation, instead of rewarding Conservative ridings.

A Canadian cap-and-trade system with hard caps that attacks climate change instead of passing the buck.

An energy strategy that unites Canadians in every region around two goals: to make us the most efficient users of energy in the world, and the most sustainable.

A greener, more competitive auto sector, which keeps jobs and product mandates in Canada.

A national strategy of investment in science, research and innovation, so that the jobs of tomorrow—bio-tech, genomics, nanotechnology, you name it—start getting created today.

A strong, dynamic public broadcaster—CBC- Radio-Canada—that delivers culture, sports and news to all regions of the country, in both official languages.

A national cultural policy that respects and encourages the creators who help us see our country as it truly is.

Secure streets and strong communities for all Canadians.

A voice on the international stage that stands for peace, order, and good government—and backs that commitment up with action.

These are the practical dreams we must offer our people.

We must turn these dreams into reality.

The 21st century belongs to Canada, but only if we dare. If we believe. If we lead.

The political future of our country belongs to this party, but only if we inspire. If we listen. If we serve.

Let me conclude tonight by telling you about something that happened to me just this afternoon, coming through Ottawa Airport.

The young woman patting me down after the scanner said:

“Mr. Ignatieff you did the right thing about that coalition business.”

“Thank you Zeena,” I said, for that was what was written on her nameplate.

“You’re doing well,” she said. Then she added, “The Liberals are coming back. You’re the party for us, the party of the people.”

“Yes Zeena,” I said. “That’s what we’re trying to be.”

The party of the people.

The people who work hard, who keep faith in themselves and in this country.

I’m telling you about this chance encounter with a bright young woman
because it reminds us all why we do this, and who we do it for.

We Liberals know this isn’t about us.

This is about Zeena and people like her.

This is about being the party that Canadians need us to be.

This is about making the country we love worthy of our hopes and our children’s dreams.

Together, we will.

Thank you.