What happened in three short weeks to make Ignatieff do such an about face on the coalition? Well poll numbers basically - with the coalition idea facing massive public opposition Ignatieff now says he never supported the coalition and basically it was a really bad idea in the first place. That's clearly how he's felt since last January... December is ancient history and nobody wants to talk about what happened way back then.
In May of this year Ignatieff went further in distancing himself from the coalition, the then newly minted Liberal leader in a tour of the western provinces said, "the last thing this country needs now is an NDP Finance Minister."
However there are those who remember when the aspiring Prime Minister claimed a Liberal/NDP coalition was needed to prevent the Conservatives from running the economy into the ground.
Back then Ignatieff and NDP leader Jack Layton demanded (and received) a multi-billion dollar stimulus package that has sent the country back into deficit for the first time in a decade.
Ignatieff has hinted in the run-up to a possible fall election that the deficit and how to eliminate it will likely be part of his campaign, saying the Tories have been irresponsible in allowing the country to fall back into debt financing. No word yet if he would consider a coalition to pressure the Tories into eliminating the deficit should the Liberals fail to form the next government.
