Ignatieff kicks off Liberal retreat

Michael Ignatieff opened the annual Liberal caucus summer retreat in Cape Breton on Monday with a familiar message, painting the Liberals as Canada's party of the political centre.

The Liberal leader appealed to disaffected Conservatives as well as supporters of the Green Party and the New Democratic Party to come into "the big red tent at the centre of Canadian life" — a theme he has driven home in previous speeches during his nationwide tour.

Ignatieff said the Liberal Party shares the objectives of the Greens and the NDP on the environment but insisted that voting for those parties meant Canadians will get "four more years of Stephen Harper."

Ignatieff, who has been touring every province and territory this summer by bus, arrived in Nova Scotia on Sunday for a gathering of his party's MPs and senators to plan the agenda for the coming parliamentary session.

The retreat at the lakeside community of Baddeck marks a tumultuous year for Ignatieff, who declared at the end of last summer's meeting that Prime Minister Stephen Harper's "time is up" — only to back down from defeating the Conservative government in subsequent sessions.

Despite polls suggesting support for the party is nowhere near enough to form a government if an election were held in the fall, Liberal MPs at the retreat signalled the party and their leader have been rejuvenated by a successful summer tour across the country — as well as a few missteps by the Conservatives.

"The Liberal party feels very invigorated now," said Nova Scotia MP Scott Brison.

"There's a sense that we've got our mojo back as we go into the fall."

"We attempted to prop up Harper for as long as we could," said Toronto MP Judy Sgro, declaring "enough is enough."

"But there starts to be a point where you see a real deterioration of the values, the democracy in our country and it comes to a point where you no longer can tolerate that … I think we're not far from that point."

Local issues key, say Cape Breton MPs

Meanwhile, Cape Breton's two Liberal MPs, Mark Eyking and Rodger Cuzner, said they will use the meeting to get local issues on the table.

"When you look at the senators and MPs, there's over 150 together, and then their spouses. And there's international and national media coming here," said Eyking, MP for Sydney-Victoria. "So it's a big impact on the area."

Cuzner, who represents Cape Breton-Canso, said having the caucus in Nova Scotia will be a learning experience.

"It works both ways, with them learning about our community and our community learning about the Liberal Party of Canada," he said.

He said he plans to discuss a few issues of local interest, including:

• Training assistance for the unemployed.
• Post-secondary skills training.
• The Sydney harbour dredging project.

The retreat ends Wednesday, and Parliament resumes on Sept. 20.