Beth HaDerech; Messianic Jewish Congregation, Toronto, Canada

Why is Iggy trying to revise history?

The Liberal Party has released new TV ads featuring Michael Ignatieff talking about his family. It's heartwarming stuff : Ignatieff describes his dad as an immigrant who "came off a boat in 1928 without anything" and worked his way "up the ladder one rung at a time." "Nothing is ever given to you, everything has to be earned." Ignatieff told CTV his "family lost everything in the Russian revolution. They started over again in Canada. They came here with nothing." But according to Ignatieff's own book about his family, The Russian Album, that's just not true. Ignatieff's family weren't regular Russians. They were high-ranking ministers in the government of the czar. They're aristocracy, actually -- Michael Ignatieff himself is a count, a title he will pass on to his son,Theo, and so on. The Ignatieffs were powerful players in the czar's dictatorship. When the Russian revolution succeeded, the Ignatieffs fled the country. But like so many, they were able to squirrel away money. The Ignatieffs fled to London in 1919, where they had $25,000 waiting for them in a bank. That's worth more than $2 million in today's currency. The Ignatieffs lived there for nine years before moving to Canada in 1928. Why is Ignatieff trying to revise his family's history to make them sound like poor working class shlubs?Why did he say his dad came herewith nothing --...