Three interesting items from this story on Michael Ignatieff's trip to Saskatchewan this weekend. On where he sees his most important pool of new voters (hint: he's looking right): "Ignatieff said he's not a 'unite the left guy,' but he does want to pull votes from both sides ... 'I need a lot more votes and I'm not saying I wouldn't be grateful to have NDP voters come to me, but I have to tell you there are more compassionate Conservatives out there than there are NDP. Just in straight terms those are the votes I need.'" On the possibility of a future coalition (hint: there is none): "I'm in this business to win a majority Liberal government. But I have to also responsibly say if we fall short of that then it might be conceivable to be in discussions with, say, the NDP. Not on a coalition basis but, 'Let's get some legislation through. How do you feel about that?' That's the normal business of Parliament and so I wouldn't exclude that. But I think we've had an interesting debate about coalition in Canada and we've decided that we're not comfortable with it."
On his future environmental policy (hint: it is one step below peace in the Middle East in terms of level of ambition): "We want to bring energy policy and environmental policy together around a simple goal, which is make Canada the most efficient user of energy and the most efficient developer of sustainable energy on the planet ... When we elaborate those policies in details, I think it'll be a vote winner out west."