The Liberal leader is pushing the minority Harper government to adopt a single national standard of 360 hours - or nine weeks - of work to qualify for jobless benefits.*
That's very close to the eight-week eligibility rule introduced by Pierre Trudeau's Liberals in 1971, sparking a spike in seasonal unemployment and an electoral backlash that helped cost Trudeau his majority in the 1972 election.
"What happened in '71 to my mind was a policy catastrophe," says University of Ottawa economist David Gray.
To repeat it today "would just be catastrophic for the Canadian economy."
Count Ignatieff
...takes us back to the future...
