OTTAWA—Leadership tension within the federal Liberal party has been on Washington’s radar for the past few years, according to a new batch of U.S. embassy cables released by WikiLeaks.

Long before the Liberals’ disastrous showing in the May 2 election and the resignation of leader Michael Ignatieff, U.S. embassy officials were getting some revealing, inside glimpses of a fractious political family.

Notably, one of those glimpses was a first-hand look at the tension between Ignatieff and Bob Rae, the Toronto Centre MP and former Ontario premier who has now been named interim leader.

Rae and Ignatieff were guests at a lunch with U.S. ambassador David Jacobson in October 2009, the cables show.

“The dynamics between onetime friends and later rivals Ignatieff and Rae remain clearly tense, with Rae arriving late and then immediately dominating the conversation, while Ignatieff sat back almost meekly,” says the report of the lunch, dated Oct. 23, 2009.

“Rae was by far the more forceful and eloquent of the two and showed little deference to his party chief, without at any time displaying any rudeness or personal animosity. He came across as better read and more substantive than Ignatieff, who stuck mostly to pleasantries and generalities.”

This report was one of several released by Wikileaks in the past few days, showing fractures in Liberal unity. Taken together, they show that Washington was probably not surprised to see the party fall to third place in the May 2 election, for the first time in its history, and Ignatieff’s snap departure.

Rae had revealed to U.S. officials as far back as June 2009 that Ignatieff didn’t consult enough with his MPs, according to the cables.

“He admitted that, behind closed doors, the caucus had considerable reluctance to face the voters over the summer, but had been disinclined to try to overrule the relatively new leader. He claimed that Ignatieff had ‘made up his own mind’ on this brinksmanship approach without much, or perhaps even any, internal consultations,” according to another report, dated in June 2009, when Liberals were talking publicly about bringing down the government.

Quoting Rae, the cable went on to say: “‘Michael is an intellectual who is also a politician. He does his own reading, makes his own analysis, and then comes to his own decision.’”

Rae did not make himself available for an interview or questions from the Star about the Wikileaks revelations.

Nor does Rae seem to be the only one who was airing the Liberals’ laundry with the U.S. embassy.

Former national Liberal director Rocco Rossi, who defected to the Ontario Conservatives in the past year to run as a candidate in the next provincial election, was also apparently indiscreet about his frustrations with Ignatieff.

Rossi told political officials at the embassy that Ignatieff didn’t even listen to his own advisers, such as then-principal secretary Ian Davey. According to the cables, Rossi said: “He knows his own mind, and the only person whose opinion he really cares about is his wife, Zsuzsanna.”

The cables did note that Zsuzsanna Zsohar, Ignatieff’s wife, could be Ignatieff’s “secret weapon” if let loose on the campaign trail. Though Zsohar did accompany her husband on almost all his travels in the past two years, she stayed more or less in the background.

Rossi also gave Washington early notice that the Liberals were faltering in terms of fundraising and gaining new members by 2009 — tasks that Rossi himself was overseeing.

Rossi was blunt with the U.S. officials about Ignatieff’s communications failures, echoing other assessments they were gathering from federal Liberals.

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“Many Liberals have been disappointed that Ignatieff’s communication skills —honed as a TV journalist in London and as a Harvard University professor — have failed to ignite as a politician. According to national director Rossi, Ignatieff himself laments his own lack of humour, claiming ‘I’m a Presbyterian with a Russian ancestry; I live in a humour-free zone.’”

This report, titled “Blue Days for Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff,” documents Rossi’s criticisms at length, including complaints that Ignatieff’s approach to speaking was too “intellectual” and focused on substance.

“As a result, he (Rossi) explained, Ignatieff actually thinks about what he is saying as he says it in each speech, resulting in him often looking up or at his feet as he pondered, rather than connecting with the crowd. Rossi indicated some frustration that Ignatieff seemed unable to absorb helpful critiques on his delivery.”

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