Michael Ignatieff wants your heart and soul.

Oh, he'd like your vote, too. But he'll settle for getting Canadians, young and old alike, involved in the political process.

It was one of the messages he took to students at the University of Toronto's Mississauga campus Wednesday, part of a week-long tour of 11 Canadian universities and his only GTA stop.

The U of T grad, who was also a professor at Harvard University before he became federal Liberal leader, faced a few protesters who urged him to go back to Massachusetts.

"Just so you know," he told about 600 people in a packed lecture hall, "I'm not going anywhere, because I'm home."

While Ignatieff took questions on a wide range of issues, including the Middle East, nuclear energy, the environment and copyright laws, he focused on getting Canadians involved in the political process.

He took a few jabs at Prime Minister Stephen Harper for suspending Parliament on Dec. 30, suggesting Harper thought he could slip it past a country too lazy to care.

"He gambled on your cynicism, he gambled on your disillusion, he gambled on your detachment from the process and, interestingly, he gambled wrong," Ignatieff said. "Your presence today is a sign you care about politics."

He said Canadians don't like a leader who thinks Parliament answers to him and said public cynicism is "fertile ground for politicians who want to turn you off the process further. ... For heaven's sake, get involved, 'cause if you don't, they make the future. If you get involved, you make the future.

"Systematically, this man tries to steamroller every institutional obstacle to his authority, including the Senate."

Ignatieff said his Liberals must propose a democratic reform package to ensure that "I'm not going to shut down Parliament when the heat's on ... every time my government is under legitimate scrutiny."

If and when he forms a government.

He said that in the 2008 federal election, just one in five newly eligible voters even bothered to vote.

"Your responsibility is to show up 'cause it's your country," he said. "So, if you don't show up, someone else will show up."

In response to a question from a local high school student about how young voices can be heard, Ignatieff carried on with his theme.

"I think the most important thing that I can do is just to show up, to be in this room with you right now and to listen," he said, adding he first got involved in politics in high school. "Get 'em young and keep 'em, right?

"One of the legacy responsibilities of a person in public life is to make sure the political system is healthier by the time you leave than when you started. The only way the political system is going to be better off is if you're in it."

Ignatieff said his staff of political professionals urged him not to embark on this cross-county series of university town hall sessions.

"They all said in one voice, `Are you nuts? They're going to ask you questions. Somebody might blind-side you. ...' From the politician's side, there's risk associated," he said.

"My sense is that this is holding us back.

"We have to persuade you, voter by voter, heart by heart, soul by soul, that this business called politics is worth doing."

It's a process, he said, "about whether we shape the future or the future shapes us."

Romina Siddiqui, 21, a fourth-year economics student, said Ignatieff's appearance was "very inspiring."

"I think he motivates youth to get involved in politics, to try and make a difference for the future of Canada," she said.

After he was presented with a U of T hooded sweatshirt, Ignatieff huddled with a throng of students before he left for another talk at Hamilton's McMaster University.