It was his joke about getting the Liberal bus repaired at Harper garage that got the crowd at the Holiday Inn in Peterborough laughing.

It was his earnest and hard-hitting speech about the need for the Liberal Party to lose its sense of entitlement and to earn back the right to hold power that won the respect of the mostly Liberal crowd.

Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff, here on Wednesday as part of a summer bus tour across Canada he's on, delivered a rousing speech (see the best part in the video above) which painted a powerful picture of where Harper has been leading the country (to the right of centre and into increasingly secretive, undemocratic turf) and where the Liberal Party intends to take it once again (back to the centre political turf defined by Lester B. Pearson, Pierre Elliott Trudeau and other Liberal Party icons).

Ignatieff—who was accompanied by key members of the Liberal team, as well as his wife Zsuzsanna Zsohar— touched upon the G20 summit, the proposed changes to the census, prorogation, and other hot-button issues.

Peterborough Federal Liberal Candidate Betsy McGregor thanked Ignatieff for his comments and presented him with the Peterborough equivalent of the keys to the town: a Peterborough Petes hockey jersey.

—video and text by Ann Douglas, PtboCanada contributor

[Michael Ignatieff - Holiday Inn, Peterborough: Liberal Express Tour - Part I; Michael Ignatieff - Holiday Inn, Peterborough: Liberal Express Tour - Part II; Betsy McGregor Thanks Michael Ignatieff; Presents Him With a Peterborough Petes Hockey Jersey]

Tip us at tips@ptbocanada.com. Follow us on Twitter @Ptbo_Canada.