Iggy borrowing a page from Steve's book?

Harper is, of course, infamous for muzzling his backbenchers, lest they say what they actually believe (remember this guy?) It seems, though, that the Liberals are muzzling at least one of their potential candidates:

This morning, the Ottawa Notebook wanted to know about Mr. Rebagliati’s attendance at the two-day Liberal winter caucus meeting, which begins tomorrow. The athlete had put up a note on Twitter saying he was flying to Ottawa today to attend. He said he was returning to British Columbia on Wednesday.

“Ross’s speech will be on his experience as an Olympian, and how it relates to his choice of becoming a Liberal candidate – pride of representing his country, desire to serve needed commitment, etc.,” a senior Liberal official said. And that was it.

So we tried calling Mr. Rebagliati. We spoke to his wife, Alexandra, who also helps him out with media relations. She said the Liberals had emailed her, told her they had been in touch with The Globe and Mail, and that her husband need not add any more. She said he would not be making any comment.

From the Globe. I wonder if his views on certain issues are in conflict with Iggy's?

While Mr. Rebagliati has not spoken about his views on legalization of marijuana, Mr. Ignatieff was asked last week about it when he was on tour of university campuses in British Columbia:

“I never make comments on the personal lifestyle choices of my colleagues and friends, and I’ve never felt that marijuana use or, for example, possession of small amounts of marijuana are to be criminalized or that anybody should suffer consequences for personal recreational uses of marijuana,” he said, according to a National Post blog post.

“But then I have to say to people who then ask me if I want to legalize marijuana, and I know you don’t want to hear me say this, but I’d say no.”

Bummer, dude.