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Toronto MP Michael Ignatieff announced that he is running for leadership of the Liberal party and says he now has the experience and credentials to lead his party over the Conservatives.

Ignatieff made the announcement at the National Press Theatre in Ottawa, saying he has "changed" since his last leadership run and can "offer the leadership we need in tough times."

He vowed his opponent will be Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party, not the other Liberals who will be running against him.

"Now I'm going to be in competition with some fine fellow Liberals but I'm not running against any of them, I'm running against Stephen Harper and the Conservative government."

"My target is not my friends and my Liberal colleagues, it is the disappointing record of the Harper government."

Ignatieff said the slogan for the Liberal leadership race must be one of unity and working together and "throwing open the doors of this party to the next generation, to the best and brightest our society has to offer."

Ignatieff is almost certain to end up running against Toronto MP Bob Rae, who has signalled he will run, and New Brunswick MP Dominic Leblanc, who has also announced his candidacy.

Ignatieff commented on Leblanc's assertion that it's time for generational change in the Liberal Party, sure to be a theme throughout the campaign following the success of U.S. president-elect Barack Obama.

"The youngest ideas aren't always from the youngest candidates. I think age is not a biological fact. It's a habit of spirit and mind," he said.

Liberals are clearly looking southward at Obama's mantra of change and his grassroots campaign that raised record levels of donations.

Ignatieff said that like Obama, he could get the youth vote out, raise more money and stir up the public's excitement -- something that the Liberals were unable to do in the last election.

But Ignatieff was careful to avoid a direct comparison to the next president of the United States.

"Let's be very clear - there's only one Barack Obama, There will always be only one Barack Obama," he stressed.

'Grassroots change'

Liberal MP Martha Hall Finley, who ran unsuccessfully for the Liberal leadership in 2006, told Â鶹´«Ã½net "it will be an interesting race."

She said she will not be running this year and said financing was the first reason. She added that the Liberal party as a whole faces financial challenges following new campaign donation rules.

She said her party needs to revitalize itself from the grassroots level.

Ignatieff pledged that if elected, he would hold a policy conference within 100 days of the Liberal leadership convention in Vancouver, where the next party leader will be crowned.

It would be designed to "initiate renewal at the grassroots," Ignatieff said.

He also slammed the Conservatives, saying they broke promises that they wouldn't tax income trusts and that they wouldn't run a deficit.

"And now they promised they won't cut essential social programs. Who's going to believe that promise? The truth, the truth is simply not in these people," he said.

Most analysts predict it will come down to a horse race between heavyweights Ignatieff and Rae, who went to university together and have been friends for 40 years.

Ignatieff said he has great respect for Rae, and the race will not be "personal." He refused to bite on the chance to attack Rae's economic track record as Ontario Premier.

The frontrunner -- again

CTV's Chief Political Correspondent Craig Oliver said that, "Many Liberals believe Ignatieff to be the heir apparent to the Liberal throne."

But Ignatieff tried to play down his frontrunner status at his news conference with some humour saying, "front-running didn't work out so well for me last time."

Both Ignatieff, a former Harvard professor and author, and Rae, a former NDP premier of Ontario, ran for the Liberal leadership in 2006 but lost out to Stephane Dion, who few expected to win.

Ignatieff is considered an academic and intellectual and has often been compared to former prime minister Pierre Trudeau.

"He brings lots of ideas, lots of energy and he's actually grown the party to a certain extent because there are young people who have studied what he has written in university, who are attracted to his message and attracted to him, so he's actually expanding the party," Question Period host Jane Taber told Canada AM Thursday.

Rae, while he carries respect and has many supporters, faces challenges based on his record as Ontario's premier during tough economic times.

"He battled the economy then and I think the issue for him this time around in this poor economic climate, is what will he do? And with the record he has from Ontario, would it be wise to elect someone like him as a leader," Taber said.