Canadians need a prime minister who is a uniter, not a divider, says Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff.

They also need one prepared to show leadership in getting the painful Six Nations land claims talks moving. and one who wants to bridge a gulf between rural and urban Canada.

Those were some of the themes that Ignatieff emphasized while fielding questions Monday night from a crowd of about 250 people, and later from the media, at a town hall meeting at the German Canadian Club on Henry Street.

"There is a sense that hope and opportunity are leaving rural Canada and going downtown," he said in opening remarks as he sat in front of the crowd on a table, accompanied by former MP Lloyd St. Amand, who plans to seeking the Liberal nomination again in Brant riding for the next election.

Ignatieff called the ongoing impasse between aboriginal and non-aboriginal camps in the Six Nations dispute "a long-festering and painful struggle" that is "tearing this place apart."

In a media scrum, he said Brantford Mayor Mike Hancock told him in an earlier private meeting how the city's economic development is being slowed by the problems surrounding the unresolved land claims.

"It's very important not to say anything that would enflame the situation," said Ignatieff, adding that Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Indian and Northern Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl have not exerted a strong presence in the conflict.

"I'm not blaming it all on the feds, but they have to be part of this," he said.

As prime minister, he said he would have a minister "down here very quickly to see what needs to be done."

Ignatieff spent a lot of time stressing the need to reform EI eligibility rules to establish a national standard instead of the current regulations that vary from one region to the next.

He noted that a former Liberal government established the current system in the 1990s, which is producing some bad inequities today, while jobless figures soar everywhere.