Stéphane Dion Win's Liberal Leadership Race

[RangerRay]

Jack Layton really screwed up.  He could have positioned his party as a moderate social democratic party that could have squeezed the Liberals from the left.  With the Conservatives squeezing on the right, the Liberals  would have disintegrated.

However, by going extreme lefty, and Dion being the moderate social democrat, the NDP is doomed to remain a party of the loony left.

[Edited to remove offensive, not needed slam on Mr Layton.  Feel free to disagree with his views, but do it in a mature manner.]

 

[Kirkhill]

Jack is flip flopping like a fish:

http://www.dustmybroom.com/?p=5253

That surprises the heck out of me and I didn't think I could be surprised anymore.

our view is that it’s important to try to get some results out of this Parliament

Isn't that the same line he trotted out after Buzz and Paul cobbled together a deal on social programmes?

Methinks the fix is in on the environment as well as Afghanistan.  Maybe we'll see a tame parliament for the next year?  At least until the Liberals get a new war chest and Jack gets a new game plan?

 

[Brad Sallows]

>Disadvantage for Dion - Layton objects to losing his voters and cozies up to Harper on the environment.  "We work together to make a bill I like; we help keep you on the government benches."

>This is very interesting, could you develop?

Not very much; I'm no political strategist.  However, it is painfully obvious that if in an election the Liberals win a majority, the NDP won't be needed to play along and will be ignored.  The Libs might only win a minority, in which case the NDP might be able to exercise some influence - but only if the NDP didn't bleed most of its voters to the Libs and lose a bunch of seats.  With the CPC minority in the House as it is, the NDP has a bird in the hand.  (I haven't checked the seat counts lately and don't know for sure whether the CPC+NDP still have 155 votes.)  So it puzzles me that Layton would allow the CPC government to go down, particularly at a time when Dion appears to have his eyes on part of the NDP's turf - I should think Layton would want the NDP to visibly and loudly advertise its brand in the House (eg. with pro-environmental legislation) before allowing Canadian voters to go into an election uncertain whether the Libs or NDP best represent their interests.  There is still the possibility of the G-G asking one of the other leaders to form a government, but the seat count dynamics of a Liberal-led minority would be different - Lib+NDP alone couldn't pass anything and I think we'd wind up with a year or so of dithering while the Bloc, realizing its good fortune and that nothing of importance is likely to happen in Parliament under the new seating plan, works wholeheartedly to prepare ground for the forthcoming Quebec provincial election.  I'm sure all the party establishments know this.

This government has (so far) worked surprisingly well because any one of the three opposition parties has had enough votes to help the CPC move something along.  The Opposition collectively have enough votes to pass legislation, if it matters.  (Apparently, nothing important or useful has occurred to them.)  I want to see it hang together at least until the Quebec election is completed.

 

[cplcaldwell]

(I haven't checked the seat counts lately and don't know for sure whether the CPC+NDP still have 155 votes.) 

308 seats in the House, 154 for a majority (less the Speaker), 155 (with the Speaker).

• Conservatives 123
• Liberals 103
• Bloc Québécois 51
• New Democrats 29
• Independent 2

So Dippers and Tories (123 + 29 =152, don't quite have it) .

Neither do fLiberals and the Dippers (103 + 29 = 132)

The Bloc puts either over the top...

The Independants are Andre Arthur (Portneuf -Cartier) and the always charming Garth Turner (Halton).

So the balance resides with the two Indies (for the Tories, with the Speaker out, at least) AND ALSO with the BQ.

 

[a_majoor]

So far Prime Minister Harper has been able to play parliament like a guitar, gaining support from various opposition parities on a retail basis in order to pass legislation. If one party won't play, another one certainly will.

Making a tactical move with the NDP for environmental legislation helps the Conservatives as well as the NDP, and perhaps some Liberals will break ranks if they want to cover themselves in an environmental blanket (assuming Dion does not support this to give the Liberals a green tinge). I have a feeling that Mr Dion and Prime Minister Harper will see things eye to eye for a while in order to achieve their various goals (rebuild the party; pass legislation, govern the nation) while freezing out the NDP, Bloc and Greens.

Prediction: The Liberals will NOT force a spring election unless Mr Dion is fully prepared (platform, candidates, party finances, healed over party structure), since they will have potentially more to lose than to gain if they do. Let's see how Mr Dion fixes the party machinery over the winter before we revisit this idea.

 

[hotelquebec9er]

All the people I know in three separate parties (CPC, Liberal and NDP) are preparing for an early spring election at the latest.  All of which are in fairly senior local positions (save one, who worked in the PMO in the summer).

 

[Edward Campbell]

So, le ‘tit gar is back.  Lock up the chequebooks!

On a serious note Marcel Massé - http://www.answers.com/topic/marcel-mass and http://www.ipac.ca/2006/speakers/biographies/marcel_mass.html (and not, under any circumstances, to be confused with blowhard Marcel Masse - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel_Masse ) is, indeed, on of the brightest fellows to have served in Ottawa.

I, personally thought Massé was involved in the development of some mightily wrong and wrong-headed policy initiatives but, in fairness, he may not have led those; it is more likely that he followed ministerial and prime ministerial direction – and he served under some weak ministers and prime ministers. 

Here is the good from today’s (20 Dec 06) Globe and Mail, shared under the Fair Dealings provisions of the Copyright Act:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20061220.wliberals20/BNStory/National/home

Chrétien back in the loop

JANE TABER AND CAMPBELL CLARK
From Wednesday's Globe and Mail

OTTAWA AND TORONTO — Former prime minister Jean Chrétien, who has been out of active politics for three years, is back in the game, giving advice to the transition team of new Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion.

Mr. Chrétien speaks regularly to Marcel Massé, one of his former cabinet ministers, who is co-chairing Mr. Dion's team. Sources said Mr. Massé may be given a different title — principal secretary — but will effectively serve as the chief aide to running the Opposition Leader's office.

Mr. Chrétien, who loves to remain in the loop, has been giving advice on governance and other issues, somewhat in the same way former Conservative prime minister Brian Mulroney talks to Stephen Harper.

“Chrétien can give huge advice,” one senior Liberal said. “Nobody knows better how to defeat a government, when to call an election, how to manage the caucus [in the early days] and how to manage the regions. His instincts are second to none.”

The former Liberal prime minister has spoken to Mr. Dion a couple of times since his election, according to the senior Liberal, but not in recent days. Mr. Massé, said the source, has a great deal of respect for Mr. Chrétien.

Mr. Chrétien, 72, has essentially been out of politics since his arch-rival Paul Martin replaced him in late 2003. His first political speech since then was a rousing, election-campaign-style attack on Mr. Harper at the Montreal leadership convention that elected Mr. Dion this month.

Mr. Dion moved yesterday to place most of his former rivals for the leadership in key posts, one day after he named second-place finisher Michael Ignatieff as his deputy leader.

Gerard Kennedy, whose support after the second ballot secured victory for Mr. Dion, will assume the newly created staff position of special adviser on election readiness and renewal. Third-place finisher Bob Rae and sixth-place Scott Brison were placed in charge of the party's election platform, while last-place Martha Hall Findlay was given a job heading consultations for the platform.

Mr. Rae, who retreated to Florida after the leadership convention to nurse his bitter disappointment, signed on as platform co-chair after he was assiduously courted by Mr. Dion, sources close to both men said.

The two men met for dinner shortly after the convention. But Mr. Rae was not persuaded he would play a major role until Mr. Dion repeatedly called to discuss it, suggesting there would be party roles for some members of Mr. Rae's leadership team, and that Mr. Rae would have a safe riding in which to run in the next election.

“It was important for Bob to have an appropriate role and to get the right signals about support for a riding,” said one source close to Mr. Rae. “Stéphane came through on both counts.”

Mr. Rae insisted yesterday he “certainly” plans to run in the next election, but does not know where.

“You can't let disappointment take over your life. The fact of the matter is that there's only one winner. And the convention's over, and life goes on,” Mr. Rae said after a news conference with Mr. Dion and the other former candidates in Toronto. “I felt that Mr. Dion reached out right away and said, ‘I want to talk to you about the platform, and we need to get going on some things.' And I said I'm happy to help.”

The appointment places the task of writing the Liberal platform in the hands of a former New Democrat and a former Progressive Conservative — although Mr. Dion, famous for managing details, will certainly control the thrust of that document.

“He will be involved in every aspect of the readiness of the electoral campaign. He will be my eyes, my ears. He will help me to work with the co-chairs of the platform and the co-chairs of the election,” Mr. Dion said.

Only two leadership candidates have so far not been handed key roles: Ken Dryden and Joe Volpe. Mr. Dion said that Mr. Volpe will be given a role in the Commons, likely a critic's role in the shadow cabinet. He effusively insisted he cannot find a title big enough for Mr. Dryden.

The appointment of Mr. Massé, 66, is seen as vital. He served as a senior minister in the first two Chrétien governments. Mr. Dion respects and listens to him, sources said.

Mr. Massé is said to have a mind like a “steel trap,” is not easily ruffled and is always pleasant. He has two key strengths that Mr. Dion lacks: a good knowledge of foreign affairs and economics. Mr. Massé was undersecretary of state for External Affairs, was executive director for Canada at the World Bank and has worked at the Inter-American Bank in New York.

Mr. Dion has never served in an economic portfolio, and one source said that he rarely if ever intervened on economic matters around the Chrétien cabinet table.

But the Massé appointment will not come without controversy. Mr. Dion's so-called Dream Team boasts few women in significant roles.

“He put himself forward as the candidate who is going to promote women in politics so he needs to set the example by appointing women in his office,” one Liberal said. There are few women around him in his office, although many strong women helped him get elected.

Mr. Dion had to push a woman — Lucienne Robillard — aside to accommodate Mr. Ignatieff as deputy leader.

He has hired Eleni Bakopanos, who plans to run again in Montreal, as his caucus liaison officer and brought in another failed candidate, Linda Julien, to fulfill his promise to field about 100 female candidates in the next election.

The good news for Dion, is Massé plus Chrétien equals excellent policy and political advice.  If he listen carefully he will learn how to shape sound policies which are in the national interest and he will learn how to get elected despite offering those same sound policies.

The bad news, for Dion, is that none of Ignatieff, Rae, Kennedy or Hall-Findlay are well known as either policy or political master craftsmen.  he will be hearing a cacophony of cries to spend, spend, spend on wasteful social programmes, too many of which stifle initiative, self reliance and productivity because they strengthen Canadians’ culture of entitlement.

Chrétien, I think will want an election ASAP.  He is, I believe of the view that anything, even a bare minority, is better than being out of power.  He will counsel Dion to borrow, borrow and borrow more to fill up the Liberal’s war chest – once in power he can find ways to have debts forgiven.  Jean Pierre Kingsley, Elections Canada and even the RCMP are paper tigers - as M. Chrétien has demonstrated in the past.  He will also tell Dion that he can win without Québec – Harper did, and he can govern with the NDP as obedient serfs.

 

[hotelquebec9er]

Cretien also knows that the Liberals are polling between a strong minority and a majority government.  Quick to the polls = less chance of that fading.

 

[Kirkhill]

Is it just me or do Dion's body language and facial expression suggest something other than exuberance at being the new leader of the LPC?  His latest photographs seem to have the look of someone wondering what he has got himself in for.

Perhaps Jean and the boys have opened up the closets and delivered a few home truths to the idealist.

 

[a_majoor]

The CPC, NDP and Greens can spin this against Mr Dion; after all, Jean Chrétien led a government mostly remembered for corruption and lack of direction (and for people who don't remember there are legions who wil remind them). In addition, part of Mr Dion's "Dream Team" were not Liberals before the convention (and Mr Rae activley worked against the Liberals, even donating money to NDP candidates), so both internally and externally their commitment to the Liberals can always be in question.

It seems that the internal wars of the Liberal party are not over, nor, depite what many commentators wanted to believe, is the old Liberal establishment discredited or defeated by the election of Dion.

Two words for Mr Harper to use in the next election: Ethics and Accountability.

 

[mjohnston39]

I would have thought the Liberals and Dion would have treated Chretien as radioactive. The Liberals bleat on about how the party is under renewal, taking 11 months to choose a leader, but they bring back the corrupt old guard/old ideas that were responsible for their loss, WTF are they thinking?

Two words for Mr Harper to use in the next election: Ethics and Accountability.

+1

Mike

 

[Kirkhill]

I would have thought the Liberals and Dion would have treated Chretien as radioactive. The Liberals bleat on about how the party is under renewal, taking 11 months to choose a leader, but they bring back the corrupt old guard/old ideas that were responsible for their loss, WTF are they thinking?
+1

Mike

Somebody bet the nose, Ignatieff, and the tail, Dion.  The longshot came in.  Whoever placed that bet is a happy feller.

 

[a_majoor]

Some more about the difference between Mr Dion and Prime Minister Harper:

Dion disconnect: His environmental, energy and the economic ideas Have This In Common
Government Intervention 

WILLIAM WATSON
Financial Post

Friday, December 22, 2006

Hard to believe but just 12 months ago Paul Martin had not yet begun the campaign slide that eventually made Stephen Harper prime minister. And Stephane Dion for Liberal leader was just a gleamin the eye of a few crazed columnists and, presumably, Mr. Dion himself.

The country is well-served by having two such disciplined and intelligent party leaders who are ethically untainted and at least have histories of favouring politics based on well thought-out principles. It would be nice once in a while to have national leaders with first-hand knowledge of business, but if we must always be governed by lawyers and professor types, Dion and Harper are two of the best.

With such dedicated policy wonks in charge, the election to come stands a good chance of being about real policy differences. Mr. Harper presumably is busy deciding what his next five policy priorities are. Mr. Dion, less prudently, has recently written that "I would not pretend that the challenges that we face as a country can be solved by a narrow ideological focus on five simple priorities." He'll have more--Martinism without the frenzy.

Bob Rae and Scott Brison, who are in charge of writing the platform of a party neither belonged to just three years ago, must now be busy reading through the policy briefs Mr. Dion issued during his leadership campaign. What they will find is resolute, reflexive interventionism. That Mr. Dion has a French passport, courtesy of his French-born mother, is no problem. He has proved his loyalty to Canada many times over. That he seems to have inherited the French planning gene is a big problem.

On the environment, Mr. Dion favours a capand-trade system of marketable carbon dioxide permits. This does have the advantage, if you can run it right, and that's a big if, of letting market participants decide for themselves how to reduce their carbon use. But permits are not the entire Dion plan. We also need a panoply of subsidies and tax incentives for all sorts of environmental initiatives, including changing our windows, retro-fitting our houses, installing energy- efficient equipment in our businesses, and so on and so on. He would even bring back and expand the One-Tonne Challenge, "which was more than a set of ads." (Who knew?)

But there's a strange disconnect in Dion's thinking. One reason he rejects Michael Ignatieff's idea of a carbon tax is that fuel prices are already high so a tax -- on top of the taxes we already have -- wouldn't dampen consumption or shift demand. In the energy sector, in particular, "soaring prices make anything but a prohibitively high tax a mere nuisance for large producers."

High energy prices are a constant theme. "We will never again see oil at $25 a barrel," he boldly declares, providing a hostage to fortune if there ever was one. But Canadians must be very dim about all this because, despite the high prices they have to be coaxed into energy efficiency by all those taxes and subsidies. But here's the disconnect: If Canadians don't respond to brickin- the-forehead hikes in energy prices, why will they respond to tax incentives?

And what will be the effect of myriad prosustainability tax credits on the sustainability of the tax system itself. The best tax systems, economists universally agree, combine low rates and broad bases. But every exemption for this or that well-polling cause narrows the base. If you want to maintain revenue -- surely the first purpose of a tax system--continually narrowing the base is not, ahem, sustainable.

After his energy paper, Dion's second-longest leadership brief was on economic growth. He clearly believes in interventionism in the regular economy, too, not just the energy economy. Canadians having bungled the transition from laboratory to market, he offers at least 12 new policy initiatives to help foster that transition, including sector councils that will get "stakeholders" together to help devise public policy for their industry -- a practice that in the past has often meant public policy gets privatized to operate in the interest of the industry. Think broadcasting. Think movies. Think cars.

Mr. Dion says the goal of his economic policy is to have a "coherent vision to help us move ideas from the lab to the market."

Why? What the country needs, much more than vision coherence, is for ambitious Canadian entrepreneurs to go sniffing around the country's labs to see what commercially exploitable inventions could make them a ton of money. Provided the government lets them keep that money -- that's the real one-ton challenge in this country --it shouldn't be very complicated.

The policy paper on the economy says nothing about the fact that at least since the 1970s, Canadian governments have been throwing one policy after another at research and development. It's not as if we don't have active industrial policies. What's puzzling is why we need even more.

Even as moderated by Bob Rae and Scott Brison, the Liberal platform will be given to tinkering and interventionism. That should provide an opening to Stephen Harper to explain to Canadians why in fact it is not "narrowly ideological" for him to doubt that all this busy-work can have a good outcome.

If Mr. Harper resists the centrist temptation to abandon his non-interventionist instincts and run simply as Dion Lite, the ensuing debate would be good for the country. Forget charisma. May the best ideas win.

William Watson is professor of economics at McGill University.


© National Post 2006

 

[Brad Sallows]

Some should revisit their understanding of "corporatism" to get some perspective on exactly where this sort of thinking can place one.  People think I'm kidding when I pass remarks that the French appear to be fond of fascism (political, not racial) in moderation.

 

[IN HOC SIGNO]

I think Chantal Hebert has it right in this column. Dion doesn't dare defeat the government over Afghanistan because of the Bloc's stand in that Department. Harper is walking a very clever tight rope right now and Dion could do with a little space to get settled into the job

Quebec clues point away from early federal vote

CHANTAL HEBERT

CONNECT the end-of-session dots on Parliament Hill and in Quebec City and you will find a timeline that could see Stephen Harper’s minority government stay in place beyond its second budget and possibly well into next year.

Under the configuration that is emerging in both capitals this week, Quebec Premier Jean Charest could extend the life of the Conservative government by making it politically unpalatable for the federal opposition parties to bring Harper down over the budget.

But one good turn would deserve another. In exchange, the 2007 Conservative budget would act as the springboard to the Quebec election rather than as the immediate launching pad for the next federal campaign.

First things first, though: It is now clear that the Harper government will not fall over an early vote about the Afghan mission. If the Bloc Québécois does make good on Gilles Duceppe’s recent threat to table a no-confidence motion on the issue early next year, it will likely find itself isolated in its censure of the government.

Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion said Monday that he would not support a Bloc motion on Afghanistan. The NDP is reserving judgment. It has not escaped the notice of its federal opponents that the Bloc has left a trail of blood over the course of its flip-flops on the resolution dealing with Quebec’s national character. The other parties are not at all eager to help heal Duceppe’s self-inflicted wounds.

In a more general way, the New Democrats are not in the mood for a quick election. If Jack Layton can find a way to avoid toppling Harper on the budget, he probably will. Between now and then, though, Layton will be getting a lot of conflicting free advice on the best way to preserve his party from possible annihilation. Some will argue that he needs to buy time at all costs while others will say that he cannot afford to be seen as extending the life of the Conservative government even by a day, let alone half a year or more.

The NDP should find solace in the fact that it may not be the only opposition party that faces a gut-wrenching choice at budget time. At a year-end news conference on Monday, Charest said he wanted to see the federal budget before calling a provincial election. But the premier has already put his government in campaign mode and he is contemplating sending Quebec to the polls as soon as possible.

Coincidentally, the word on Parliament Hill is that Harper is now looking at a February date for his budget. Charest expects the federal budget to include a good enough deal on the fiscal balance to give him the momentum to go into a campaign. If that turns out to be the case, Charest would move quickly, possibly within hours of Harper’s budget.

Faced with a snap Quebec election call, Duceppe would be hard pressed to bring down the minority Conservative government. There is only one sovereigntist election machine and the PQ and the Bloc cannot use it at the same time.

Dion would also find himself in a bind. A Liberal crusade against a Harper budget that was embraced wholeheartedly by Charest would pit Dion against the federalist premier of Quebec at the very time when the latter is fighting for re-election. To all intents and purposes, he would end up in the same camp as the Bloc and the PQ.

Such a contrary Liberal alignment would serve the Conservatives well in their own subsequent re-election campaign in Quebec, as would the battle fatigue of sovereigntist troops. Under the best-case scenario for Harper, Duceppe would have to jump from a morale-depleting, lost provincial campaign into a federal one. Thus, if Charest won, his victory could open the way for a one-two election punch, with a federal vote taking place on the heels of the Quebec one.

More than ever next year, Charest and Harper’s fates will be inextricably linked. Both their futures could hinge on the next federal budget. It has never been clearer that Harper needs to help Charest to help himself. But that also involves a big leap of faith on the prime minister’s part. He has to believe that a favourable federal budget will be enough for Charest to come from behind and beat long odds to secure a second mandate.

Chantal Hébert is national affairs columnist for the Toronto Star.

 

[Kirkhill]

Some should revisit their understanding of "corporatism" to get some perspective on exactly where this sort of thinking can place one.  People think I'm kidding when I pass remarks that the French appear to be fond of fascism (political, not racial) in moderation.

I would recommend again, for those that haven't read it, "Pierre Trudeau: The Young Years".  It goes a long way to explaining the underlying mindset of the Quebecois elite and that of much of Europe.

My personal favourite statistic is the comparison between the number of public libraries in Ontario in the 1940s (>400) versus Quebec (<10).  That wasn't a result of federal policies or anglo policies.  That was a result of conscious decisions by the "elite".

 

[a_majoor]

Well, the ghost of Christmas Past has come calling for Mr Dion; I wonder how many other people from the Chreitien/Maurice Strong/Power Corporation camp have made sure Mr Dion has their phone number and "invited" him to call for advice. Given the length of time he served in the previous government, I doubt he will need much prompting.......

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/070110/national/chretien_passports&printer=1

New Liberal leader can call for advice any time, but Chretien won't meddle
Wed Jan 10, 7:06 PM

By Mike Oliveira

TORONTO (CP) - Newly minted Liberal Leader Stephane Dion is welcome to call for free advice any time he likes, but former prime minister Jean Chretien said Wednesday he has no plans to butt in and try to run the party behind the scenes.

Chretien refused to confirm reports that he's advising Dion's transition team as they prepare for an election, saying only that he speaks with the new Liberal leader "when he calls me." "If he wants my view, he knows my phone number and he can call me, but he will run his own show," Chretien said.

"If they want my views, I'll tell them. If they use them, fine, if they don't use them, it's still fine."

Chretien, who spent nearly 15 years in Pierre Trudeau's cabinet, said a similar arrangement with his former boss worked well after Chretien was elected prime minister in 1993.

"I was talking with him once in a while (for advice), but he never called me to tell me what to do, and I don't intend to do that with anybody."

Chretien said he's confident that Dion can lead the Liberals to victory in a federal election and would make a good prime minister.

"He's been a minister for more than 10 years and he's a bright guy," he said. "He's a man of a lot of talent."

Chretien was in Toronto for a speaking engagement at the Professional Convention Management Association conference, where he shared the stage with Newt Gingrich, the former Republican speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.

In a session that was closed to the media, the pair discussed the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, which will require air travellers entering the United States to carry a valid passport when it goes into effect Jan. 23.

Chretien said he's sure Canada and the United States will find a way to solve their border security issues without causing cross-border traffic to grind to a halt.

"I'm confident that common sense will prevail, they will find a way to let the people cross the border," Chretien said. "I know they can find a way if they want to find a way."

Travellers can cross several national borders in Europe without any significant delays and something similar should be possible in North America, he added. "In Europe, you go from Austria, Germany, France, Spain to Portugal with nobody stopping you."

The problem is that there's more at stake for Canada than for the U.S, where the Bush administration needs to be convinced it really needs Canadian visitors and the tourism dollars they generate, Chretien said.

"We're very good to them, all these guys going to play golf in the United States and the snowbirds in California and Arizona and Florida," he said.

"(But) it's a big country and they look (after) themselves more than anything else and that's part of their mentality."

The highlighted line gave me the biggest laugh, after all, it was Chreitien and his gobvernment (including the hapless Mr Dion) which fought against the idea of a common North American Perimeter which would have allowed for free passage internally......

 

[a_majoor]

More evidence the Liberals made a big mistake:

http://jojourn.blogspot.com/2007/01/steffis-imaginary-friend.html

Steffi's Imaginary Friend

Dust My Broom has discovered a profile from the Globe http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=254e12c6-b309-431f-91e0-43cc34291a7a that could shed some light on Stephane Dion's inability to remember certain important events, such as anything at all to do with Adscam and more recently the alleged plan to expand production in the Alberta oilsands under his watch as Environment Minister during the Martin government.

We hear stories about great times spent with a neighbour who says he never did any of the things Dion so fondly remembers; and dead dog jokes (the latter to prove he has a sense of humour).

Is this the guy you want for your Prime Minister? I can just see it now:

"What terrorist attack? I didn't see one. I'm going to walk Kyoto now. Au revoir."

The only thing that makes sense is Mr Dion is a placeholder until the powers behind the curtain have Justin Trudeau prepped to run for office and then leadership of the Liberal party.

 

[a_majoor]

The Ottawa Citizen weighs in:

http://emilvargas.blogspot.com/2007/02/great-article-by-ottawa-citizen-on.html

Why Stephane Dion is unfit to lead this country

Randall Denley
The Ottawa Citizen
Sunday, February 04, 2007

I've just met Liberal leader Stephane Dion for the first time and I have to say, it was a frightening experience. The thought that this fellow could become the prime minister of Canada ought to alarm us.

Everything about Dion seems soft, from his handshake to his policies. His appearance at the Citizen editorial board Friday confirmed the fears I had when the Liberals chose him as their leader. Dion is a verbose, mild-mannered academic with a shaky grasp of English who seems unfit to chair a university department, much less lead a country.

Don't take my word for it. You can catch the interview yourself at ottawacitizen.com. The Liberal leader is probably very smart in an academic sort of way and quite a decent person, but his ideas reflect the full, knee-jerk left-wing spectrum, and he can't even articulate them well. Nuclear power? He's against it because of concerns about the waste. At the same time that he's against this clean source of electrical power, the Liberal leader is for a dramatic reduction in greenhouse gases.

He's snidely un-American, in the way that the Liberal elite so often is. Canada's failure to meet its Kyoto commitments was partly due to the Americans' election of Kyoto-unfriendly George W. Bush, Dion would have us believe. He also believes it's OK to take shots at the Americans for domestic consumption, but not if you're in Washington. Dion doesn't seem to have learned much from the mistakes of his predecessor, Paul Martin, the man who thought American-bashing would get him re-elected.

Dion is, of course, opposed to an increased private sector role in health care and thinks the federal government would play a useful role by identifying best health care practices, so all the provinces can follow them. Here's a best practice: having enough doctors and nurses. That means having enough money. What's his plan? Dion tries to tie every issue back to the environment, since it's the one area where he's supposed to be strong. Unfortunately, he's a one-issue candidate with no coherent position on that one issue.

Dion can't say often enough how unfortunate it is that Prime Minister Stephen Harper has wasted a year by not immediately enacting the Liberal environmental strategy. That still compares favourably to the seven or eight years the Liberals wasted. Greenhouse gas emissions went up under the Liberals' watch, but now Dion is attacking Harper for not fixing it all at the last minute. That just doesn't make sense. Dion introduced a motion in the House of Commons this week to force the Conservative government to meet Canada's Kyoto commitments, the same ones the Liberals couldn't meet. It's certainly not feasible at this point.

Dion says he's sorry the Liberals failed to make the environment a big issue in the last election, when Harper was particularly vulnerable. One can understand the strategic regret, but what does it tell us about the Liberals? They'll damn the Conservatives now for not making the environment the issue of the millennium, but only a year ago, they were doing the same thing.

Dion does show a certain intellectual agility when he suggest that the Liberals' very lame Kyoto performance was in part the Conservatives' fault, because they were just so against it. It's challenging to see how this could have mattered in the years when the Liberals had a majority.

Hopeful Liberals have suggested that one of Dion's strengths is that he's not a slick politician. Slick he's not, but it's tough to make an asset out of that. Dion isn't one of those down to earth guys like Ralph Klein. He's more like the wooly-headed professor next door. Dion simply cannot give a clear, succinct answer to a question. It's a necessary skill for any politician at his level. Harper just wants to build up the military and cut taxes, Dion says, and it's clear that any right-thinking, sorry, left-thinking, person would realize how ridiculous that is. While these priorities will clearly fail to galvanize Canadians, Dion is offering to make us a world leader in "water management."

I'm not a natural consumer of the Liberal brand, but as a voter, I like to feel that I have two valid choices. With Stephane Dion as Liberal leader, that's not the case. Dion would have us believe he's qualified to be prime minister. If he thinks that, he's kidding himself. Let's not let him kid us, too. Contact Randall Denley at 613-596-3756 or by e-mail, [email protected]

 

[larry Strong]

He invited him in

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070201/justin_trudeau_070201/20070201/

Dion OKs Justin Trudeau to run in next election
Updated Thu. Feb. 1 2007 11:08 PM ET

Robert Fife, CTV News

OTTAWA -- Stephane Dion has given his stamp of approval for Justin Trudeau to run for the Liberals in the next election, says a senior Liberal insider.


The source said Trudeau, the oldest son of Margaret Trudeau and the late former prime minister, will run in his home province of Quebec, most likely in Montreal.


"He is going to run," said the insider.


The insider said a riding has not been selected but Dion does not want him to run in a safe Liberal riding such as the Outremont riding recent vacated by Jean Lapierre.


The insider said the party wants Trudeau to run in a Montreal-area riding now held by the Bloc Quebecois.


Discussions are underway to find an appropriate riding for Trudeau