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| Great White North |
| CanadaÂ’s Liberals choose long shot as leader |
| 2006-12-03 |
| MONTREAL - Canada’s opposition Liberals on Saturday unexpectedly chose former Environment Minister Stephane Dion as their new leader, overlooking his political shortcomings that could undermine the party in an election widely expected next year. Dion, 51, who was in fourth place at the start of the race, beat favorite and former Harvard academic Michael Ignatieff on the fourth and final ballot at a Montreal leadership convention. He won by 2,521 votes to 2,084. The Liberals dominated Canadian politics for the past century but lost power to the Conservatives in a January election. The Conservatives have a minority government that looks set to fall in 2007, sparking a new election. Dion focused his campaign on the need to do more to protect the environment — a topic that polls show is increasingly important to Canadians — and the need to defeat Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper as soon as possible. “It will not be difficult to find the priorities by which we’ll show that our vision for the country is much more generous than the one of Mr. Harper,” he said afterward. Translation: he'll promise everyone a pony. Dion has two potential strikes against him. He speaks English with a heavy French accent, which could make it hard to win over voters in what is a predominantly English-speaking country. He is also unpopular in his home province of Quebec, which accounts for a quarter of the seats in the federal Parliament. French-speaking separatists strongly dislike him for his efforts to make it harder for them to hold a successful referendum in the future on whether Quebec should break away from the rest of Canada. Separatist Quebec governments lost two previous referendums on the issue. An Ipsos-Reid opinion poll published on Friday said that if Dion won the leadership, the Liberals would win 27 percent support if a federal election were held now, compared with 35 percent for the Conservatives. Since Canada became a country in 1867, only one Liberal leader has failed to become prime minister. Dion was the only one of the four front-runners to have any experience in a federal Cabinet. He served in the previous two Liberal governments. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #7 Is he related to Celine? They are sisters. |
| Posted by: ed 2006-12-03 15:12 |
| #6 Or Alanis... |
| Posted by: .com 2006-12-03 15:07 |
| #5 Is he related to Celine? That would be a third problem, Al. |
| Posted by: Eric Jablow 2006-12-03 15:04 |
| #4 So he only has 2 problems: People who speak French don't like him. Neither do people who don't speak French. Other than that, he's extremely popular! Al |
| Posted by: Frozen Al 2006-12-03 13:41 |
| #3 French-speaking separatists strongly dislike him for his efforts to make it harder for them to hold a successful referendum in the future on whether Quebec should break away from the rest of Canada. Separatist Quebec governments lost two previous referendums on the issue. Only because Canadians outside Quebec couldn't vote too. |
| Posted by: Excalibur 2006-12-03 03:44 |
| #2 sick to death of Quebecers lattempting to lead the country. Doesn't matter how inept they are, gotta be from Quebec to run the country. Bloody fed up with the pandering. So's Quebec. |
| Posted by: Thinemp Whimble2412 2006-12-03 00:55 |
| #1 Environment Minister Stephane Dion Who's a man. |
| Posted by: gromgoru 2006-12-03 00:41 |