mithridates
Joined: 03 Mar 2003
Location: President's office, Korean Space Agency
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 Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 7:40 am Post subject: Stephane Dion |
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Er...he plans to campaign like it's 1993? I'm getting a weird feeling from the guy. A few days after winning the leadership campaign he promises to oppose the budget that hasn't been proposed yet, calls the Conservatives ultra right-wing and is chomping at the bit for an election.
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Dion to campaign like it's 1993
BILL CURRY AND CAMPBELL CLARK
From Thursday's Globe and Mail
WINNIPEG, OTTAWA � Liberal Leader St�phane Dion will use Jean Chr�tien's successful 1993 campaign as a model for the next election, he told party supporters yesterday.
Mr. Chr�tien's promise to create "jobs, jobs, jobs" was made when unemployment stood at 11.1 per cent. Mr. Dion's campaign on creating jobs with environmental action, however, is being crafted as the country sits with a jobless rate of 6.3 per cent.
The plan is to increase jobs by encouraging industry to meet the world demand for products and technology to help fight global warming, Mr. Dion said.
"We need to say to Canadians the same as in 1993. We'll give you a strong economy. We just need to add that a strong economy in the 21st century is a sustainable economy," he told more than 200 supporters at a $100-a-plate breakfast fundraiser in Winnipeg.
The visit to Winnipeg is his first to Western Canada since his selection as leader this month and begins a tour to raise his profile outside of Ottawa.
"Mr. Chr�tien won the election against Madame [Kim] Campbell because she said we cannot reduce unemployment. Mr. Chr�tien said 'No. We will. We will create a machine to create jobs in this country and we will do it with fiscal discipline' and we delivered."
Although Mr. Dion's pledge to model his campaign on Mr. Chr�tien's winning 1993 bid might seem out of place now, both strategies poke at a perceived weak point of a Conservative government while shoring up Liberal weaknesses.
In 1993, the Tories were blamed for unemployment and the Liberals sought to burnish their own weak reputation on the economy. Now, Mr. Dion promises to take on global warming and environmental issues, but wants to allay concerns that his agenda will require economic sacrifices.
In a radio interview yesterday, he said Canadian companies could be making "billions" today if they were part of the international carbon-trading market. Carbon trading allows companies to sell credits if they reduce their greenhouse gas emissions below set targets.
"The question I ask is: 'Will we be winners in this carbon market? Yes, with St�phane Dion. No, with Stephen Harper," he said on CJOB, pointing to a study that predicted environment-related trade could soon be larger than trade in wheat and coffee.
The Liberals' 1993 red book platform, actually titled Creating Opportunity, was filled with promises to get the economy moving through infrastructure programs, technology and cutting deficits -- aimed at tapping into a vein of concern that Canada's prosperity was slipping away. And Mr. Chr�tien pounded the message home with his "jobs" refrain.
Polls then showed that 50 per cent of Canadians rated the economy and jobs as their chief concern, and another 23 per cent picked government spending.
Now, according to pollster Allan Gregg, chairman of the Strategic Counsel, "the concern about the economy has virtually disappeared, and the environment has popped up to 17 per cent."
Still, Mr. Gregg said, voters' concern about the environment is tempered when they feel it requires economic tradeoffs.
Canada's economy is strong, but mixed, which may be one reason that polls are showing concerns about it inching up again. Job growth has been driven largely by Alberta's oil and gas industry while the manufacturing sector in Ontario and Quebec has been weak.
Mr. Dion's environmental platforms could help him outflank the Tories on an issue where the government is widely perceived as weak. But he is seeking to pre-empt worries a heavy environmental agenda would hurt the economy.
Mr. Dion's campaign for the Liberal leadership always placed the economy on an equal footing with the environment, along with "social justice" -- but now as leader, he is stressing the economy first.
His promise to follow Mr. Chr�tien's campaign playbook come as The Globe reported this week that Mr. Chr�tien is involved in Liberal politics again after staying on the sidelines while long-time rival Paul Martin led the party.
The Globe reported that Mr. Chr�tien has spoken directly to Mr. Dion a couple of times since his leadership victory, but the former PM has engaged in regular talks with Marcel Mass�, who is running Mr. Dion's transition team. |
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