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mithridates
Joined: 03 Mar 2003
Location: President's office, Korean Space Agency
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 Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2007 3:50 am Post subject: Stephane Dion |
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| A bit weird, don't you think? |
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thepeel
Joined: 08 Aug 2004
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| Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2007 4:35 am Post subject: |
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A tad. Though, it could just be that his English is really strongly accented and he is a bit uncomfortable in his own shoes.
Either way, Harper is going in for the kill.. (or so ponders The Star)
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How soon will PM move in for kill on Dion?
Mar 05, 2007 04:30 AM
Chantal H�bert
On an airport bus full of federal Liberals who had braved the meanest storm of the season to travel from Ottawa to Toronto for Dalton McGuinty's fundraising dinner last Thursday, the numbers of the latest Decima poll landed with a thud.
These days, politically savvy Liberals do not really need the media to tell them Stephen Harper is widening the gap between his Conservatives and their party. But they are painfully aware that, with every like-minded poll, the probability of a swift federal election is increasing.
If and when that happens, the campaign will find them with their Ontario jugular more exposed than it has been in two decades.
Since last fall's Liberal leadership convention and St�phane Dion's upset victory, there has been a significant shift in the political landscape. The eye of the next election storm has been moving from the Liberal wasteland of Quebec to their urban strongholds of Ontario.
In and around Toronto, previously safe Liberal seats are in the process of being put on the endangered list. No longer is a 416 area code the equivalent of a low U.S. draft number at the time of the Vietnam War, a safeguard against seeing combat against the Conservatives.
The Liberals who left their leadership convention convinced they would set off in the next campaign on the offensive will now have to start it by fighting for what they already hold.
Instead of a swift return to power, some are starting to contemplate the prospect of a much longer spell in exile from power. Between now and then, the Liberal crown is at risk of being turned into a mere party hat by a serious election setback.
Based on the trend of the latest string of polls, Harper could soon abandon his fixation with the mercurial Quebec numbers.
At the rate the Liberals are losing ground in Ontario, the Conservatives may soon be able to anticipate gains in Quebec in the next campaign as icing on their Ontario cake. What has to gall the Liberals in their current predicament is that Harper owes so much of his improved fortunes not to his own superior political skills � his standing in the polls is still on par with his results in the 2006 election � but to the raw ones of his Liberal foe.
Only a few months ago, the Liberals smugly let their divisions get the better of their political instincts. Future considerations were allowed to take precedence over electoral necessities.
In selecting Dion, they put in charge someone least offensive to the future leadership interests of the factions who had been warring inside the party, rather than the one most likely to lead them to victory in a quick election battle.
Unlike Bob Rae and Michael Ignatieff, Dion was a virtual unknown in Ontario at the time of his leadership victory. He had made little definitive impression outside his own province. In Quebec, where voters knew him best, he was widely seen as a liability by the bulk of the federalist establishment.
He was also the least tested of the front-runners. By virtue of his dark-horse status, Dion was spared much of the scrutiny afforded Ignatieff and Rae last fall.
It did not take a degree in physics to know that the Conservatives would take a hand in filling the many blanks of Dion's political personality.
In 2000 and 2004, the Liberals did more to advance their re-election by putting their stamp on Stockwell Day and Harper's political personas than by articulating a policy platform. Now, Harper has returned the favour.
As unpalatable as it may be to some, there is no doubt that the Conservative ad campaign has contributed to Dion's current difficulties. His uncertain performances on the policy and parliamentarian fronts over the past month has reinforced the impression that he has yet to grow into the leadership job.
Now the Liberals may be in for yet another dose of their own medicine. As he charts his opponents' decline in the polls, there has to be times when Harper � who has in the past expressed admiration for the political instincts of Jean Chr�tien � muses about what the former prime minister would do in his place.
The Liberals already know the answer. If Chr�tien were in Harper's shoes today, he would move in for the kill. |
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/article/188123 |
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mithridates
Joined: 03 Mar 2003
Location: President's office, Korean Space Agency
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| Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2007 6:39 am Post subject: |
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Yes, he seems to have a weird awkwardness about his English, but a different one from Chretien. I liked Chretien a lot because he was fun, he was the teflon man and he destroyed opposition leader after opposition leader in spite of the way he talked (or maybe because of it?). Dion reminds me of a Korean/Japanese business man that takes his English skill a little too seriously ("we oppose the inta-er-international teriff. I didn't say we supported it, that's a lie"), whereas Chretien was like a street businessman who just engages people with what he's got, mangles the language and still comes off with the sale ("No no, this the good one. You want this, you eyes pretty with this. You look like queen with this, yeah I think husband go crazy for you, no?").
If I were Harper I would wait a bit longer and see if Dion is to become the next Stockwell Day. |
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Hollywoodaction
Joined: 02 Jul 2004
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| Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2007 1:55 pm Post subject: |
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| Oh, give me a break. Ever heard Stephen Harper speak in French? |
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mithridates
Joined: 03 Mar 2003
Location: President's office, Korean Space Agency
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Hollywoodaction
Joined: 02 Jul 2004
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| Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2007 2:28 pm Post subject: |
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My point exactly. If more Anglophones thought like you, there would be no use for Quebec seperatists. |
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mithridates
Joined: 03 Mar 2003
Location: President's office, Korean Space Agency
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| Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2007 2:38 pm Post subject: |
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| Hollywoodaction wrote: |
| If more Anglophones thought like you, there would be no use for Quebec seperatists. |
? |
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Hollywoodaction
Joined: 02 Jul 2004
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| Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2007 2:46 pm Post subject: |
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| mithridates wrote: |
| Hollywoodaction wrote: |
| If more Anglophones thought like you, there would be no use for Quebec seperatists. |
? |
You seem to be aware that Quebec seperatism is a knee-jerk reaction to Quebec bashing and the double standards (ie. Stephane Dion's English accent is news, but Stephen Harper's French accent isn't). |
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mithridates
Joined: 03 Mar 2003
Location: President's office, Korean Space Agency
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| Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2007 3:00 pm Post subject: |
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| Hollywoodaction wrote: |
| mithridates wrote: |
| Hollywoodaction wrote: |
| If more Anglophones thought like you, there would be no use for Quebec seperatists. |
? |
You seem to be aware that Quebec seperatism is a knee-jerk reaction to Quebec bashing and the double standards (ie. Stephane Dion's English accent is news, but Stephen Harper's French accent isn't). |
Isn't it a bit deeper than that? There isn't an area in Canada that doesn't think another region is treating it with a double standard from what I've seen. The west with transfer payments, Toronto with the rest of the country loving to bash it at every opportunity, the Maritimes always feels left out of important decisions, etc. There's a real awkwardness about Dion though that isn't just an accent. I'm not sure about it myself. Maybe it's body language. I'm looking for a video of Chretien tearing up the opposition (like that ejector seat comment he used when Stockwell Day came in) in the English he used for contrast. Can't find one, but there is this classic:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aX6XMIldkRU |
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cosmicgirlie
Joined: 29 Jan 2003
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thepeel
Joined: 08 Aug 2004
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| Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2007 4:22 pm Post subject: |
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| Hollywoodaction wrote: |
| mithridates wrote: |
| Hollywoodaction wrote: |
| If more Anglophones thought like you, there would be no use for Quebec seperatists. |
? |
You seem to be aware that Quebec seperatism is a knee-jerk reaction to Quebec bashing and the double standards (ie. Stephane Dion's English accent is news, but Stephen Harper's French accent isn't). |
Consult your nearest history book. |
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Hollywoodaction
Joined: 02 Jul 2004
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| Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2007 7:20 am Post subject: |
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| BJWD wrote: |
| Hollywoodaction wrote: |
| mithridates wrote: |
| Hollywoodaction wrote: |
| If more Anglophones thought like you, there would be no use for Quebec seperatists. |
? |
You seem to be aware that Quebec seperatism is a knee-jerk reaction to Quebec bashing and the double standards (ie. Stephane Dion's English accent is news, but Stephen Harper's French accent isn't). |
Consult your nearest history book. |
1837 was nearly 2 centuries ago. Heck, most Quebecers are probably too young to remember the events that occured between "La Revolution Tranquille" and "La Crise d'Octobre". So, no, for young seperatists it's the preception that there are double standards. My sources are more current than history books: the Quebecers I know. |
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mithridates
Joined: 03 Mar 2003
Location: President's office, Korean Space Agency
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| Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2007 9:22 am Post subject: |
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Here's an article on his view of women candidates in the party:
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Dion's effort shows women willing to run for office
Janet Bagnell, CanWest News Service
Published: Sunday, March 11, 2007
Shortly after he become Liberal leader, Stephane Dion announced a new party position, the awkwardly named women's candidate search director.
In the position, Montreal lawyer Linda Julien was to lead the effort to find more women to run for the federal Liberals.
"Within minutes of the announcement, CVs from interested women started coming through the fax machine," Julien said this week.
"That same evening, on Dec. 13, I was at a pre-Christmas event, a dinner, where I barely had a chance to eat, so many women came up to me to hand me their business card. I could hardly close my purse at the end of the night," Julien added in an interview.
So much for the notion that women are not interested in politics.
Three months later, Julien, who has run unsuccessfully for Parliament, has a list of 150 women interested in becoming candidates under the Liberal banner, with more names added every week.
Ninety per cent of the women approached the party, rather than the other way around.
Last month, the Liberals upped the ante, saying they might bar men from seeking some nominations if that's what it takes to field more women in the next election.
Choosing International Women's Day, last Thursday, to make their demands for greater female representation at the provincial level, Quebec women's groups asked the province to pass affirmative-action measures and bring in proportional representation.
While the provincial Liberals are fielding more women -- 44 out of a total of 125 -- the number of female candidates running for the Parti Quebecois and the Action democratique du Quebec has dropped for this election.
When the federal Liberals said they might bar men from seeking nomination, they were accused, said Julien, of putting sex equality above competence.
"My response to that," she said, "is that gender and competence are not incompatible."
Most women, Julien said, would not dream of putting themselves forward even if they are drowning in qualifications.
Women with university degrees -- including those with MAs or PhDs -- are still worried they lack the credentials needed for public life.
"With men, it's just about never a concern," Julien said. "There's a provincial politician, a man with Grade 5 education. I'm fascinated to see him."
" A woman with that level of education would never have run for office, but he just gets out there," she said.
Women, far more than men, also worry about how to fit their personal responsibilities into a political life, Julien said. Federal politics, in particular, requires a lot of travel and extended periods awat from home.
Politics at any level also requires a thick skin.
Just ask Belinda Stronach, who was called a "*beep*" and a prostitute by other parliamentarians.
Or, for that matter, Andre Boisclair, head of the Parti Quebecois, who this month was called a "tapette" by a radio shock jock, a crude and derogatory term for homosexuals.
Another point of divergence between men and women is how they view nomination battles, Julien said.
Some women insist on fighting a nomination battle, "to prove themselves," she said.
"I find it a bit naive," Julien said. "They don't realize that not that many men go through contested nominations, but women sometimes feel they have to suffer to prove their worth. Men don't feel that."
Dion as leader has attracted more women to the party, and women with different backgrounds, Julien said. "Most political parties have a high proportion of lawyers, which is normal. Parliament is a law-making body."
But since Dion took over leadership, she said, women trained in the environment, biology, sustainability and renewable resources have come forward.
"Mr. Dion has a great resonance with women," Julien said. "They feel with him there is a change in the way politics is being done. They feel he is an honest and caring person."
Julien said Dion's appeal has extended to women from other political parties, some of whom have approached the Liberals with a view to running for them.
Increasing the number of women in legislatures in Canada should be a goal across the country.
Canada, one of the world's oldest democracies, lags seriously behind other countries in the number of women elected to government.
After the last federal election, in January 2006, 64 of the 308 seats in the House of Commons were held by women, for 21 per cent. This is less than half the proportion of women in the highest-ranked OECD country, Sweden at 45 per cent.
Really, if Sweden can do it, so can we. |
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