Canadian Politics: Liberals have chosen Dion as their new leader

[silverpig]

Story @ Globe&Mail


I'm not sure what to make of this. I was never able to get a good read on Ignatieff, but I think the politics would have been more interesting with him. Dion seems like the "safe" choice for the Liberals as he was everyone's 2nd choice. He might not be popular out West because he's a Quebecer, and might not be popular in Quebec because of his ties to Chretien and Martin.

So I guess he won't make anyone super happy, but he won't really anger anyone either.

During the vote I was pulling for Dion, but now that it's over, I think I would have rather had Ignatieff win. *shrug*

 

[sandorski]

Ya, Ignatief was an interesting candidate and Dion does look like the Safe Choice.

 

[dennilfloss]

Mr. Dion went to the same private school (Collège Des Jésuites, now Collège Saint Charles-Garnier, absolutely the top notch boy highschool in Quebec during the 70s) as me but he was a couple of years ahead. The force, err, Jesuit influence is strong within him. Intellectually, he is equal to Iggy but he's far less lethargic in style. Here's one guy who seemingly has remained untainted by the scandals and the youth wing of the party likes his views. Our party seems to be taking a bit of a left turn and that is healthy to fight Harper's neotories.

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2006/12/02/2591965-cp.html
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2006/12/02/2605789-cp.html

 

[Martin]

Can't say I know much about him, so I guess we'll see what he does come next election.

Anyone else think Ignatieff would make a good Foreign Minister?

 

[BoomerD]

Hey, that's GREAT. I used to like many of his songs...WAAAAAAAAAY back during the early 60's...Runaround Sue, the Wanderer...

 

[sdifox]

The only thing that disturbes me about Dion's win is Kennedy. That snake should not be anywhere near power. Unfortunately he appears to be in the middle of it. I fear for the Liberal party, and Canadians in general. I used to work for GK and I can tell you I don't ever want to do that again.

 

[Martin]

Originally posted by: sdifox
The only thing that disturbes me about Dion's win is Kennedy. That snake should not be anywhere near power. Unfortunately he appears to be in the middle of it. I fear for the Liberal party, and Canadians in general. I used to work for GK and I can tell you I don't ever want to do that again.

how about some details?

 

[yllus]

Know next to nothing about him, should be interesting.

I'll say that I prefer him (now that I think about it) to Ignatieff and Rae, because Ignatieff was pulling a Paul Martin and already starting to vary his policy choices based on polls. Rae is a homegrown fiscal disaster that I won't forget, and seemed to make absolutely every effort to avoid taking a stand on all political issues on the run up to the election. He's not changed.

Dion, like his politics or not, seems to stick by his guns (re: Clarity Act, environment). That's admirable, especially in today's political climate.

 

[Jadow]

Prime Time!

 

[Oceandevi]

Cilene Dion is freakin taking over the world.
First teh titanic! Now canada! What will it destroy next?!!?

 

[sdifox]

Originally posted by: Martin

Originally posted by: sdifox
The only thing that disturbes me about Dion's win is Kennedy. That snake should not be anywhere near power. Unfortunately he appears to be in the middle of it. I fear for the Liberal party, and Canadians in general. I used to work for GK and I can tell you I don't ever want to do that again.

how about some details?

Well, education funding (about C$17.3B for 06-07 school year) in Ontario was working more or less ok before it was Kennedied. He comes along and removes a component of it without compensating for it by modifying everything else. That caused the current deficit crisis for a lot of boards. He also set a record on tardiness on policy decision. He had a real problem with school closures, but he doesn't seem to understand unless you close the old schools, you can't build new ones. So he held on to that closure policy. It was not released until last month. It only took 2.75 years for it to be released, and it wasn't even released when he was around. I have never seen anything like this before and hope to never see it again.

I don't know if you remember 2 senior bureaucrats were let go from Ontario Ministry of Education (about 2 years back). Combined they had 60 year experience in the education sector. This noob did not like them because they were in place when conservatives were in power. He did not understand that bureaucrats are not political. He did not like their position on a particular policy (they were trying to stop him from breaking the law) and he got rid of them.

Let's see, oh, signing a deal with the Ontario Teacher's federation for 3% across the province without even consulting Ministry of Finance on cash flow. Average before was around 2 to 2.5%. This resulted in funding shortfall for the Ministry of Education, which had to be cut from somewhere.

Oh, he is the only politico I can remember that got a letter from the Legislative Council that said "You are in contempt of the Legislative Council unless you change your decision."

Oh oh, how about every single policy has the word "Good" or "Best" in them?

I consider myself to be liberal. And I can tell you this guy is just a slick car salesman. He is more conservative than a lot of conservatives I know.

I'll add more but I really don't want to talk about that noob.

 

[sdifox]

Originally posted by: Oceandevi
Cilene Dion is freakin taking over the world.
First teh titanic! Now canada! What will it destroy next?!!?

Lol, this Dion is not that Dion. I am not even sure they are related. Plus it's Celine, not Cilene.


Interesting though Stephane Dion has French citizenship and he said he is not giving it up.