New Liberal Leader : Stéphane Dion
December 4th, 2006 | by MadHacktress |Firstly, congratulations to the gentleman from Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, the Honourable (soon to be Right Hon.) Stéphane Dion. With 54.7% of the delegate vote on the final ballot, Stéphane Dion edged out Michael Ignatieff to become the Leader of Canada’s Official Opposition party.
My guy, Gerard Kennedy, didn’t make it a win. That is, unfortunately, no surprise. He was, however, the King-maker in this campaign, delivering a huge number of his own delegates to Dion.
Now we move forward, now we are looking toward election time - and that’s where my concerns began.
My original concerns were for Dion’s electability. As a devout Liberal there is no question who I will vote for in an upcoming election. But, as was shown during the last Federal election, there are enough soft liberals out there to turn the tide.
My spirit was a little buoyed today when I read that latest Strategic Counsell poll conducted for CTV and The Globe shows Dion with a 55% approval rating amongst Canadians. The poll also shows Liberals leading the Conservatives by 6% (at 37%).
Support was up in both Ontario and Québec - also good news.
We’ll have to wait to see how much of an effect the leadership race’s recentness has had on these numbers. When Dion gets in to Parliament next week and actually says his first few words as the leader of the party I think the numbers might be more accurate.
One concern about Dion that cannot, or at this point has not, been abated is his seeming “my way or no way” attitude.
With a party that nearly everyone says need to work toward unity and A New Direction, the hard-headed attitude of the leader may not be good. Obviously, though, as a politician he knows how to work with others, but in the House of Commons, he’s going to have to work with other parties and party leaders - at least until we win a majority.
His English is a concern as well, in some areas of the country. Then again, Chrétien’s English wasn’t fantastic back in the day, either. I was concerned that his presence outside of Québec wasn’t that great, but apparently the latest polls show him to be rather well known.
The only other big concern that I have is whether or not we, as Liberals will have time to gain momentum and get the message out in time for a spring election.
I will be watching Parliament this week to see if there is any change in the goings on in the Green Chamber.
I am hoping that the few concerns that I have with Stéphane Dion prove unfounded.
Time will tell.
Entry Filed under: General, In The News
Dion needs to really reach out to his Que. ministers who backed Ignatieff… and there were many as well as Ont. ministers who also backed Igantieff. He really has to bring them on board and listen to them as to why they supported Ignatieff.
At first thought I think the conservatives will be happy to have Dion happy as the leader of the liberal party. I think that for Dion to make a serious run at the PM’s office he has to distant himself from the previous Chretien and Martin governments and show that he is a leader. The conservatives got in not on platform but more on a distrust of the their ability to govern for the people instead of for themselves. It will be interesting to see what Dion does to heal a divided party divided country and stand up to critics. I wish him well…