Stéphane Dion’s Not-So-“Great Day”

March 19, 2008

Two days ago, Canadian voters used by-elections to pass judgment on the weak leadership of Stéphane Dion and the abstentions and absenteeism of the Liberal Party.

Never one to let the facts get in his way, Mr. Dion called March 17th “a great day for Liberals”.

Of course before the “great day” Mr. Dion had four seats. After the “great day” Mr. Dion was left with three. Mr. Dion’s hand-picked candidate in Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River lost on the “great day”. And on that same “great day” Dion’s Liberals came within 152 votes of losing Vancouver Quadra, a long-time Liberal stronghold.

With “great days” like this, who needs “bad days”?

Mr. Dion was also quick to make excuses for his party’s sub par performance. In particular Mr. Dion chose to patronize Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River’s Aboriginal voters with his dismissive comments that they “usually vote Liberal” but “are hard to mobilize”.

It was Stéphane Dion’s choice to circumvent local democracy in order to appoint a former NDP politician as his candidate. Further, Dion’s comments demonstrate that Liberals continue to take Aboriginal communities – and their votes - for granted.

Stéphane Dion also tried to dismiss his party’s near-calamitous collapse in Vancouver Quadra by blaming it on the environmental vote. Speaking of the increased support for the Green Party in that riding, Mr. Dion claimed that voters concerned about the environment will vote “red” in order to be “green” in the next election.

Of course, if Mr. Dion had any sort of environmental record worth running on, his confidence would have been better placed. In fact, the Liberals presided over a 32% increase in greenhouse gases during their time in government. As a result formerly “red” voters are now voting “green”.

Mr. Dion also repeated that the Liberal Party is “ready for an election”. Of course, given the great lengths Mr. Dion has taken to abstain from key votes in the House, Canadians have reason to doubt his sincerity here as well.

Barring a General Election, Mr. Dion’s next test will be a by-election in Guelph. This week Prime Minister Stephen Harper is in Guelph to talk about the Conservative Record of strong leadership and real results. Mr. Dion will have his work cut out for him if he wants to prevent another “great day” for the Liberal Party.