McParland: Stephane Dion finds his inner Trudeau *****
Posted on 22 June 2008 by Jack
It’s probably not fair to compare Stéphane Dion to Pierre Trudeau. He lacks both the Great Man’s outsize personality and formidable faults. He is charisma-free. He might be impressive in French but in English he can clear a room as effectively as Trudeau could entrance one. He appears to have an honest concern for Canada’s less fortunate and a desire to do something about it; Trudeau was dismissive, when not contemptuous, of lesser mortals and those lacking his gifts.
But that is not to say there aren’t similarities between the two, beyond their Quebec roots and academic credentials. (Trudeau took on his professorial duties as a diversion; Dion has to work for a living.)
Trudeau was notoriously unenthusiastic about the grubby, gladhanding aspect of politics: the need to work a room, to raise money, to feign friendship with potential allies, to give mere MPs the impression you shared their concerns and even occasionally listened to them. He fumbled away his first majority and almost his job as a result; he had no clue about running a campaign; he was prepared to be Prime Minister if people asked nicely, but he wasn’t about to beg.
Dion is a bit keener on the job, perhaps because he doesn’t have it, but shares many of the other traits. By all reports he doesn’t respond quickly to pleas from party outposts. The Liberals’ mess in Quebec is testament to his lousy people skills, poor strategic sense and lack of judgement in choosing lieutenants. Brian Mulroney could spend hours on the phone schmoozing, buttering up, getting his way. Trudeau wouldn’t bother. Dion seems to not know how.
Update: Dion fouls the West for Grits
Update: They’re taxing our credulity
Update: Angry Dion calls for debate with Harper on climate change
Popularity: 20% [?]
June 22nd, 2008 at 7:50 am
“Fuddle-Duddle”
June 22nd, 2008 at 8:50 am
lol lol lol UV - a blast back to the past .. heheheh
hi joanne…:-)
jack I so wanted to steal your cartoon…but I resisted…:-)
June 22nd, 2008 at 9:22 am
The Red Star lampoons the current leader. Just as we saw with PMPM, when the Red Star puts a fork in you, you are done.
My theory, and I am sticking with it, is that the Green Knight was goaded into this toxic policy by the board down there in Montreal. It’s a Machiavellian masterpiece.
So here’s the plot: goad the current leader into throwing himself on the rocks with a policy that is like motherhood - the peasants themselves will be to blame for not embracing the Holy Green Plan - not The Party. The leader will take his lemmings over the cliff. He will step down voluntarily. Making way for the Annointed One.
That’s the battle plan for Bob Rae’s Liberals. I can hardly wait - Bob Rae’s Liberals can do for all of Canada what Bob Rae managed to do for Ontario. Ontario has never been the same since Bob Rae handed the keys of the province over to the unions.
June 22nd, 2008 at 9:31 am
Is this all an elaborate plan to get Goodale voted our of the HofC.
June 22nd, 2008 at 11:24 am
Frankly, it is about time that the West separates from Central “Control”. We don’t need their trucks or cars, we can buy direct from Hyundai, Toyota, Hino or whomever. Any other crap we need we can buy it cheaper from the US and China or India and particularly machinery & equipment to mine or exrtract our resources, they come from the US for the most part anyway.
We can ship our grains through Vancouver, Prince Rupert or Churchill, which are a hell of a lot closer than Thunder Bay. All northern pipelines currently pass through Alberta and most of that is shipped to the US, with only a portion shipped to Sarnia for processing. The west can feed the world and we do not need the “value added” WCB to do it for us, while they take their “Liberal” cut.
Just turn the West into an economic powerhouse and ditch the center and their socialist ways. I personally have felt no strong attachment to “Canada” since the Trudeau years, anyway. Mr. Dion is just putting the final nail in the coffin IMO.
June 22nd, 2008 at 12:28 pm
I agree with JT in that perhaps we should all go our own way. Ontario probably has more in common with our American friends to the south in the bordering states of New York, Michigan and northern Pennsylvania rather than our Canadian neighbors of Manitoba and the Quebec Nation. Perhaps, Ontario should join with the U.S. as a state or have some kind of arrangement with them as a U.S. protectorate.
The West is always bitching, Newfoundland at times wont even fly the Cdn. flag and the Quebec Nation always has its hand out for more of our hard earned taxdollars which past and present governments seem all too willing to fork over.
June 22nd, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Oh puke. Please don’t bring up that nightmare Trudeau again.
June 22nd, 2008 at 2:05 pm
The Liberals seem to have more than lost their standing, if they ever really had one, as the only political party that can keep Canada together. With Quebec’s always impending separation on hold for now, and the Harper government looking decidedly less scary despite recently resorting to using dirty sounding words, the Liberals have nothing else to stand for and Dion has spent his time as leader grasping for something, anything, to give his leadership meaning, only to come full circle back to Kyoto and then take a step to the left, which by the way Harper has also done. At least the Dion Liberals have shown their true if warped red colours. I can’t say that I admire the positions that the Harper Conservatives or the Alberta government have taken with regard to global warming. Both governments are in positions of authority and have the resources available to either debunk global warming or provide the resources required to help alleviate it, but have instead decided, in true Liberal fashion, to use weasel words while paying lip service to climate change. How exactly is that at all admirable?
I’m from Ontario and I would separate from here if I could, however the Harper Conservatives have brought some of their troubles on themselves by completely ignoring Ontario’s concerns. It is true that Ontario is visibly headed for economic trouble, so Harper and Flaherty’s continuous assertions that all is ok and that Ontarians should not believe their lying eyes are beginning to seem more and more ludicrous every day, and it should have been expected that the Liberals would play upon those concerns. Rather than continue to operate with a two speed economy, a separation between the West and the East would currently be in both sides best interests, as it would allow for the separate Central Bank currency and interest rate policies required for two very different economies. That scenario could change very fast though if the global high price of oil is proven to be unfounded, and BC could find itself in a position not unlike that in Ontario once its Olympic games are over with. Politically however, without the large western conservative voting base, we conservatives in the East would probably continue to suffer under socialism until our economy hit absolute bottom. Of course we in Ontario would still have the world’s largest supply of fresh water, at least until the lefties decided to sell that off in order to buy their way into power.
June 22nd, 2008 at 5:32 pm
I really like the cartoon. It’s a “keeper’ so I cleaned it up a bit.
It says all that has to be said.
June 22nd, 2008 at 5:32 pm
The threat of an Liberal NEP II, should not plunge the country into the divisive “let’s split it up and go our own way” talk as above comments have jumped on at the thought of the taxpayers’ losses. Let’s slow down here.
Ward’s got the debate content just about right, and looks like Dion’s lost it already. Wait. Divisive talk doesn’t assist, but hurts this great country and its niches (some developed, others lagging).
We needn’t do “divisive” measures, before the horse’s out of the corral, huh?
June 22nd, 2008 at 5:38 pm
“We needn’t do “divisive” measures, before the horse’s out of the corral, huh?”
Not anytime soon, Anna. Dion’s big idea is moot at the moment as Gunter pointed out earlier. You have to be government to change things in a big way and there is “no way in hell” Canadian taxpayers are going to let him anywhere near their wallets.
Truth be told…I think it’s all a “vast Liberal conspiracy” to get rid of him and Bob Rae is behind it.
“Good luck with that one.”
June 22nd, 2008 at 5:38 pm
LG, the Toronto Star’s influence would be squelched at the use of message-laden helicopters traversing the GTA skies. We’ve got to overwhelmingly reject the “shift” carbon taxation. Well, B.C. voters will be screaming just after “Canada Day.” That’s great, isn’t it.
Heh! Dog food with rice component went up $10 per bag here in Ontario past week. And the Liberals THINK they’re going to pull this “everything really for the people” scam AGAIN on Canadians. Get the messages up in Canadian skies, for the love of God and our own means for basic survival which Dion’s plan will ensure IF ADOPTED.
June 22nd, 2008 at 5:43 pm
Yes, Rae AND Chretien (his relative) is beyond it. If you think I’m wrong, erase.
June 22nd, 2008 at 5:44 pm
meant, “is BEHIND it.”
June 22nd, 2008 at 6:11 pm
Seems to me that the title of this initiative, “Green Shift” has an extraneous letter “f” in it…
June 22nd, 2008 at 6:14 pm
“jack I so wanted to steal your cartoon…but I resisted…:-)”
You go right ahead NBTL…I cleaned it up and it’s “fair game”.
I should note that you have far to many images loaded on one page and even on “high speed” I have to wait.
Get in touch with Cynapse and he will help you turn your site “truly professional”. It won’t cost you a nickel and the “backup” is fantastic.
June 22nd, 2008 at 6:18 pm
DeYawn calls it a ‘green shift’ - I call it a ‘green shaft.’
June 22nd, 2008 at 6:29 pm
Actually, although I too doubt that it will come down to western separation, I believe it can only help for westerners to make it quite clear to eastern lefties that it is wrong to covet their resource revenues, and that the west would ultimately not stand for it, especially since, knowing Bob Rae as we do in Ontario, the thought of commandeering western oil revenues in order to fund social programs has also crossed his mind. Further, I just find it telling that the Liberal Party that for so long touted itself as the savior of Canada, is itself once again causing the specter of separation to be raised.
Dion, knowing that he has no jurisdiction over provincial resource revenues, has taxed end products, meaning easterners would pay more tax on some western oil products, which is not going to be an easy sell given the current economic climate. Beyond that, the potential problems with Dion’s plan are legion, not the least of which is the fact that there is no law that says oil companies have to refine their products into heating oil or diesel that can be taxed at a federal level, so oil companies, having no incentive to cooperate, can easily taper down their refining output in Canada while selling their crude elsewhere. Albertans should be digging around in the attic right about now looking for some of their old “Let the Eastern bastards freeze in the dark” bumper stickers.
June 22nd, 2008 at 6:44 pm
Change is good…thanks Jack…will look into it.
June 22nd, 2008 at 7:44 pm
I have just returned from my cottage and our weather has finally warmed up.{ I am sure all cottage owners would be carbon taxed also in the green shift}
The most divisive attitude and message of all comes from the MSM. They will divide and destroy Canada long before any political party. They are the ones that focus on Ontario and suggest ways to take advantage of other areas of Canada.I get the impression Jane Taber has never set foot outside Ontario.Until we have balanced reporting from the MSM the future of Canada is in jeaporedy.
My favourite part of Mike Duffy is the radio guys. That is truly balanced programming, other wise most of the experts are from Toronto and Ottawa.
June 22nd, 2008 at 8:00 pm
Yes, it is true, Dion has found his ineer Trudeau. Did you catch him on QP, at one point he actually moved his index finger a little bit. Guess he is practicing for the big one to the western voter.