Well well what a surprise...the wacky professor has run away with the Liberal prize. Uh oh listen up everyone..... Here comes another politician like Great Leader who thinks he owns the truth. And doesn't like to be told he doesn't. A friend who attended his classes at the University of Montreal told me his filthy temper is even worse than mine. So when he tells you he has a plan to save the world.....pay attention or else....
The big question of course is whether he has what it takes to rid Canada of the ReformCon cancer that is killing it. One heavyweight columnist doesn't think so. He's calling Stephane Dion's victory a gift for Stephen Harper.
While all of the four frontrunners in the race have considerable political handicaps, Dion's lack of charisma, his broken English and relatively low public profile outside his native Quebec will combine to make him a hard-sell in parts of the Maritimes and from Ontario west.
Even in Quebec, Dion's hardline and often strident handling of the unity file has made him a highly polarizing figure and a favourite target of the separatists, a choice for Liberal leader that one Montreal columnist calls "a wet-dream for the Bloc Quebecois."
Yikes.....let's hope he's wrong.... it's true that in the years after the last referendum his irritating tendency to treat Quebecers as children...and his dire warnings about the consequences of separatism made him the most hated man in Quebec. He was seen as English Canada's Stepin Fetchit.
"No Mr Dion you are not suffering from paranoia at all...people REALLY DO hate you...."
Six years ago they booed him at the The Rocket's funeral. You can't get more hated than that...
On the other hand....some time has passed. Quebecers would be proud to have one of their own as Prime Minister. The environment is a powerful issue in Quebec, as it is elsewhere. He's smart. He isn't tainted by corruption. He's against the extension of the mission in Afghanistan. If he portrays himself as a champion of the kind of Canadian values Quebecers share. In clear unambiguous opposition to Stephen Harper's yankee values. And stays away from the constitution. He just might have a chance.
But old habits die hard. Particularly for people who believe they own the truth. And get very angry when they're told they don't.
I wish him luck. He's off to a promising start
He could be just the man for the times. The wacky professor anti-politician who could unite this country by giving it a new sense of purpose. Or he could be a fucking disaster.
But one thing is for sure...if he blows it in Quebec again...he won't get another chance...neither will the Liberals.
And neither will Canada...
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