kenmore kenmore:
Of interest I read this comment and thought how accurate it is. Mr. Dion is an honest man in a dishonest profession. He tells people what he really believes and defends unpopular sentiments. He foresaw that the environment would become the major political issue of the next election. You might say that the economy took over, but do not forget that it is the 10% vote to the Green Party that has really hampered Liberal fortunes. If Mr. Dion or some other Liberal leader did not have green credibility, who knows how low the Liberal Party might have sunk in the polls? It was Stéphane Dion who dragged the Liberal Party into the new, green age of politics. He read the mood of the country and he got it right.Beyond that, Mr. Dion was the first party leader to begin taking the economy seriously. Stephen Harper might have called for the debate to spend on hour on the economy, but it was Dion who came forward with a five-point plan and showed Canadians that he understood their feelings.
I'd agree with that, for the most part.
Dion is an intelligent man with some good idea's but as far as being a political animal, the type that has a chance at successfully leading a party to victory, sorry but no. That isn't a critism though, there are a lot of great men who I could say the same about.
And yes I think it's fair to say he really did do a lot of work on bringing the enviroment to the forfront of Canadian politics. Yes there were failures as far as the past performance of his party on Kyoto but really I don't recall to many other politicans of the time leading the charge on the environmental issue (for as much as I dissagree with Kyoto). I think he could even be credited with some of the success of the Greens in the last election, in more ways than one, not all of which had positive results for his party.
I really do think it's shameful the way in which he being treated by his own party. I don't recall Turner getting "booted out the door" even though suffered an equally if not greater defeat. Yes, I made fun of him, I will be the first to admit that but he doesn't deserve his own party damn near calling for a public linching.