| Stéphane Dion is Not a Leader
April 13, 2007
Liberals question Dion’s leadership as he runs to Greens for cover Stéphane Dion today provided Canadians with further proof that he is not a leader by hitching his wagon to the leader of Canada’s fifth-place party. By agreeing not to run a Liberal candidate against Green Party leader Elizabeth May in the Nova Scotia riding of Central Nova, Stéphane Dion has abandoned Liberal supporters and implicitly endorsed the Green Party platform. It is more proof of Mr. Dion’s flagging leadership that his Liberal Party – an institution that has long prided itself as a pan-Canadian party that runs candidates in all ridings – would need to lean on a minor party to bolster its credibility in the next election. But this is the new Liberal Party of Stephane Dion – a party that flip flops on major issues like Afghanistan, reverses itself on its own anti-terrorism legislation and could not even acknowledge the existence of a fiscal imbalance in Canada. Mr. Dion’s decision not to run a candidate in Central Nova has left Liberal supporters in Nova Scotia grumbling. And they aren’t the only ones questioning Mr. Dion’s leadership this week. A media report in yesterday’s Journal de Montréal suggests that Liberals in Quebec aren’t happy with Mr. Dion’s leadership either. According to a senior Quebec Liberal party official, supporters in that province are hoping for a federal election this spring so they can lose and begin the task of rebuilding the party without Mr. Dion. (Journal de Montreal, page 7, April 12, 2007) Now that he has angered many of his own party members and endorsed the Green Party’s policies, Mr. Dion will have to answer some tough questions:
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