FINALLY....

I know I’ve missed on the big goings-on in Canadian and Ontario politics (“Mr. Principle” throwing his to the wind and so on) over the past few days, but I had to really hit the books sometime.

Anyways it’s nice to see that finally SOMEONE in the media has called attention to the comparison between Dion and Chretien's situation that I have made making mention of for awhile now



Dion may be Down but Not Out

Juliet O'Neill , CanWest

Published: Sunday, September 30, 2007


There is no need to push the panic or eject buttons on Liberal Leader Stephane Dion, say two men who worked closely with former prime minister Jean Chretien during his difficult, if largely forgotten, time as Opposition leader in the early 1990s.
Peter Donolo and Eddie Goldenberg note that Chretien's decade in power was preceded by such a rough ride as Opposition leader that he lost his confidence.
He made some big gaffes. He was laughed at and criticized, second-guessed by colleagues and vilified in his home province of Quebec. Like Dion, his party lost a Montreal byelection in a riding that had been held by Liberals for more than 70 years.
Saddled with a divided and debt-ridden party, wounded by accusations he had sold out Quebec, it took Chretien more than a year to get his bearings after his 1990 Liberal leadership victory. Basically, Chrétien had similar troubles and that people need some perspective and give Dion the chance to succeed like Chrétien did and get behind the leader unless we’ve decided we like being in opposition.

On that note, I was glad to hear Chretien's surgery was a success, I hope he gets well soon.


In other news, today’s Decima poll further validates what I’ve been saying, all those Liberals panicking in Quebec need to calm down and pull together for the sake of the party. Despite all the bad news, we are at the same place in the polls as we were when the summer began and the Conservatives are still in WORSE shape than they were on the last Election Day. Of course we'll need to see more polls, but at least with this one it seems that while things aren’t great in Quebec, we are in solid shape in the rest of the country.


We’ll see how Dion’s latest moves play out though. I remain confident that we will win the next election and the latest poll shows we are still on sound footing to do so.


I’m also glad to see that things continue to go well on the Provincial front with the latest polls having us up 10 points, but I’ll talk more about Ontario election in my next posts….

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