Dion emerges as new Liberal leader

[SOO MAAL]

Liberal leadership candidate Stephane Dion © and Gerard Kennedy ® walk with supporters at the Liberal convention in Montreal, December 2, 2006. (Chris Wattie/Reuters)

 

 

Stephane Dion is congratulated by Jean Chretien, Bill Graham, Paul Martin and John Turner, left to right following his speech after winning the Liberal leadership Saturday, Dec. 2, 2006 in Montreal. (AP PHOTO/CP,Tom Hanson)

 

Leadership candidate Stephane Dion, left, raises his arm with supporters Gerard Kennedy and Martha Hall Findlay at the Liberal Leadership Convention Saturday, Dec. 2, 2006 in Montreal. (AP PHOTO/CP,Tom Hanson)

 

Canada Liberals choose Stephane Dion as leader

02 Dec 2006 23:13:50 GMT

Source: Reuters

 

 

MONTREAL, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Canada's official opposition Liberals on Saturday unexpectedly chose former Environment Minister Stephane Dion as their new leader despite political shortcomings that could hinder his chances in an election expected next year.

 

Dion, in fourth place after the first round of voting, beat former Harvard academic Michael Ignatieff on the fourth and final ballot at a Montreal leadership convention. Dion won by 2,521 votes to 2,084.

 

The Liberals have dominated Canadian politics for the past century but lost power to the Conservatives in a January election. The Conservatives have a minority government that looks set to fall in 2007, sparking a new election.

 

Dion won in part by stressing the need to do more for the environment, a topic of increasing importance to Canadians.

 

But he has two potential strikes against him. First, he speaks English with a heavy French accent, which could make it hard to win over voters in what is a predominantly Anglophone country.

 

Second, he is unpopular in his home province of Quebec, which accounts for a quarter of the seats in the federal Parliament.

 

French-speaking separatists strongly dislike him for his efforts to prevent them from holding a successful referendum on whether Quebec should break away from the rest of Canada.

 

An Ipsos-Reid opinion poll published on Friday said if Dion won the leadership, the Liberals would win 27 percent support if an election were held now, compared with 35 percent for the Conservatives.

[Libaax-Sankataabte]

 

I like this guy.

 

 

"The delegates picked someone they could trust. The one with the most experience in Ottawa's halls of power. A friend, a respected colleague, a well-known former cabinet minister who had proved himself, time and again, on difficult files.

 

"Files" is one of those words associated with Stephane Dion -- implying hard work, a studious approach, a methodical and legalistic approach to difficult problems."

 

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20061202/dion_profile_061202/20061202?hub=Politics

[Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar]

Without Bob Rae's generous social state benefits, I don't think many Soomaali refugees would have arrived in Ontario in early '90s from Mareykanka and make them, who moved throughout the country later, where they stand now, the largest and one of the most successful qurbajoog Soomaalis in the West.

 

I personally wasn't in Ontario when he was a premier, however, Soomaalis should not forget about this man's great legacy and his generous policies toward to immigrants, especially when we were markaa u baahneen meel aan sal dhigno; though he has had a bad progangandic image among the Ontarians because he, being an NDP, happened to lead the worse recession in a half-century in his province and yet still didn't cut the state benefits, then Ontarians saw Mike Harris, who, in his redneck simplistic cut-cut-cut-and-nothing-but-cut provincial policies, made Rae an angel.

 

[Also without Mike Harris, not many Soomaalis would have fled Ontario to Minneapolis and Columbus, and later creating those semi-malls and other business ventures. It was win-win situation I see in now. ]

 

Sad that Bob Rae lost. I am however glad that front-runner, the Bush apologist pseudo intellectual Michael Ignatieff did not win to lead that party. Dion is a compromise, I see, especially without the support of Gerard Kennedy wouldn't have made this top.