Timing is Everything

It's now been a year with Dion at the helm and let it not be said that it hasn't been a tumultuous one. Highs, lows and out right fabrications by dissenters have peppered this past year.

It's been fascinating and sometimes infuriating to watch, but it has kept people with an interest in politics rapt. What percentage of the population that entails I have no idea, but I suspect the number of those who really watch the minutiae is quite low.

What I do think people pay attention to are issues that affect their own environs, no matter how narrowly or broadly each individual chooses to define that.

We've watched Stephane Dion through the journalist's micro-scope this past year and beyond really. There was no optimism there before his election and since that time there has been precious little support. Perhaps they were ticked at their inability to predict the outcome and then went after him with a vengeance? As frustrating as it has been to watch this, it does have the potential to produce unexpected consequences.

Being defined as something you are not only works for so long. At some point in time you are given an honest forum and the myth is destroyed.

It is with that in mind that I read about and read into, the gathering in Montreal. Dion, in taking the time to speak directly to the party faithful is reminding them of the man, not the caricature. They are being reminded that this is a man of integrity, conviction and above all a man who is determined to correct the direction of the country.

No he's not flashy and indeed grammatically his English is not perfect, though he is not difficult to understand in spite of what is reported, but he has many outstanding quality's that cannot be ignored. He's not a typical politician. Got it.

Maybe though, just maybe, we are at the point that we long for that? I believe in Canada and Canadians. Our perception of ourselves has shifted vis a vis current policy and I do not think most of us are comfortable with that. The mean spirited PM that we see in Harper has presented quite a different view of Canada to the public. Those of us who follow knew that would happen. Con's are comfortable with this new outlook, I do not believe most Canadians are though. In Dion we have a powerful reminder of how this country and it's people view the world and perhaps more importantly, their place in it. Juxtapose that against a view. a government, that throws all of that away.

Drip, by painful drip, Harper is changing our standing and it's now starting to actually show. Gun control, joining the infamous GNEP after months of denial, the Environment, the shift on the Death Penalty, Human Rights... well you know the list. My point here is that the list of changes is far reaching now and at long last, this redefinition of our country by stealth is being reported on. By far reaching, I mean it's starting to touch many individuals and groups.

Dion is on the right side of all of these issues. That's not just my opinion. The polls bear it out. As individuals and various groups begin to feel uncomfortable in their particular environs, they will look for someone to put it right.

That's where timing comes in. As uncomfortable as this past year has sometimes been, we may be now seeing an unintentional plan coming together. If the Liberal Party can actually rally and stop reading the fantasy that the press puts out, they may realise that the pain has been worth the prize.

Consider the fatigue factor. People are tired of all the yelling, debasing and inciting. The mood the Con's seek to set has given the right a platform, but they are not gaining ground in this country. No, in fact they are becoming tedious and full of empty rhetoric.

There is still work to do, but with serious policy and real issues to combat, we are now at a point that Dion could actually prove that all the infantile advertising the Con's have put out was money wasted.

While reporters seem to be surprised, I think Dion may indeed prove that, timing is everything.