Readers will know that I have supported Stéphane Dion for a long time. In view of that, I'm not able to articulate all that I am feeling today, but here are a few thoughts.My principle reason for supporting him was because he did politics differently. He was elected as leader by those who were attracted by that and were tired of how the two other front runners represented the status quo.
I continue to support him, because his vision for this country is precisely what is required at this time. Dion wasn't in this for himself or the power he would gain with the job. He was there to present the country with a way forward and has articulated more than once that he saw that as his solemn obligation as leader. Personally, that is a leader I can follow and that is the type of person I would like to see heading this country.
I never had difficulty understanding the direction he wanted to take us in and the more I saw of him, the more I realised just how reasoned and logical his path for us was.
It took courage for Dion to bring forward an idea that would push us to think about the future of this country and it's place in the world. It took strength and conviction for him not to back down on what he knew was right.
To say that I am disappointed doesn't begin to address how I feel. In Dion, we have a leader of a political party in this country who is a man of integrity, humility and one who wasn't interested in pandering to specific niche groups, but rather was interested in putting forward ideas that everyone could benefit from. It is for that reason that I see him as the only truly progressive leader we have in this country at the moment.
There will be time for an analysis of what occurred last night, but for the moment, Stéphane Dion deserves to be recognised for who he is and what he brings to our national debate.
19 comments:
"I continue to support him, because his vision for this country was precisely what is required at this time"
Ahhh, we just had an election, recieved a butt kicking, with the voters clearly saying DION's vision is exactly what we DON'T want.
DUMP DION, NOW!!!!
Hmmmm....Anon sounds suspiciously like Koby & his post at The Maple Three blog - right before yours here at Liblogs KNB.
It's interesting how a person of integrity, with a vision for all, is not recognized, not even by some in his own Party. As you said, selfish is the name of the game for the majority.
This shows us how greedy Canada has become under Harper & his thugs. It's all about money, power, & corruption to get what you want.
We shall see what happens down the road & who are revealed as the real power hungry ones bent on their own agendas & not this country's needs.
Really anon? Is that what Canadians said?
Tell me his vision was and tell me what part of it Canadians rejected.
penlan, Harper has brought a different way of doing politics to this country and I for one want to see us turn away from that, not bow down to it by resorting to the same strategy.
That to me seems to be what some are suggesting.
First the Canadian people rejected his so called leadership.
Second the Canadian people have also rejected the liberal party at the federal level.
Thirdly and lastly for now they also rejected Mr.Dion so called "Green Shaft Plan" oh I'M sorry I meant the "Green Shift" cough...
I hate to tell you this but I told you so,that this would happen. Sorry but I couldn't resit LOL.
Whoever leads us into the next election a few things are for sure. It won't be that long from now and Harpers chickens are coming home to rest with regards to the litigation he's been throwing around to prevent the truth from getting out. He'll wear the economy going south and my feelings are that something really bad environmentally will transpire, in the not so distant future, like kind of what made everyone move on CFC's in the 80's.
The next elections timing is up to the opposition unless Harper starts breaking laws again.
I am a little saddened by the loss of the green shift. People don't realize it yet but cap and trade will result in consumers paying high prices EXCEPT they will not have the tax cuts to offset it. Maybe people will see then what the Green Shift was at that point.
I know one thing, if they try and replace Dion with another business type liberal I'm out of the party for good.
Let's see, what part of 26% of the vote don't you get. In your eyes maybe that's a ringing endorsement of his (i.e. Green Shift) policies. For the rest of the party that is an outright rejection.
I find it interesting the Left in the party, can't stop thinking about coalitions. Has anyone thought for a minute, that maybe the Dippers, Bloc and Greens see blood, and see the Libs as a party in a death spiral...just a thought.
knb - I agree with you that there are those who want to see the Libs do politics in a similar way to Harper's strategy. Or it appears that way by some comments today.
Harper's way is the typical Con way like Bush, Rove, et al. And he's in "campaign mode" all the time, non-stop for years now. It's the same school of thought, agenda, platforms, etc.
And I don't want to see it here either. As for the immediate future it will remain to be seen what transpires with the Libs.
I trust Dion & don't see anyone else who instills that in me.
We can only continue to stand strong & fight for what we believe to be true, right & fair.
To the gloaters and detractors, your comments here do nothing but reinforce my point about what we don't need.
This post was about Dion the man and what he stood for. It was not an analysis of what happened last night, I made that perfectly clear.
You represent what we need less of and what I truly want to distance myself from.
This isn't a game to me and the more people of integrity and vision we have, like Dion, standing up for this country, the better off we'll be.
If you want to speak to what I wrote, go for it. If you want to throw out idiotic statements that have nothing to do with what I said, go somewhere where your irrelavent opinions might be respected.
Jay, the idea of the Green shift was the right one and you're right, not taking action will show itself soon enough and will cost everyone.
penlan. Standing for what you believe in is not often easy, but it's far more fulfulling than sitting in the muck.
I think all the leaders had a sobering experience with the global economy issue and it's serious.
So, wouldn't it be nice and adult like for all to settle down and stop the excess partisanship?
This extreme partisanship has hurt Harper....and you weenies don't get it.
knb:
I wrote a series of posts this evening regarding the results from the perspective of all of the parties.
For a detailed view of my thoughts I would encourage you to read them.
However to answer your question in a nutshell.
The Liberals need to focus on the Conservatives and the upcoming Parliament. They will do themselves no good electing another leader.
ottlib, I will read your posts more thoroughly tomorrow, but at a glance we seem to agree on some points.
I'm still digesting events and decided not to write about the future until I mulled things around a bit more.
I'll have more to say tomorrow when I hope the media will turn their lens toward the man who is PM and notice that he is parroting what he mocked a few short weeks ago. In other words, practice real journalism.
I know. I'm aiming too high.
I hope Mr. Dion stays on as leader, he has shown tremendous growth throughout the last two and a half years. Some of the points brought forth in these blogs confirm Steven Harpers continuous attacks on the Liberal leader Stephane Dion, however if you remember the leadership race the conservative attack ads were already portraying Mr. Ignatieff as being an absent Canadian, having lived outside Canada for a time. They also had the attacks ready for Mr. Rae as well, showing him as a failure in the provincial leadership of Ontario, I believe it did not matter who the leader of the Liberals was going to be, the conservatives had already formed their lines of attack towards poor leadership, they are very calculated that way. I have to agree with some of the bloggers that we Liberals have to be very cautious not to play into what Steven Harpers wants, the master chess player has this all figured out, we should not rush to act towards quick remedies, that may be his next line of attack, "policy on the fly". What is more than likely going to happen is that Canadians will finally be fed up with Harper with in the next two and half more years, and we will see a revolt to throw him out of office the way we Canadians threw out Brian Mulroney! I don't believe it matters at all who the Leader of the Liberals is in the next election is, when Canadians make up their minds about something that's, that and we don't need the polls telling us what we already know. Sadly to say however that a high profile name like Justin Trudeau could help fight for the odd seat back here and there, no offense to Justin, I love the way he has launched his political career and stewarded the truly important values of Canadian politics. As Steven Harper has shown, it is often salesmanship not statesmanship that wins elections, however, it is Statesmanship not salesmanship that wins Canadian hearts. Canada needs intelligent and diligent hard working politicians to win back our confidence in our electoral system, until this happens we have our country being ran by individuals who win with less than forty percent of the general support and voter turn out of less than sixty percent!
ALL is very reminiscent the feelings and Thoughts when G.W Bush was elected second time ... and maybe the parallel is going To Continue.. through really hard and painful Times and Consequences in the Coming years.
We I mean Canadians will learn the hard way and make changes then ..
One of my Friend /widow with a little money invested it / just lost all ….Now she is looking for Cheaper accommodation…..
Sorry if I am not talking about Dion as main subject right now..
this is a Complex issue
let the dust settled and Chill about abrupt Changes ...
I Could trust Dion with my life ... what I can't say of any of the other Party Leaders....
Trust is Gold to me.
anon says
"Let's see, what part of 26% of the vote don't you get."
Probably the same thing you don't get about a minority and 37%. Harper still has no majority support of the electorate and his chance of defeat is a daily problem seeing the opposition control the timing of an election. Unless he wants to break his own law twice.
"Readers will know that I have supported Stéphane Dion for a long time. In view of that, I'm not able to articulate all that I am feeling today, but here are a few thoughts."
I didn't even manage to get out of my pyjamas Wednesday, let alone put together coherent thought. I commend you. I'm actually still kind of a basketcase, truth be told.
For all the reasons you mention here and some of the positive comments, and for more.
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