Dion a Leader?! Maybe
by Angelo Persichilli
THE HILL TIMES
No one should be surprised
that federal Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion is a weak leader. One of
the worst-kept secrets in Ottawa is that the Liberal Party, under Dion¹s
leadership, doesn¹t stand a chance of defeating Prime Minister
Stephen Harper¹s Conservatives in the next election. However, nobody
would have suspected that Dion was going to admit it even before going to
the polls and already looking for partners to form a government.
The Liberal leader¹s decision not to run a Liberal candidate in the
riding of Nova Scotia in order to support Green Party Leader Elizabeth
May, is first of all, a gift to NDP Leader Jack Layton (Toronto-Danforth,
Ont.) and another nail in the political coffin of Dion (Saint-Laurent-Cartierville,
Que.).
The agreement means he¹s abdicating the duty of his party to defeat
Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay (Central Nova, N.S.). It¹s a
concession of defeat even before the vote.
This is unheard of in the history of a national political organization.
Basically Dion is telling Liberals, ³Sorry folks, we cannot win this one,
let others try.² But this decision does not only illustrate Dion¹s
weakness as a federal political leader, it is also brings into question
his political intelligence, and highlights, underscores and emphasizes his
naivety. Most of all, it reflects Dion¹s lack of respect for the
intelligence of voters.
Basically, he¹s saying he believes that agreements from the top can
be imposed to the rank and file party members without any consultations,
but with a stroke of a wand. This is not the first time he has bypassed
democratic rules to impose his own views. He believes he can go into any
riding in Canada and tell his candidates, not to run one of their own and
vote for another party.
Yes, he is bending the democratic rules to facilitate the candidacy of
women. Mr. Dion should know better than ³imposing democracy² is an
oxymoron everywhere, even in politics. Besides, instead of parachuting his
supporters in safe ridings, like Martha Hall Findlay, why doesn¹t he
make an effort to keep those that are already there, like Belinda Stronach,
even if they were not in the list of his supporters?
Dion has to understand that making decision from the top and signing
papers, is merely a way to consider the job done.
One case in point is the Kyoto Protocol agreement: he and his government
signed a bunch of papers and then proceeded to do nothing to make it work
between 1997 and the date they were removed from government.
But the from the top-down agreement in Nova Scotia, while it brings no
surprise from the ³don Quixotesque² leader of the Liberal Party, it is
an opportunity to better understand the new leader of the Green Party of
Canada.
When May decided to run in Nova Scotia against the political ³giant²
MacKay, I thought she was gutsy, even though politically naïve.
Through her agreement with Dion, she has confirmed her political naiveté,
that she¹s presumptuous, and doesn¹t have guts. She is like the
little David deciding to challenge the nasty Goliath but, at the last
moment, asks her parents to go with her.
She is naïve because she believes that Dion can tell Liberals what to
do; and she¹s presumptuous because she¹s telling the ³green
electorate² to vote for the Liberals in other ridings outside Central
Nova, N.S.
Ms. May doesn¹t understand that there¹s no ³green electorate.²
There are disgruntled voters unhappy with the conventional parties and
looking for a new leadership. Most of them are coming exactly from the
Liberal Party.
Through her agreement with Dion, she¹s telling disgruntled
Liberals‹who in the last polls most likely appeared under the ³Green
Party² support and did not like Dion¹s leadership, to go and vote
for Dion.
If they decided not to vote for the Liberals, it was also because they
were unhappy with the way the Liberal government, and Dion handled the
environment file. As mentioned before, signing a piece of paper, even if
the letterhead says Kyoto, won¹t clean our space, air and water
without any concrete action.
And, according to some environmentalists, the best government to deal with
the environment, was not the one where Dion was serving as a minister, but
prime minister Brian Mulroney¹s.
The agreement in Central Nova is nothing but a naïve attempt of
desperate people who believe they can fool people and reach the top
through short cuts and expediency.
There is a good chance that most of the people that thought to go to the
Green Party in search for a new leadership, are now having second thoughts
and, I¹m sure, the name Jack Layton is often coming up in their
minds.
