Local Liberals happy with new Federal Leader
by Bill Rea

Stephane Dion didn’t have much support from this area heading into last week’s Liberal leadership convention in Montreal. But local Grits have been saying they’re pleased with the way things worked out.

The former minister of intergovernmental affairs under Jean Chretien and environment minister under Paul Martin won the Liberal leadership last Saturday on the fourth ballot of the convention, beating front-runner Michael Ignatieff by more than 400 votes.

From the contingent representing York — Simcoe, Dion had one vote going in, according to riding association president Lyn Steele. There were four delegates backing Gerard Kennedy and another four for Martha Hall Findlay, two for Ignatieff and three for former premier Bob Rae, including Steele herself and Kate Wilson, who was the Grit candidate in the riding for the last two federal elections.

Both went to Dion on the final ballot.

“I felt Canadians would be more open to receiving him because he had really paid his dues working his way up the ladder,” Wilson remarked.

She added she knows of his Parliamentary work, especially with regard to national unity, when she was affiliated with Canadians for a United Canada.

She still had a lot of praise for her candidate. “Rae was just outstanding,” she declared.

“I knew Rae was in trouble

when Kennedy went to Dion,” she added.

Wilson also observed that some 600 people sat out the vote on the last ballot, and she thought a lot of them would have been from Rae’s camp.

“They wanted Rae on the ballot,” she said. “The word on the floor was people just left.”

But Wilson is also impressed with Dion.

“He really has a lot of personality, when you sit and listen to him,” she remarked. “He’s as sharp as a tack.”

She also thought the party will follow him. “I think they’ll like what they see,” she said.

Steele said she was committed to Dion after Rae was eliminated. “I wouldn’t have supported Ignatieff any way,” she remarked, adding Dion is “a man of honour and integrity.”

She added Dion’s views are closer to her own on things like world and women’s issues.

Steele said she was “shocked” that Kennedy dropped out of the race as early as he did.

“He could have stuck around for another ballot,” she declared. “Could it have made a difference? Who knows?”

While Liberals are pleased with their new leader, the local Conservative MP was having little trouble controlling his adulation.

“I think his track record speaks for itself,” Peter Van Loan remarked.

He said Dion was unity minister at the time of the sponsorship scandal in Quebec. During his time as environment minister, Van Loan said Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions rose to 35 per cent above the rates set out in the Kyoto accord, which he said Dion claims to believe in.

“He has a clear track record of failure,” Van Loan said.

He added he wasn’t surprised with the way things turned out. He didn’t expect the Grits would ever go for a New Democrat like Rae as leader, “although he came close,” and he observed that Ignatieff stumbled badly at the end. He concluded the convention appeared to be an affair in which a clear third-place contender stood a good chance.

Van Loan also said he wasn’t too impressed with Dion’s House of Commons debut as leader.

“I thought he was rather wooden reading his questions,” he remarked, although he expects there will be improvement.

“He should not be taken too lightly,” Van loan remarked.