So it turns out that the Liberal party of Canada decided at the last minute that Michael Ignatieff had made a few too many strange remarks, had identified himself too closely with too many strange US policies and had ultimately not shown that he deserved to be catapulted over the line of long-serving candidates seeking the position of head of the Liberal Party and future Prime Minister of Canada. A quick survey by one of the Mackenzies shows that there is general satisfaction with the result across Canada, except among the separatistes in Quebec.
Nobody could be less in cahoots with the Bush regime than the winner, Stephan Dion. Here we have a highly intellectual and very French political professor with ten years of political service under his belt and an impeccable record as the minister of environment responsible for Canada’s signing of the Kyoto Accord, which the current conservative governement is attempting to weasel its way out of. Dion won’t win a seat in Alberta where all the oil is, but he’ll win some in British Columbia and the Maritimes. The big quesion is whether Ontario can warm up to someone so French and whether the separatistes in Quebec, who dislike Dion because of his commitment to Canada, can ruin his chances in Quebec. But the Mackenzie Brothers once spent a week with Dion in Iceland and are ready to predict that the man’s basic decency and
honest humility (certainly very unfrench qualities for a politician), combined with his eloquent French and heavily accented English will prove to be a tough challenge for the Alberta-dominated Conservatives when it comes to the vote in Quebec. Could be even a tougher challenge for the Bushmen if they have to sit down and deal with Dion as prime minister and Ignatieff as foreign minister.