Monday, March 05, 2007

Dion's Tour

Liberal leader Stephane Dion is about to engage on a cross-country tour in a bid to boost his sagging poll numbers.

According to the press, his strategists are hoping "it will showcase the depth of the former academic’s intellect and the breadth of his vision."

Well if the Liberals are pinning their hopes on Dion's intellect, well they might as well enjoy their stay in the Opposition benches because they will be there for a while.

I'm not saying Dion isn't smart intellectually, I am sure he is. But he doesn't seem to be all that smart politically, which is what counts when it comes to winning elections.

It's not smart to go around telling Canadians that you might impose a carbon tax on gasoline.

It's not smart politics to openly muse about nationalizing Alberta's oil sands.

It's not smart politics to scrap anti-terrorist police powers.

Rather than going on a speaking tour, Dion would be better served to re-think his policies.

It's easier to get voters to agree with you than it is to get them to like you.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

I said it before and I'll say it again. Once a Martinite, always a Martinite. Sorry, but Dion's going nowhere fast.

I think that Dion might want to think of losing Gerard Kennedy somewhere along the line. I saw him on CTV last evening and boy was he arrogant, and defensive.

Monkey Loves to Fight said...

Imposing a carbon tax on gasoline certainly isn't popular, however nationalizing Alberta's oil sands, as stupid as it would be, in fact would be quite popular in Ontario. Lets remember the Liberals aren't going to win seats in Alberta. The NEP and creating Petro-Canada were hated in Alberta, but popular in Ontario. Scrapping parts of the ATA, I am not sure about since unlike Americans, Canadians tend to be less worried about security issues so I don't think this will necessarily hurt him.

I think the reason for the falling poll numbers is the Conservatives have the incumbent advantage and since they know an election is likely imminent, they are adopting popular policies and avoiding unpopular ones. Opposition members cannot set government policy that is one disadvantage they have.

Anonymous said...

Poll numbers are falling for the Liberals because Dion's a bad leader.

Now we read that McGuinty and Harper are best friends. I see Kinsella's work all over this. What better way to get McGuinty re-elected than for him to ride the coat-tails of an every increasingly more popular Harper.

Anonymous said...

Pardon me Miles, but we saw just how the Liberals operate over the last 13 years and I give voters and taxpayers alot more credit than you do, because they saw just HOW the Liberals did nothing on issues and dithered money away to their adscam friends.

No sir!! Dion's history, and the sharks are circling

Monkey Loves to Fight said...

Now we read that McGuinty and Harper are best friends. I see Kinsella's work all over this. What better way to get McGuinty re-elected than for him to ride the coat-tails of an every increasingly more popular Harper.

If Harper is re-elected, McGuinty will probably also win simply due to the fact Ontario seems to never like having a party of the same political stripe in power both federally and provincially. When they were voting Trudeau federally they went for Davis provincially, then it was Peterson provincially and Mulroney federally, then Chretien federally and Harris provincially.