It's a fair question; especially in light of the fact that a very important vote is coming up shortly. He left his underlings to defend his stubborn position against extending the anti-terror laws in spite of advice from his own caucus, Liberal ex-ministers, the Liberal Senate, families of 9-11 victims and of Air India, and so on.
So I tracked him down. He was in Toronto busy campaigning. It's going to take a lot of work to build that Liberal majority government you see. But the main thing is to get back the power for the Liberals.
As long as he has his priorities straight, right?
* * * *
Update: Irwin Cotler will be abstaining from the vote.
Further Update: As anyone who has been following this story now knows, the sun has now set on Canadian security.
Steve Janke - The National Post says the Unspeakable - Stephane Dion sold out Canada's security for personal power.
Further Update: As anyone who has been following this story now knows, the sun has now set on Canadian security.
Steve Janke - The National Post says the Unspeakable - Stephane Dion sold out Canada's security for personal power.
More from Steve: Stephane Dion wins one - and will likely lose big. Steve gives a great analysis of possible outcomes for my two new heros, Tom Wappel and Irwin Cotler.
Also, ChuckerCanuk is a great read tonight. (Well, not just tonight, but this one is especially well done.)
28 comments:
Wow, that just proves it.
Stephane Dion is NOT a leader.
We should make an ad about that or something...
I am beyond anger, loathing and disgust.
Election hasn't even started and he's already having to shore up his base.
I'll bet he doesn't show up for the vote. :-)
Toronto City Summit
Notice the list of attendees...
"The political heavyweights attending - in addition to Mayor Miller and other big city mayors - include: Liberal leader Stephane Dion, NDP leader Jack Layton, Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty, and business leaders across the board."
I saw Jack in the house for QP today??? Was he there today? I'm interested to know why Dion can't show up for his big day. He better be in the House for the big whipped vote.
I saw Jack in the house for QP today??? Was he there today? I'm interested to know why Dion can't show up for his big day. He better be in the House for the big whipped vote.
Mmm.. Good question. Jack wasn't harming the environment getting back so fast was he?
Joanne, got your comment. Unbelievable. Dion whips the vote and then isn't there for the actual vote. Now he can say he didn't vote against the extension. And, his caucus take this? I will watch Don Newman in a few minutes but if it gets too bad, I'll simply turn it off. My blood will just boil over.
Sandy, I expect he will be there for the vote, but he wasn't in Question Period this afternoon, and the questions dealt with this very topic.
Are you saying Dion is still in Toronto?? Wouldn't that be a neat trick. Soon we'll see the results and who in the Liberal party has any integrity, and lets party alliance be second to the best interests of Canada. Interesting hearing Liberals asking for changes yet they had how long to do anything even as Government.
Well, it seems to me that Stephane Dion didn't listen to anyone. He didn't listen to Liberal MP's, former Liberal MP's, Liberal Senators, nor members of the families who lost loved ones due to terrorism.
Thus...it's only fair that no one listen to Dion. As far as I'm concerned, he has nothing of value to say that I want to hear.
raz
I expect more from our elected representatives. Politics in Canada is getting ridiculous now. The Liberals think that when they are elected to office their only responsibility is to get themselves re-elected and so rather than do what’s right for their constituents they just oppose everything the government wants to do (even if they originally created the legislation). On a side note. Where is the media? Why are they not challenging these people? Do they think there current gig is just a queue for the Governor General job?
Are you saying Dion is still in Toronto??
Tom, Dion got back in time for the vote, but he wasn't in QP this afternoon. He was already on the campaign trail seeking that majority.
Dion'$ $eeking $upport for the Librano$ the U$ual Way with your tax dollar$$$.
Awhile ago, some anonomous commenter, a brilliant, in-the-know person he must be,
said that a "little birdy" told him about some willing to speak about a deal to kill the terrorism law among an "interested" voting bloc that got Dion into power.
Well, they're starting to chirp, from the National Post:
"Among veteran Liberal insiders, it is believed that the several hundred Sikh convention delegates Bains and his allies led into the Dion camp (via Gerard Kennedy) came with a price: an end to the investigative powers contained in the Anti-Terrorism Act, which was opposed for predictable reasons by various Sikh, Tamil and Muslim organizations.
Indeed, I am informed by a well-informed source that the critical deals were cut months in advance, and were driven by Bains -- and, in the case of Muslim delegates, by Arab-Canadian MP Omar Alghabra -- through Kennedy, who'd been staked out early by ethno-politicians as an empty vessel into which they could pour their parochial agendas.
These machinations should not be confined to history's footnotes: The Montreal Liberal convention was a close-fought thing, and the mass migration of hundreds of well-herded delegates along ethnic lines was likely the deciding factor. If more information comes out about unsavoury deals, Dion's image as a squeaky-clean enviro-wonk will erode, and traditional voter suspicion about sleazy Liberal ethno-politics will bubble to the surface. Given the high stakes -- we are, after all, talking about a law that could help us learn the truth about the greatest terrorist attack in Canadian history, as well as prevent even greater carnage in the future-- the issue could prove explosive."
Here:
http://tinyurl.com/2748xj
A "deal". Revealed by a "well informed source".
Oh, this is going to get big alright.
and the icing on the cake was Bains having a press conference demanding an apology.
Canadians are less safe than they were just a few hours ago,
because Dion owed some unscrupulous favours.
We've hit rock bottom in Canadian politics. This is worse than Adscam.
In The Know, I read that article this morning, but thanks for pointing it out. So much has happened today. It's all there in black & white, and yet when Pierre Pollievre mentioned some of these things, the Liberals went ballistic again, and as anon mentioned, they demanded yet another apology.
When do we Canadian citizens get OUR apology???
This issue bothers me so much, that I really need to take some time to reflect.
The media has been disappointing as usual. The masses again are uninformed about the connections between Bain and the Liberal convention, where Dion the underdog came up thru the middle. It is easy to connect the dots.
Do you all remember the 'victory' cry when Alghebra was nominated last year?
Joanne, this deal should be at the top of every blogging tories site.
Political Staples has it up.
Pass it on to your fellow bloggers!
Turing over ANY Liberal's connections invariably results in activity that I find akin to what happens when you role over an old log in the forest!
The bugs go scattering as their putrescent little world is exposed.
Bug-erals!
Anon, thanks. Here is the post that I believe you are referring to, if anyone else is interested.
I am wiped out tonight, but hope to go back at it tomorrow.
Mississauga news story Chis Clay Dec. 20,2005:
A person(Elsabawy) present at the Liberal nomination of Alghebra alleges he heard him say 'victory for Islam' on the podium.
Now Algehbra is mentioned in the Jonathan Kay National Post story...not hard to figure how Dion 'came up thru the middle' in Dec./06.Not hard to figure his determination in the vote today.
Not hard to figure why MSM is sleeping thru this one.
Remember last week Robertson(CTV) spent 10 minutes telling Canada about vitamins on the 11pm National News after Harper mentioned the Bolan story.
I have yet to see a post on who was not there, or voted against:
So far, Cotler, Wappell, Cullen, Paul Martin, Bill Graham, Derek Lee.
Anybody know the rest?
This is old anonymous Tango Juliette here, kiddies.
Heroe? On the Lib side? Cotler maybe. His missus? Fer shure, eh!
But Wappell? NEVER!!! This is old vet,Tango J, venting about old vet-abusing, sleaze-ball Tommy.
My humble observations on this vote? I see the main clue featured in a TV scrum featuring Lib MP Mme Rastani (? not certain on the spelling here, sorry.)
These ATA laws were entrusted to the Liberals when they wrote them up. Just 'cause they're "the party of human rights and the Cdn. constitution... but you can no longer leave these sorts of laws in the hands of someone like this government, someone like a 'fass-iss.' You know?"
The score from the Natural Ruling Party of Grit Grift and Corruption goes like this: Hum along on the first few bars. "The Liberal Party of Canada, the Party of the most recent use of the War Measures Act infamy, was good with the deal, but, NOW, the Conservatives - can never, must never, be trusted with anything as precious as the rights of Canadian citizens, 'cause like the lady sez: "they're ideaological 'fass-isst's,' plain and simple."
that's what's really going on here. It don't matter much no-how how Dion, and the BellMounts, appeared to have fragmented the vote-absent-abstention charade.
They just showed the country that they can still ride herd on Prime Minister Harper because, you know, he's a scary, bush-y ideaologue wee-publican, with a tewwible nasty old hidden agenda.
That's all there is folks. No more. No less. Gotta stomp on them clowns. Good. And hard. Then nail their appolgists.
But Wappell? NEVER!!! This is old vet,Tango J, venting about old vet-abusing, sleaze-ball Tommy.
Oh, that's right. I seem to recall Zac mentioning something about that as well. Could you please refresh my memory, Tango? Thanks.
TANGO JULIETTE SEZ:
Remember this? Couple of elections back, some old Vet (80 plus years old) living in Wappell's Toronto area riding asked for some help with the gov't paper-work, or something like that, either for self, or for the spouse.
Wappell: "I know how you voted the last election, and it wasn't for me. There'll be no assistance for you coming out of this MP's office, laddy."
Sounds frightfully like the soup guy on Seifield.
"No help for you!!"
Must be the new liblipnazi.
Tango, I remember that now! Yeah, that was really poor. I wonder if he ever apologized to the guy.
That would be like me asking Karen Redman for help. She knows I would never vote for her, but she does at least respond after a few months or so.
Stephane Dion should never have been elected Liberal leader. He cannot even defend himself in parliament.
Yesterday he tried to demonize PMSH and the Conservative party by accusing them of using their fiscal policy to attack "the poor and vulnerable", but ended up getting royally smacked when the Prime Minister exposed the Liberal Party’s record. This is becoming a daily occurrence.
Stephane Dion’s smackdown
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