New Canada Liberal head tries to heal party splits
03 Dec 2006 18:08:25 GMT Source: Reuters
By David Ljunggren MONTREAL, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Stephane Dion, the former environment minister who was unexpectedly elected leader of Canada's opposition Liberals, on Sunday tried to heal splits in his party by reaching out to the many legislators who did not support him. Dion, who ran on the need to protect the environment, came into a Montreal leadership convention trailing in fourth place. But after making a strong speech and deftly striking deals with former opponents, he handily beat former Harvard academic Michael Ignatieff in the final ballot on Saturday. Many political observers expect a national election in the next few months and some doubt the ability of the famously prickly Dion to mend enough bridges by then. "The race is over and we have now all come together to fight the election and we will win it," said Dion, promising there would be no recriminations when he meets his parliamentary caucus on Monday. "I will ask my caucus, each member, to not to waste their time and my time to come to see me and to try to explain their choice (for leader)," he told a news conference on Sunday. "Instead, (I will tell them to) come to see me and explain what they want to do to win the next election." Dion, a 51-year former academic with boyish charm, said in his victory speech on Saturday night that the party was united. But leading Liberals were clearly upset and some delegates left before he had finished speaking. The Liberals, who have dominated Canadian politics for the last 100 years, lost power in January amid a high-profile patronage scandal in French-speaking Quebec. Although Dion is from Quebec, his opposition to separatists who want independence from Canada will limit his appeal in a province which accounts for a quarter of seats in Parliament. "Quebec activists left (the convention) last night stunned into silence, frustrated and in some cases furious to see that their party had just chosen the person who they saw as the biggest handicap in Quebec," wrote commentator Vincent Marissal in Montreal's La Presse newspaper. Another potential problem is that Dion speaks English in a heavy French accent, which could make it hard to sell his message in a largely English-speaking country. A poll taken before the convention showed that if the Liberals chose Dion, they would win 27 percent in an election held now compared to 35 percent for the Conservatives. Both the left-leaning pro-Liberal Toronto Star and the conservative Sun chain of newspapers said the choice of Dion would help Prime Minister Stephen Harper. But Dion shrugged off any hint of gloominess, saying he had regularly made a habit of being underestimated, and returned to the main theme of his campaign. "We risk giving our children a worse standard of living than their parents for the first time ever," said the new leader, who named his dog Kyoto after the international protocol on climate change. The Conservatives pointed out that Canada's environmental record had been poor under the previous Liberal government, which ruled from 1993 to 2006. "He's going to have to explain why greenhouse gas emissions went up 35 percent under his watch. I mean, (U.S. President) George Bush had a better record than that," Treasury Board Minister John Baird said on Saturday.
