INTERVIEW-Canada Liberal boss dismisses polls, eyes majority
26 Feb 2007 23:16:04 GMT Source: Reuters
By David Ljunggren and Randall Palmer OTTAWA, Feb 26 (Reuters) - The leader of Canada's opposition Liberals brushed off bad press coverage and polls that put his party behind the Conservatives on Monday, saying he was confident of winning a majority in the next election. Stephane Dion was elected party leader in early December. Shortly afterward, one poll put the Liberals at 37 percent popular support with the minority Conservative government at 31 percent. Liberal support has since slipped, amid criticism of Dion's policies as well as his professorial style and heavily accented English. Dion comes from the predominantly French-speaking province of Quebec. Dion -- saying "You mustn't overreact to polls that are within the margin of error ... I always keep a cool head" -- noted that despite a spate of recent spending initiatives, the Conservatives were stalled at around 35 percent in the polls. "Every day they use their resources as government to make announcements and, despite everything, according to recent polls we're only two points behind," he said in an interview in his Parliamentary office. "That's not so bad ... and I'm very confident that at the right moment Canadians will support us very strongly and will give us a majority Liberal government." The Conservatives, who won the January 2006 election, after more than 12 years of Liberal rule, control only 125 of the 308 seats in the House of Commons and depend on support from opposition parties to govern. Dion and Prime Minister Stephen Harper both say Canadians have no wish for another election soon, but the government would fall if its March 19 budget is defeated. "Even though nobody wants an election, it's very difficult to stand up for a budget that you do not believe is in the interests of Canadians," Dion said. He declined to predict how the Liberals might vote, but played down the suggestion from some Liberals that the party abstain from voting on the budget, saying "I find this a bit strange." The Conservatives' budget will pass if it gets the support of one of the other two opposition parties in Parliament. One of Dion's main electoral planks will be to boost environmental sustainability. This could prove to be a challenge, since emissions of greenhouse gases soared under the last Liberal government. "On greenhouse gas emissions we are among the worst. On clean air, clean water, biodiversity, some indicators put us quite high ... it's not true that it's appalling as a record," he said. Dion, a former environment minister, says Canada needs to stick to its target for emissions cuts set out by the Kyoto protocol on climate change -- a goal the previous Liberal government failed to meet. He said he opposed the idea of a carbon tax and was working on an environmental plan that he called "very innovative", but gave no further details.
