The Liberal party’s campaign strategists are making Stephane Dion look like a total dud!
From what I have observed so far, he shows up at his daily events, delivers some remarks that don’t seem to have been written by him … makes an announcement in stilted words, also seemingly scripted by others … takes a few questions from the regular “national” reporters accompanying him … and then, like Harper, brushes off most local media … and gets whisked away, back into the safety of his campaign capsule.
It’s all making him look/sound awful.
Canadians already knew Dion was an intellectual, not a charismatic, emotional speaker easily given to delivering scripted speeches written by others … especially in English. So why do they torture him, and us, by forcing him to struggle through dull, seemingly artificial prose, painfully leading up to his announcement “du jour”?
Let Dion loose!
The only thing that will save him (and the Liberals) from utter devastation in this election is if they throw away the scripted texts and free up their leader to speak from his heart. He’s no dummy … he’ll know the points he has to make and where he has to get to in his speech … the announcement he has to make and the critical comments he has to throw out about Harper etc … but let him get there in his own words, his own sentiments.
He’ll look better, sound better … and people may even start giving him the credibility he desperately needs. (Ever notice his best clips now are when he is responding to questions ..not delivering his “prepared” remarks!)
And let him take up about the ONLY issue that will win the Liberals votes EVERYWHERE IN CANADA (except Alberta …where they won’t get a seat anyway): go after the WINDFALL PROFITS by the Big Oil Companies.
That is Harper’s achiles heel! Canadians are fed up with being gouged at the pumps and seeing their federal government doing absolutely nothing about it!
Of course Harper … with his debt to Albertans and its oil companies … is not likely to do anything about the outrageous profits, now in the BILLIONS each fiscal quarter, being regularly reported by the corporations.
Canadians need a Champion on our behalf … one who could actually do something about it and has a realistic chance of winning power… although Offiical Opposition could become within its grasp if Dion continues to falter!
The NDP have already raised the issue and promised to take action on the price gouging… but let’s face it, few really expect they have a chance to become government. Not this time, anyway.
So Dion should take up the cause! Lord knows, his current campaign is not working! And his latest timid, tepid remarks on oil prices probably LOST him even more votes.
To turn things around, Dion should TAKE UP THE PEOPLE’S CAUSE against excessive windfall oil company profits, promise to take action, set limits and vow that he’ll act against the excessive profit-taking in this captive market.
And by taking on thec oil companies over their excessive profits, Dion could even lead more Canadians to better accept the Green Shift carbon plan.
Becoming a CHAMPION of the people on this issue, I believe, would turn around the Liberal leader’s declining fortunes among ordinary voters .. the real objective of any electoral campaign.
But his strategists have to change course … NOW.
And remember:
Champions WIN; lecturers LOSE.
5 responses so far ↓
1 Clayton Perrin // Sep 13, 2008 at 10:32 am
The only way the Libs will reurn with a majority government is to sell Dion as the anti-Harper. They have to show the mistakes Harper has made, the monumental F—-ps the country is still paying for from the Mulroney years. I think Dion has to take a page from the Chretien book and sell himself as the underdog. Chretien was never the inetllectual(spelling) Harper, Trudeau or Dion is BUT he convinced the people of Canada that voting for him was a vote for one Canada not the fragmented country the Bloc or Harper seem to be pushing.
2 Brian Gough // Sep 13, 2008 at 9:31 pm
Dion is smuck, do you REALLY want him running the country? The liberals have been a disgrace as an opposition,the liberals still have too many of the old guard(corrupt ) in the party,4 more years in opposition should weed a large percentage out.
The liberals did nothing in a decade in power about greenhouse gasses,nothing about universal daycare and they were corrupt.
I want to dwell on universal daycare for a moment,first off my parents and generation after generation never had daycare paid for by goverment,and the future generations won`t have it either,daycare costs thousands od dollars a year,people should be asking for a return to the days of one income providing enough money for the family. I am sick of liberals promising things that they will never deliver on!
If ya want to slow down emissions there is only one way–Hard emission caps period,offer tax breaks to big polluters to install the newest,cleanest equipment and leaver the damn public alone.
Harv as for oil company profits the answere is simple but I don`t think any political party has the balls to do it and thats a national oil recovery and national refining for domestic use that the goverment can charge whatever it wants, its a brilliant plan because if the public gets cheap gas like IRAQ or VENAZUELA or libyia or Saudia Arabia and many others the money the public saves will be spent in our CANADIAN ECONOMY!
Sorry Harv,if anyone thinks the liberals are going to do anything any diffrent or better the the Conservatives are surely mistaken.
One last point Harv,perhaps when Alberta has enough money they can pay off Canadas debt and all the provincial debt and become the new banker kingpin with all the interest going into the Alberta economy! ya its a wild thought but you know eventually that if one province that has hundreds of billions of dollars inside of a country with large debt,well I will leave the rest to your imagination,you can`t take it with you.
3 LP // Sep 13, 2008 at 11:04 pm
I just drove by a Chevron. The price was 1.51. On my way back not but 10 minutes later the price was being adjusted down to 1.41.
Guess the hurricane season is over, however I am feeling a draft in personal southern region.
4 Patrick Bell (NOT the MLA) // Sep 14, 2008 at 2:53 am
I have always voted Liberal, but I won’t touch Dion. He’s weak. I have no idea what they were thinking about when he was chosen leader for the party.
I agree with much of what Brian said above. Chretien, that arrogant SOB, killed whatever credibility the Liberals may have had during his tenure.
Also to add to what Brian was saying with regards to “going back to the one income providing enough for the family”…well, the only way that will happen is if we plummet into an economic depression and have to rebuild the economy from the ground up. Currently, there is no way in a market such as the lower mainland that one income will suffice. My wife and I are both professionals and “we” are some of those folks that have been priced out.
I firmly believe, whether the average Joe likes it or not, this current economy is teetering on the brink. And no, it isn’t good for any of us. Its all part of the global economic cycle.
Oh ps….I say the Conservatives get their majority based on the left vote being spread between 4 opposition parties…
5 crh // Sep 15, 2008 at 7:04 pm
Great post Brian. I agree, we need a national supplier of gas to Canadians. Controlling it from the raw product to the refinery. This is where tax dollars from the pump should be going-not into general revenue. If Harper was so brilliant at economics, why does he let the high price of gas cause a recession? Why do Canadians support him when he just sits back and watches it happen? Rose-coloured partisan glasses…
If the Liberals wanted to get re-elected, they should have voted for Bob Rae. He would have managed to get huge numbers of strategic voters from the NDP.
Leave a Comment
CAPTCHA Code is needed.