Last weekend the race to succeed Paul Martin as leader of the Liberal Party became clearer. It’s Michael Ignatieff’s race to lose, but Bob Rae, Stephane Dion, and Gerrard Kennedy still have a reasonable shot to win the leadership.
Unlike past leadership races which were foregone conclusions, this one really matters for the Liberals. In the last few years, infighting between the Chrétien and Martin factions of the party, plus the constant headaches of the sponsorship scandal, have made life hard for the Liberals. Responding to these problems, Canadians all over the country, but especially in Quebec, punished the Liberals and voted in Stephen Harper’s Conservatives earlier this year.
With the party in disarray, this leadership race is about determining who can unite the Liberals and bring them back into power.
I believe that Stephane Dion is the right man for the job. Dion, the only Quebecker and the lone candidate with extensive government experience at the federal level, is running on a platform of social justice, economic prosperity, and environmental sustainability.
He pledges to make huge investments in the education system, which will help Canada compete better in the global economy. This is a key issue since the only way to improve the standard of living for Canadians is to better the education system. Higher education opens up a wealth of opportunity for people all over the country, allowing more and more to enjoy the comfortable lifestyle already experienced by many Canadians.
Dion addresses another issue that is of great importance to Canadians: national unity. With the debacle of the sponsorship scandal deeply entrenched in the minds of Quebeckers, and the separatist movement being reenergized, there is no better candidate to counter this threat.
After the federalists’ razor-thin victory in the 1995 Quebec referendum, then-PM Chrétien appointed Dion as Intergovernmental Affairs minister to boost the federalist cause in Quebec. Dion turned out to be the separatists’ worst nightmare, authoring the Clarity Act that established the rules for the next referendum in Quebec. With this important piece of legislation, Dion developed an image as a hard-line federalist in the mould of Pierre Trudeau. Dion argues that Quebec is an integral part of Canada that makes the country more diverse, multicultural, and accepting of anyone of any race or ethnic background.
I feel that Dion’s firm federalist position shows how much he cares about national unity. He argues that you can be a Quebecker but also a Canadian, in the way that citizens from Alberta or Nova Scotia see themselves. As a recent immigrant to Canada and a French speaker, I am fascinated by the francophone culture in Quebec. I feel that the province adds to, not subtracts from, the diverse culture of this country. With the Liberals struggling in Quebec, the best hope of saving their image there lies with the only Quebecker in the race.
Though not a frontrunner, Dion hopes that he can ride support during the second round of balloting into victory, especially if supporters of the “Anybody but Rae or Ignatieff” platform jump to his camp. With less than two months to go in a race that has already seen its share of surprises, anything can happen.
