Tag: Stephane Dion

Stéphane Dion was leader of the Liberal Party of Canada from December 2006-December 2008.

Dion was elected leader of the Liberal Party after the resignation of Prime Minister Paul Martin after the Liberal election loss in 2006.

Dion’s leadership was marred by frequent gaffes and blunders and his inability to be an effective communicator. His interview with CTV’s Steve Murphy was a turning point in Liberal fortunes during the 2008 election. His hallmark Green Shift policy did not fare much better.

Ultimately, Dion’s mishandling of the 2008 coalition crisis – which saw the Liberals, NDP, and Bloc Quebecois forming a potential coalition government – resulted in the end of his leadership.

Life after leadership wasn’t bad to Stephane Dion. He served as Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Trudeau government and the Canadian Ambassador to Germany.

Stéphane Dion – La vie en rouge

Yesterday, the Conservatives released advertising to define Stéphane Dion’s new carbon tax before he has a chance to do it himself. I’m not sure too many people believe politicians when they say that they’ve got a new tax scheme where they’ll “shift” taxes or that Dion has laser-like precision in his tax-balancing ability in order to reconfigure Canada’s tax system to be “revenue-neutral” after he’s done putting a tax on everything from gas to lettuce.

Here’s my contribution. I call it Stéphane Dion – La vie en rouge

Tories say Cadman tape was doctored: Supporting documents

Today, at a press conference at the Conservative Party war-room on the east side of Ottawa, reporters were given supporting documents for the latest Conservative volley in the Cadman controversy.

Here is the record of motion to request an injunction against the Liberals from distributing the Cadman tape. It was filed on behalf of Prime Minister Stephen Harper in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice today. The document includes sworn affidavits from the Prime Minister, Dona Cadman (wife of Chuck Cadman), Ray Novak (Executive Assistant to the Prime Minister), Carolyn Stewart-Olson (press secretary to the Prime Minister), Dan Wallace (former assistant to Chuck Cadman), Jeffrey Ballingall (Conservative Resource Group employee), Vicky Edgecombe (articling student at Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP), Tom Owen (Chief Engineer and President of Owl Investigations, a forensic consulting firm), and R. Alan Gough (Integra View Inc., a statement analysis, video and audio forensics firm).

Pages 27-60 are in reverse order and can be found between pages 26 and 61 (the page order is 1-26, 60-27 and then 61-336.

Record of Motion – Upload a doc

The following is a summary of the Conservative’s argument and highlights that they’re emphasizing from the record of motion.

Highlights – Upload a doc

Public property reserved for Liberal elite

Last year around this time, I wrote about Stephane Dion’s reward to the top-tier of elite Liberal donors. Last June, the Liberal leader held an exclusive garden party at his official residence, Stornoway. The mansion is property of the National Capital Commission (NCC), a division of the federal government, and therefore public property.

This year, Stephane Dion is again using Stornoway to reward members of the Laurier Club for paying their dues to the party. If you’re a loyal Liberal and have maxed out your annual donation at $1100, you can hob-nob it with fellow Liberals of equal or greater means at the residence currently on loan to Dion by the Canadian taxpayer. Not a Liberal donor but just a chump who pays their taxes? Sorry, this party is for VIP Liberals only.

Last year I noted, “It’s not illegal to use government property in this way as a perk for top donors to a political party per se, but is it ethical?”

I still have the same question.

Here is the story from Canwest about the event,

Liberal leader Stéphane Dion is hosting several hundred of the party’s well-heeled donors tonight at an exclusive garden party in his official residence, Stornoway. Between 400 and 500 members of the Laurier Club, membership that comes only with an annual donation of $1,100 to the Liberal party, are expected to gather under a sprawling backyard tent as part of Mr. Dion’s garden-party events this year, an aide confirmed.

Laurier Club members did not have to donate to the party to attend the event in their honour, press aide Mark Dunn said.

An entrance fee would have been handy, in light of Mr. Dion’s outstanding debt from his 2006 leadership campaign, but contrary to political financing rules. In 2006, Parliament passed the Harper government’s public accountability act in 2006, lowering the ceiling on individual donations from $5,000 to $1,100.