Tory laughter rains down on Dion

Since the Liberals are tough on crime according to Dion I presume this means that not only is he going to allow the Throne Speech to pass but he will also support the Omnibus Crime Bill.
Events have transpired just as I predicted. Dion caved and did what Ignatieff and others told him to do. No wonder Ignatieff had to hide his face to keep from laughing too. Ignatieff is now assured that Dion has nowhere to go but down and possibly out as polls will show the Liberals falling still further. Dion has not prevented Harper from getting a majority government. He has almost assured that he will get a majority eventually and that meanwhile he will be able to govern and get his agenda passed as if he were a majority anyway. I think that both the Liberal strategists and the Conservative strategists agree. They want to give Dion a knockout blow.

Tory laughter rains down on Dion


Oct 17, 2007 06:28 PM
THE CANADIAN PRESS

OTTAWA – They call laughter the kiss of death in politics – and the smooches rained down upon Stephane Dion from the Conservative benches today.

By the time he finished a 45-minute speech in which he declared he would not bring down the government, the Liberal leader was deluged with derisive guffaws.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper joined in as his troops chuckled openly at Dion. The laughter first erupted when Dion declared that the Liberal party was tough on crime.

The mockery grew louder as Dion launched into a lengthy defence of his record on climate change while lambasting the Tories' abandonment of the Kyoto accord.

Dion persisted without acknowledging his opponents, who by this time were gobsmacked by a case of the mass giggles. It was so widespread at one point that even Michael Ignatieff – the Liberals' deputy leader who sits right next to Dion – cupped his face to stifle a laugh.

But Dion plodded ahead.

He did it in English that was sometimes stilted enough to prompt barbed heckles from his opponents.

Dion drew the loudest laughs as he read press releases from environmental groups who accuse the Tories of cancelling Liberal programs and replacing them with inferior ones.

"And I quote the Sierra Club," Dion began.

"Federal programs were slashed and the importance of climate change was downplayed. An entire year was lost. End of quote.

"But I continue to quote the Sierra Club. . ."

Elizabeth May, the Green party leader, nodded her head in silent agreement from the visitors' gallery.

However, amid the knee-slapping chortles and incredulity from the Conservative benches, today may have brought a silver lining to the gloom that surrounds Dion.

After weeks in which his party was embroiled in infighting and back-stabbing, there were signs that the angst-ridden Liberals had reached rock-bottom and were looking to patch up their differences.

Grit MPs have spent weeks openly questioning their leader, leaking accounts of private meetings to the media and calling for the resignation of a key member of Dion's inner circle.

Hostilities degenerated into a vulgarity-laced exchange between a pair of Liberal MPs at a caucus meeting earlier this week.

But there didn't appear to be any of that today.

Two of the Montreal MPs who called publicly for the resignation of Dion confidant Jamie Carroll went out of their way to offer a public display of affection for their leader.

In one of several standing ovations for his leader, Denis Coderre finished clapping, sat down, and stood up to resume cheering.

Another Montreal MP – Pablo Rodriguez – was one of many Liberals who made their way to the front of the Commons floor to crowd around Dion and shake his hand at the end of his speech.

The cheers for Dion grew louder as he bashed one element of the throne speech after another, accusing the Tories of ignoring child poverty, the environment, Canada's economic competitiveness, and of misleading Canadians on Afghanistan.

At one point Liberals chanted, "More! More!"

The chamber fell quiet when Dion took on the prime minister over his claim to be province-friendly.

The former unity minister in the Chrétien government scolded Harper for picking fights with the premiers and invited the prime minister to consult him when crafting legislation limiting federal spending powers.

After all, he said, the Tories were promising less in that regard than what he and Chrétien placed in the Liberal throne speech of 1996.

That little boast had Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe wagging his finger and offering thanks to the Liberals for giving him a slogan with which to beat the Tories in the next election: More centralist that Stephane Dion.

But the more Dion attacked them, the more the Tories heckled. Before he announced his decision to let the confidence bill pass, one Conservative MP pre-empted him with a shout.

"You're gonna vote for it anyway!"

Perhaps the loudest cheer from Liberals came when Dion made what may have been among the meekest predictions in Canadian politics: that he would keep the Conservatives from winning a majority government.

Leaning back in his chair, Harper turned to his left and waved dismissively