Two very strong launch speeches from Michael Ignatieff and Stephane Dion launching their leadership bids today, with Dion edging out the John Kerry look-a-like by a hair. The reason: Ignatieff was too heavy on Liberal platitudes and clichés. Still, these two will be strong. Calling himself a "progressive" who wants to "plant the Liberal party firmly on the centre LEFT of the politican spectrum," Ignatieff looked calm, cool and very professional.
I think the one to look out for here is Dion. He's an outsider who doesn't exhude "professional politician" vibes, and there may be an apetite for someone like that. Despite being despised by the Quebec journalistic and academic elite, I wouldn't be surprised to see him do well in Quebec with Liberal supporters and if he wins, in an election. The support of the elites doesn't matter that much, especially with Quebecers themselves. Trudeau won 74 of 75 seats in 1980, a decade after he ordered tanks into Montreal and was supposedly "hated". Dion's biggest handicap is probably his lacklustre English, but I'm sure he'll be working on that.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 12:58 PM
