LINO: Dion

Liberals waiting for a miracle
Ottawa Sun: News Columnist MICHAEL HARRIS Fri, October 19, 2007

It may be time to rename Stephane Dion's dog: After his master's reaction to the throne speech, Kyoto would surely be more comfortable answering to Old Yeller.

With his party unravelling like a cheap suit, Dion sunk to the occasion in Parliament, bowed to his political foes, failed utterly to rally his own troops and then tried to talk away his political cowardice with the claim that Canadians don't want an election.

Perhaps Mr. Dion's wife believes that.

The rest of the country knows exactly why this interim LINO (Leader in Name Only) showed the white feather. The Liberal party is deconstructing itself. No cash in the kitty, an exodus of candidates and everyone around the leader wearing the rictus smile of execution at dawn or the lean and hungry look. (Someone should really wipe that ribbon of saliva off of Michael Ignatieff's face. Ambition is one thing, but drooling on live television is a no-no.)

Remember the days when being the party's Quebec lieutenant was like being made the 13th disciple? Now, nobody even wants the job.

Dion, twice turned down in trying to fill the post, was finally reduced to imposing on a senator. The Quebec wing of the party is beginning to look like one of those ghost towns in a Clint Eastwood movie.

Thankfully, Dion provided some comic relief in front of the cameras this week. The Liberals, he said, would not defeat the government because they wanted this Parliament to work. This from the same party that used every trick in the book to block, stall or derail all the government legislation they could, even using the unelected senate to gum up the works.

Hello. The Liberals don't give a hoot about whether or not Canadians want an election. Nor do they care about making Parliament work. All they want is to save their own bony political ass and that means buying time and hoping for a miracle -- a fatal blunder from the government, a reversal of their leader's fortunes.

I'll tell you what they're going to get: The prime minister is now going to call their bluff on all the so-called Liberal principles that were abandoned with the decision not to topple the government.

For starters, Prime Minister Stephen Harper will not be accepting any amendments to his crime bill. Some of the amendments to it that passed in the last session will be removed. How does Dion stop him now that he has backed down on the speech from the throne? Will Canadians want an election any more in a few weeks time? And what about the Liberal LINO's new found commitment to wanting Parliament to work? The extent of the humiliation awaiting the Grits on this issue alone is contained in Dion's hilarious pronouncement that the Liberals have always been tough on crime. The only reason he would say such a foolish thing is that he is getting ready to capitulate again.

Before the prime minister is done the leader of Her Majesty's loyal opposition is going to look like Stephen Harper's butler, caving in on the crime bill, the war in Afghanistan and, perhaps deadliest of all for the Grits, the environment. After all, Dion is allowing a legislative blueprint to stand that pronounces Kyoto targets unattainable and therefore irrelevant.

And what happens if Harper overplays his hand? Only this: He will get, and almost certainly win, the election he wants by making big gains in Quebec. The only real issue is whether he plucks Dion feather by feather until 2009 or chops off his head in an early election the Liberals are being invited to trigger.

Unless, of course, some merciful Brutus saves him the trouble.