Liberals pay tribute to Stephane Dion's short reign

MONTREAL — He was ever so briefly the leader of the federal Liberal Party — 2006 to 2008.

His effort to create a political platform that married economic development and environmental protection, the Green Shift, was cutting edge — panned by some, praised by others.

After a tough election campaign where the Conservatives portrayed him as a bumbling professor who would tax Canadians to the hilt — one attack ad featured a puffin pooping on Stephane Dion's shoulder — he wound up with one of the worst election scores in Liberal party history and, ultimately, was forced to resign Dec. 10, 2008.

Since then, the 53 year old, who represents the Montreal riding of Saint-Laurent-Cartierville, has disappeared off the map, his time as the head of the party even further eclipsed by the rise of Michael Ignatieff, who has managed to heal party wounds and drag the Liberals back into respectability in the minds of voters.

Dion, on the other hand, still has a hangover debt in the range of a $150,000 from his leadership campaign to remind him of the past.

But on Friday night Liberals will try and kiss and make up with Dion, former prime minister Jean Chretien's constitutional point man and the author of the Clarity Act on Quebec sovereignty.

It will happen in the form of a special tribute to Dion at the Liberal party biennial policy convention in Vancouver which is expected to draw 1,500 Liberals from across the land. Saturday will be Ignatieff's day — he is to be acclaimed leader of the party — but Friday evening will be Dion's time.

With the convention being touted as a show of unity, Ignatieff himself will introduce his former leadership opponent as other prominent Liberals — including former leaders John Turner, Chretien and Paul Martin — look on. Chretien and Martin are to make speeches praising him for his contribution to Canada.

For the first time since he was hustled out of office, Dion will speak publicly.

"He's a guy who has given 14 years to the party, to his country," said Jamie Carroll, one of the tribute's organizers. "It's appropriate for us to take a minute to reflect and thank him for it."

Carroll said the tribute will include a video presentation on his career. Oddly, it was a flubbed video of a Dion address to the nation selling the merits of a coalition government that was seen by many Liberals as the last, fatal error in Dion's time as leader.

Even odder, the videographer responsible for the disastrous Dion video, Mick Gzowski, who some say was scapegoated in the incident, is helping produce the new Dion video.

The other part of the tribute will be a separate fundraiser to help Dion with the debt, Carroll said.

It's not known what Dion thinks of all this. Since he left he has turned down all requests for interviews, preferring to keep a low profile.

In the House of Commons he occupies Seat 154 — 10 over from Ignatieff — but still in the front row of Liberal seats. Although he was offered one by Ignatieff, Dion did not accept an Opposition critic's job with the party.

"He's doing his job as an MP," said an aide in his office. "There's a new leader. He's (Dion) there to serve. He serves his riding."

Asked about Dion's morale, the aide said Dion is "focused on the future."

He said he had no idea whether Dion was planning to stay in politics or return to his old university teaching career from which Chretien fetched him during the post-1995 sovereignty referendum crisis, as part of a plan to counter the separatist movement.

Dion has surprised the pundits before. During the 2006 leadership campaign — where observers considered him a long shot — he often said he has been underestimated most of his life. He won that campaign.

After Paul Martin left him out of his first cabinet in 2004 to break with the Chretien past, Dion maintained a stiff upper lip and stayed on as a regular MP. Later, Martin made him environment minister, a role Dion thrived in and used as a launching pad to his leadership bid in 2006.

On the other hand, Dion's image remains tarnished — in and outside Quebec — and this weekend tribute is clearly designed to shore it up. Contrast that with where Ignatieff is today. After the only contenders for the leader's job bowed out, he took over the party with barely a whimper and today appears to have a firm hand on the troops.

Morale is up, which means the money is starting to roll in. This week, party director Rocco Rossi forecast repayment of the party's $2 million debt from the 2008 election campaign will be completed by the end of May.

pauthier@thegazette.canwest.com