Video of Stéphane Dion's January 9 press conference

For anyone who missed it, here's video of Stéphane Dion's January 9 press conference.

Dion opened with a discussion of the economy and the Conservative record of leaving large deficits which have had to be cleaned up by Liberal governments.

He talks about federal-provincial relations and the first ministers' meeting.

On the subject of the Chalk River / AECL issue (nuclear isotopes), Dion calls again for Gary Lunn's resignation; calls for Lunn to appear before the parliamentary committee on natural resources; calls for the release of the Auditor-General's report on AECL and discusses government interference with administrative tribunals.

On the subject of the environment, Dion discusses the report of the National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy and similarities with the Liberal white paper released last March, Balancing Our Carbon Budget.

Re: the Mulroney-Schreiber affair, Dion calls again for a full public inquiry and for the Johnston report to be made public.

On election speculation - Dion will decide how to vote on the budget after seeing and discussing it with his caucus.

In response to a question from Joan Bryden on the Saskatchewan byelection, Dion explains why he appointed Joan Beatty as candidate in Desnethé-Missinippi-Churchill River.

On David Orchard, he says "I have strong regard for David Orchard, I'm in touch with him often. I hope we'll find a way to use his talents and skills in an optimal way."

Dion reiterated his view that Canada should inform NATO and the government of Afghanistan that our combat mission in Afghanistan will end in February 2009, but that we are willing to take a role in development, training, water management etc.

The video is in three parts, English with voiceover translation of French-language segments. See below for details of contents of each part.



Part 1 [09:22]
In part 1, Dion discusses the economy and the Conservative record of leaving large deficits which have had to be cleaned up by Liberal governments; federal-provincial relations and the first ministers' meeting; the Chalk River / AECL issue (nuclear isotopes); the report of the National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy; the Mulroney-Schreiber affair; election speculation. He responds to a question on the Saskatchewan byelection, Joan Beatty and David Orchard.

Part 2 [08:21]
In part 2, Dion responds to questions on the first ministers' meeting; CNSC, Gary Lunn, Chalk River, Linda Keen, the Auditor-General's report on AECL; election speculation; extending the combat mission in Afghanistan.

Part 3 [07:03]
In part 3, Dion takes questions on the economy; Chalk River, Gary Lunn, Linda Keen, government interference with administrative tribunals; and the first ministers' meeting.