For anyone who missed it (or wants to watch it again), here's video of Stéphane Dion's appearance on TVO's The Agenda with Steve Paikin, November 9, 2007.Steve Paikin had this to say about Dion on his blog -
[At the parliamentary press gallery dinner] Dion exhibited much of the personality, charm, and humour that he showed 15 months ago, when he was one of our first ever guests on The Agenda.
On that occasion, he showed up to our station --- a very dark horse candidate for the Liberal leadership --- with no entourage at all. Just him, and of course his omnipresent backpack.
But since then, a lot has changed.
Dion won his party’s leadership in a thrilling December 2, 2006 convention in Montreal. But since then, commentators have suggested he’s been eaten for lunch by the Conservative government, which has portrayed him unflatteringly in television commercials as less than a real leader.
The macho, 10-second-clip world of official Ottawa is not Dion’s natural milieu.
He is a more academic, thoughtful, dare I say softer politician, who tends to excel in surroundings such as those our program provides.
And so, tonight, we’ll have him on for the full hour, both in a 1x1 interview, and joining other guests to talk about his first year as Liberal leader, and the woes his party is having in his home province.
When made his debut on our program in September 2006, many people told me they’d never considered him for leader, but did after seeing him on The Agenda. He made a favorable impression.
Maybe that’s why Dion has agreed to come back tonight. He’s one of the very few political leaders in this province or country that’s agreed to participate in both the interview and debate segments of the program.
It’s too bad more politicians don’t have the guts to do it. But that’s another subject for another day.
Above - Stéphane Dion interview, The Agenda, 07 11 09
Stéphane Dion interviewed on TVO's The Agenda, November 9, 2007 (3 parts).
Part 3 includes Dion's "three peelers" stand-up comedy clip from parliamentary press gallery dinner (October 27, 2007).
After the interview Dion and Paikin were joined by Marie Bountrogianni (former Ontario intergovernmental affairs minister), Manon Cornellier (columnist for Le Devoir), Christian Dufour (L'École nationale d'administration publique) and Antonia Maioni (McGill) for a debate on Quebec. Topics included Saku Koivu and the Montréal Canadiens, the Bouchard-Taylor commission on «accommodement raisonnable», the Quebec «nation» resolution, Pauline Marois' language bill and Remembrance Day poppies.
Above - Stéphane Dion, The Agenda - Québec Debate
"Québec: State of the "Nation" (November 9, 2007). Stéphane Dion discusses Saku Koivu and the Montréal Canadiens, the Bouchard-Taylor commission on «accommodement raisonnable», the Quebec «nation» resolution, Pauline Marois' language bill, and Remembrance Day poppies with Antonia Maioni, Manon Cornellier, Christian Dufour, Marie Bountrogianni and Steve Paikin. (4 parts).
Click here to read producer Alan Echenberg's blog post.
PS - Podcasts are also available on the the TVO website - check the right sidebars of the interview page and the debate page.
Unfortunately there's no video of Dion's first two appearances on The Agenda. But here's the web page with podcast/audio link for the December 7, 2006 show.
