Blast from the past - 2006 Dion Policy Channel interview

During the leadership race, way back in 2006, Dion was interviewed by Satya Das from Policy Channel in Edmonton, Alberta. Being at least two years old, the interview is a bit out-of-date and some policies have of course evolved in that time. But I thought it was worth re-posting because it provides an in-depth discussion of several policy areas.

In this bilingual interview, Das and Dion discuss Alberta, the environment, energy, the economy, the north, social justice, especially for Aboriginal people, the Kelowna Accord, international peace and security, and water management.

This interview was one of the major factors in my conversion to big-L Liberalism. I had a good impression of Dion previously, especially as environment minister, and was very glad when he won the leadership. This interview showed that he understands the complex interrelationship between the environment, social justice and the economy - his "three pillars." And also the impact of the environment on international issues, e.g. water security has a huge impact on the potential for violent conflict. I was also pleased with his emphasis on Aboriginal issues, especially education.

Taped in Edmonton during the 2006 Liberal leadership race. The interview is in three parts - parts 1 & 2 in English; partie 3 - en français. (Mouseover the video to select another video from the series.)



PART 1
In this 2006 interview, Dion discusses his experience in government, his vision for the future, "reconciling the people and the planet," Alberta, energy and the environment. "I'm ready right away to be a very good leader and partner for Albertans. Alberta is my country. I fought to keep Alberta as part of my country." Also discusses international issues - democracy, health, avoiding war and violent conflict, human rights. Emphasizes importance of water management around the world.

PART 2
Dion discusses the north, Aboriginal people, education for Aboriginal youth, the Kelowna Accord, the economy, his three-pillar approach, the sponsorship scandal.

PARTIE 3
Stéphane Dion discute la course au leadership libéral (2006); l'Alberta, l'environnement, l'économie; l'approche à trois piliers - prospérité économique, justice sociale et environnement durable; le cercle virtueux; sa vision pour l'avenir.

Bounce back and forth on the issues

... with the always-fabulous Baba Brinkman:

Download from: http://www.babasword.com/audio/bounce/Bounce.mp3

And don't miss Social Contract, Power Trip and all the rest at http://www.myspace.com/bababrinkman

Power Trip also on Youtube.




(Thanks for the press release, Andrew Potter.)

$53 to celebrate Dion's 53rd birthday

Femmeverte is joining with A United Party, A United Canada - Stephane Dion in challenging Liberal supporters to celebrate Stéphane Dion's 53rd birthday on September 28, 2008, with a $53 donation to the Liberal party or your local Liberal campaign.

Donate online here: https://www.liberal.ca/donate_e.aspx.

Already at your donation limit? Consider volunteering or recruiting a new donor or volunteer.

Progressives for Dion

Confused voter? Read this: http://progressivesfordion.ca/alerts/

Dion on As It Happens - audio

Stéphane Dion discussed the Liberal platform and took questions from listeners on this evening's As It Happens (CBC Radio One):

http://www.innutube.com/play_audio.php?audio=77
(Note: audio will start automagically when you click the link)

Who is interfering with Facebook?

Guest post by Deb Prothero

Although I am trying to get some work done today, I was curious about the Liberal Campaign Launch, so I went online.

Facebook is one of the places I check out for recent activity that might be interesting. Under updates, I was online as this one came in:

Anyonebutharper.ca
From Mean People Suck
Hey folks,

I’m part of a non-partisan movement Voting to Win against Stephen Harper. You can check out our website at www.http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http://anyonebutharper.ca. The movement is comprised of hundreds of Canadians — Liberals, NDP, Green, Bloc -- from across Canada all working collaboratively to promote strategic voting. We’re not the only group doing this, by the way. Vote for Environment http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http://(http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http://voteforenvironment.ca), Department of Culture http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http://(http://www.departmentofculture.ca) and even the CAW are all urging Canadians to vote strategically. If we work together, we may prevent a Harper majority government from becoming a fait accompli.

I’m writing this message because I need YOU to help spread the word.

Please visit http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http://anyonebutharper.ca and choose ONE of the Anyonebutharper videos and share it with your network. The “SHARE” plug-in with the green icon allows you to easily share this video on Facebook, Myspace, Digg, and so on. It even lets you post it on your blogs and send it to friends via email. If you are so inclined you may even share One Video a Day for the next FOUR days.

And lastly, if you could please copy/paste this message and send it to FIVE of your friends, that would be great!

I know that if we all work collectively and harness the power of our networks, we can stop what seems inevitable from happening!

Vive la revolution!
(read less)
Today at 10:13am | Opt Out | Report Spam

I chose to click on the link and lookie here:

The following website has been identified as malicious:
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http://anyonebutharper.ca
The link you have clicked has been identified by Facebook as a malicious web site. For the safety and privacy of your Facebook account, we strongly suggest you avoid visiting this address.

Has someone been tinkering with Facebook or are the Conservatives really scared now after Nik Nanos' numbers yesterday showed that Dion has the momentum now and Harper is yesterday's news. Just because a majority of Canadians do not want Harper and are trying to organize a strategic response, does this mean the Conservatives or individuals supporting the Conservatives should interfere with that online effort? What about free speech or is that only for Conservatives?

And if I were to label something malicious, it would most certainly be the last two years of activity directed against Stephane Dion by the Conservatives in parliament and the Conservative Party of Canada's attack advertising campaign.

Stephane Dion has been a superhero in handling the malicious attacks, in my opinion.

The Green Shift, good for corporate Canada

Stéphane Dion explains the tax advantages for corporations in The Green Shift policy.



Dion on TVO's The Agenda, September 18, 2008. See the complete interview on the TVO website.

Healthy environment = healthy economy

Dion links a healthy environment with a healthy economy -

Canadians should not pay more taxes. But we need to be taxed differently to be stronger collectively.... When we ask Canadians, "What is your priority, the economy or the environment?" my answer is both. We need to bring them together instead of opposing them.

Stéphane Dion on TVO's The Agenda, September 18, 2008. See the complete interview on the TVO website.

Telling the truth in both official languages

Stéphane Dion on TVO's The Agenda, September 18, 2008. Asked by Steve Paikin about his progress with English, Dion replied: "I don't speak English as well as Stephen Harper. But I say the truth better than him in both official languages."



See the complete interview on the TVO website.

Stéphane Dion on The Hour With George Stroumboulopoulos

Stéphane Dion on The Hour With George Stroumboulopoulos -

intro, bio & interview:
http://www.cbc.ca/thehour/videos.html?id=861028632

cold open:
http://www.cbc.ca/thehour/videos.html?id=860999220

Dion on The Current

Here's audio of Dion's interview with Anna Maria Tremonti on CBC Radio's The Current yesterday:

http://www.innutube.com/play_audio.php?audio=65


He explained very clearly how the green shift will support lower and middle income people.

The Green Shift announcement

Here's a YouTube playlist with Dion's complete Green Shift / le Tournant vert speech (4 parts, EN/FR) - http://ca.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=AEB06DA71023E70E

Cadman video retrospective

For your convenience/viewing pleasure, here's a playlist with 18 QP and scrums snippets on the Cadman affair, February 28 to March 6, 2008: http://ca.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=F6E4E6DC3FB51A1F

This might be a helpful or even entertaining supplement to Kady's Tale of the Tape: Unspooling the Timeline post.

The March 4, 2008 QP exchange wherein the prime minister had every opportunity to complain that the tape wasn't completely copacetic (as reported by Aaron Wherry) - but didn't - is here: http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=c5TqE-2anHk

So pop up some popcorn and don't forget your blood pressure meds, antidepressants, Laphroig, whatever.

So many scandals, so little time...

There's so much choice, where to start?

More questions about the Cadman affair - Dion in Question Period, March 6, 2008
"Will the Prime Minister admit that he was talking about addressing Mr. Cadman's financial insecurity in exchange for his vote?" Question Period, March 6, 2008 (EN/FR).



Ken Dryden with still more questions about the Cadman affair, Question Period, March 6, 2008.


Geoff Regan has some questions for James Moore about the Cadman affair, Question Period, March 6, 2008.
Moore responds "My mom used to tell me don't believe everything you read in the newspaper." For all the stuff the camera doesn't capture, read Macleans.ca blogger Aaron Wherry's entertaining account of the episode, "The Commons: A bad joke"


"We don't know how to choose among all the scandals"
"Was the Prime Minister misleading the House or was his chief of staff misleading him?" And for the romantic among you, don't miss Harper's billet doux to Jack Layton. (Question Period, March 6, 2008 on NAFscam, FR/EN)


And today's scrum (environment motion, NAFscam) - "This government has been wrong, wrong, wrong about the environment..."

Daily dose of double-talk - video of the Cadman case in QP, March 4, 2008

Highlights from today's Question Period on the allegations regarding Chuck Cadman.

Stéphane Dion: "Mr. Speaker, we all heard the tape. First question: can the prime minister tell Canadians - Is it really his voice on the tape? Yes or no?"


Ken Dryden:



Ruby Dhalla:

Questions in the House - Cadman allegations, March 3

Liberal leader Stéphane Dion & Deputy Leader Michael Ignatieff question the government on the allegations regarding Independent MP Chuck Cadman. Question Period, March 3, 2008. (EN/FR)

Liberal MP Ken Dryden questions the government on allegations regarding Independent MP Chuck Cadman. Question Period, March 3, 2008.

Stéphane Dion takes media questions about the Cadman allegations and the threatened libel suit. (March 3, 2008. EN/FR)

Liberals question government on Cadman allegations (video coverage)

Liberal leader Stéphane Dion, Deputy Leader Michael Ignatieff and several Liberal MPs questioned the government during Question Period today about allegations that Conservatives tried to bribe Independent MP Chuck Cadman. Here are videos of Dion, Ignatieff, Karen Redman, Dominic LeBlanc, Sukh Dhaliwal, Todd Russell, Raymonde Folco and Sue Barnes pressing the government for straight answers:

One mile wide and one inch deep

Stéphane Dion's response to the federal budget, February 26, 2008: "A budget that is one mile wide and one inch deep." (EN/FR)

More on the Liberal response to the budget at http://www.liberal.ca/story_13624_e.aspx (EN) or http://www.liberal.ca/story_13624_f.aspx (FR).

And today's Question Period (EN/FR) -
Stéphane Dion asks the prime minister to bring back Bill C-30, the revised Clean Air Act, supported by all three opposition parties and dropped when Parliament was prorogued in the fall of 2007. Dion notes that the Conservative plan is so weak that polluters won't pay, they'll get paid. That would be by you and me, the taxpayers. Paying polluters to pollute - now that's getting things done!

Hallucinating about the Afghan mission

The Irrational Post strikes again with a hallucinatory editorial about Dion's position on the end of the Afghanistan mission.

Dion has said for a year (since February 2007) that the combat mission must end in February 2009, and that Canadian troops could have other roles in Kandahar, including providing security, training and help with development projects.

He has explained many times that a "combat mission" is defined as "proactively seeking out" the enemy, whereas security is more defensive in nature.

Are the people at the Irrational Post too stupid to understand that, or are they perhaps a little less than objective?

On February 12, 2008, Joan Bryden of the Canadian Press was interviewed about Stéphane Dion's Afghanistan position. Bryden said:

Stéphane Dion has actually been pretty clear for about a year now about the Liberal position, which is, 'the end of the combat mission in February 2009.' He has been unequivocal and categorical about that point for a long time... It's been a good spin job by the Conservatives to put all the onus on the Liberals. The Conservatives are the ones who have actually changed their position.

Dion reiterated his long-standing position on Thursday (February 21, 2008) during an interview in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan:

The Conservatives owe a big debt of gratitude to their friends at the Irrational Post for their help in spinning the story.

Video of today's QP & scrum + Sunday's CTV QP

Question Period, February 11, 2008"



Stéphane Dion questions Peter Van Loan on the timeline for the mission in Afghanistan. [03:50]

Scrum, February 11, 2008

Stéphane Dion takes questions from the media on the upcoming budget and the deadline of the Afghanistan mission (EN/FR, 11 février 2008) [4:52]


CTV's Question Period, February 10, 2008

Stéphane Dion discusses the timeline of the Afghanistan mission (February 10, 2008). [08:50]