Dion goes it alone

Liberal Leader Stephane Dion has heeded the advice of his aides and dumped his TelePrompter, the electronic device that politicians often when they make speeches.

Dion's staff say the leader was looking wooden and flat as he recited lines from the TelePrompter. As a result he's been speaking from notes at his last few rallies.

By this point in this campaign, he's got most of his lines memorized, so he's able to speak more off the cuff.

The result? Dion has been looking more at ease and speaking with more passion in recent days. Officials are hoping he connects more with voters.

Hamilton has a reputation as a gritty, blue-collar city. The Liberal campaign got a taste of just how gritty this morning.

As media buses, with Liberal logos emblazoned on their sides, drove along one street past a coffee shop with an outdoor patio, one patron raised his arm and extended his middle finger. The bus didn't stop to ask if he'd take a lawn sign.

Don't mess with Liberal supporters

A crowd of Liberal supporters booed and heckled reporters today at a Toronto campaign stop as they tried to ask party leader Stéphane Dion about the status of a candidate accused of making anti-Semitic remarks.

That scene of reporters being shouted down has prompted the Liberals to change the format of their campaign events. From now on, Dion's daily news conferences will be held away from supporters, party aides say.

Dion had concluded a speech at a seniors centre, taken questions from the audience and was holding his daily news conference when supporters took issue when reporters asked Dion about Lesley Hughes, the Winnipeg candidate who had upset Jewish Canadians with her views.

"Focus on the issues," shouted one supporter at the reporters. "You know what, we don't care."

"Irrelevant," said another supporter.

Dion sought to quiet the crowd.

"You know what, we always respect the freedom of the press. We don't send the RCMP to stop the journalist," Dion said.

That's a reference to the heavy-handed tactics by the Prime Minister's Office who twice this campaign has asked the Mounties to block reporters from getting close to Harper or Conservative candidates.

"Ask your question please," Dion told the journalist.

 

Poor choice of words?

For a moment there, it looked like Liberal Leader Stephane Dion had casually rewritten party policy on the controversial topic of abortion.

Asked about his party's stand on the issue today, Dion declared, "I am pro-life. I am for the right of women to choose."

An aide quickly clarified that Dion meant to say he was "pro-choice."

- Bruce Campion-Smith

Dion blasts PM for date of election

Stephen Harper’s decision to call the federal election on a Jewish religious holiday will leave many Jews unable to exercise their democratic rights, Liberal Leader Stephane Dion says.

Dion used a visit to a Jewish community centre in Winnipeg to condemn the prime minister’s choice of Oct. 14 – the first day of the festival of Sukkot - for the national vote.

“I believe holding the election on this day violates the right of many Jewish Canadians to equal participation in the electoral process,” Dion told a crowd of students at the Asper Jewish community centre.

“This did not have to happen,” Dion said, noting that Harper’s election call flies in the face of the Conservatives’ own legislation which set October 2009 as the date of the next vote.

The Conservatives have defended their choice of election day, saying that Jewish voters can respect the holiday by casting their ballots at advance polls.

But Dion said that response deprives them of the chance to take in developments in the final weeks and days of the election that could sway their choice.

“Jewish voters have the same right as other Canadians to take into account the last week of an election campaign,” he said to applause.

And he noted that many Jews will not be able to work as campaign volunteers or at Elections Canada.

“Many Jews will not be able to participate as fully as they would like to on election day,” he said.

- From Bruce Campion-Smith

But which is more sour?

Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion is using some humour to swipe at Stephen Harper's cuts to arts and culture.

"A box of yogurt has more culture than this Conservative government," Dion told students gathered at University of British Columbia Tuesday.

-Bruce Campion-Smith

Not on the same team

Liberal Leader Stephane Dion has rejected any suggestion of forming a coalition with the NDP after the next election. Instead, Dion suggests that NDP Leader Jack Layton has already teamed with political allies.

"Mr. Layton already has his coalition, I understand. He has a coalition with the nudist party, a coalition with the marijuana party," Dion told reporters during a stop in Burnaby, B.C.

Dion was referring to the troubles that the NDP has had with candidates in B.C., including two who quit after online videos surfaced which showed them allegedly smoking marijuana. And B.C. NDP candidate Julian West dropped out after questions about his naked swim in front of some teenagers 12 years ago.

Liberal candidate Ujjal Dosanjh was more biting on the topic of a Liberal-NDP coalition, telling reporters that Layton already had a coalition with the Conservatives. That's a reference to the NDP, Conservative and Bloc Quebecois move to topple the minority Liberals in Nov., 2005, sparking the election that brought Prime Minister Stephen Harper to power.

"As a result, what we had was the death of Kyoto, death of Kelowna and death of a national childcare program. That is the coalition he entered into. We are running to form a government and replace Mr. Harper," Dosanjh said.

- Bruce Campion-Smith

Liberal's carbon footprint

Liberal Leader Stephane Dion's travelling election road show left quite a carbon footprint today.

Two large highway coaches refitted for the media travelled Ottawa-Montreal return for an arts and culture announcement.

The  second media bus on the return leg had five people on it, including the driver. To be fair, trying to get journalists to agree to all return at the same time is like trying to herd cats.

As chance would have it, however, everybody did head back to Ottawa by bus at the same time with room to spare.

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Stephane Dion was speaking to a crowd on a street corner in the bilingual community of Alexandria east of Ottawa today when a number of Harley Davidson motorcycles momentarily drowned him out.

"Now there's a lot of greenhouse gases," quipped Dion.

- Richard Brennan

Omens on the tarmac?

The Dion campaign is either a survivor or just in the waiting room of broken dreams.

The campaign plane en route to Winnipeg from Toronto was parked beside Zoom airlines, which has gone out of business, and XL Leisure airline, which too has gone bust.

-Richard Brennan

Dion puts it all on the line

A bit over the top or serious moment from Liberal Leader Stephane Dion?

"My only goal is to help Canada ... I'd give my life for this country," he told a Toronto CBC interviewer.

Dion was responding to a question about his leadership.

Dion often mentions his devotion to the Clarity Act, which clarified the ground rules for separation.

-Richard Brennan

Riding the Grit campaign train

All aboard!

Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion took the GO Train this morning from Burlington to Toronto to make an announcement on infrastructure.

At each stop, Liberal candidates joined the leader. There were eight stops and 11 candidates.

It has been a long time since politicians travelled by train.

-Richard Brennan