Fore!

Liberal MP and legendary hockey goalie Ken Dryden sure likes his sports analogies, although he usually sticks to the game he's good at.

Today he exchanged his usual stories about Stanley Cup games for a golf metaphor.

"As a golfer, I can hit a ball a long way. Trouble is, I can't hit it in the right direction," he said at a press conference in Kitchener, Ont., going on to explain how Prime Minister Stephen Harper was taking childcare in the "wrong direction."

- Joanna Smith

Careful what you promise, it's a big country...

Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion set aside his airplane fiasco this morning, telling University of Western Ontario students today that nothing was going to stop him from getting to London, Ont. "I would have jogged here," said Dion, whose aging campaign plane had to make an unscheduled stop in Montreal for mechancial reasons while flying from Sherbrooke to London. "Nothing was going to stop me from being here in London," he said.

After sitting on the tarmac in Montreal for three hours Tuesday night, a Toronto-based Porter flight came to the rescue and got Dion and the others following the campaign down to London in the wee hours of the morning.

*****

Would the real leader please stand up? This morning London West Liberal MP Sue Barnes spent about four minutes singing the praises of Toronto Centre MP Bob Rae, whose job it is to introduce the party leader Stéphane Dion. It's all part of the grand Liberal plan to take the focus off Dion and put it on his team.

- Richard Brennan

The professor loves the universities

Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion, who was a political science prof at University of Montreal before getting into federal politics, was at University of Victoria last week, Dalhousie University and a campus of University of Sherbrooke today and he's headed to London's University of Western Ontario tomorrow.

The atmosphere in the hallowed halls is familiar ground but does nothing for his stiff professorial style.

-Richard Brennan

Separatist group takes aim at Trudeau

MONTREAL — Justin Trudeau has been chosen as enemy Number One by a separatist group in Quebec.

The Young Patriots of Quebec, which describes itself as an activist group of “indépendantistes” from age 7 to 77 and which also demonstrates frequently for the primacy of French language rights, today launched its campaign against Justin Trudeau, a star Liberal candidate for the Montreal riding of Papineau and eldest son of the late Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.

The group has struck a committee appropriately called “No Trudeau in Papineau,” that will attempt to “show the true face of Justin Trudeau” — namely, the apparently anti-Quebec, anti-French language face — and has produced bumper stickers; signs, pamphlets and pins are coming later this week.

And next week, a protest is planned in front of Trudeau’s riding office.

Even if he’s elected, the Young Patriots believe “he could help the indépendantiste cause with the hate he shows toward the French language and Quebecers in general,” says the group’s spokesperson, François Gendron, in a statement.

Trudeau is perhaps the Liberals' only hope of picking up an extra seat in Quebec, where the party’s campaign is disorganized and faltering in the face of Conservative momentum. Papineau, a long-time Liberal stronghold, is one of the few bright spots in urban Quebec for the Bloc Québécois, currently held by Vivian Barbot.

-Andrew Chung

With the wolf at the door, the cavalry arrives

Liberal MP Bob Rae has ridden to the rescue of party leader Stéphane Dion's flagging campaign.

Rae, former NDP premier in Ontario, fired up the crowd in Halifax with a blistering attack on Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper, saying it's time the throw the wolf hidding behind a sweater out of 24 Sussex. (Photo: The Canadian Press)

- Richard Brennan

All systems go?

Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion is literally heading into a storm. The Liberal leader's plane sat on the apron for an hour in St. John's waiting for the storm in Halifax to lift. Dion is throwing caution to the wind - there is a first time for everything - and is making the one hour and 40-minute trip anyway.

UPDATE: When the Liberal plane landed there was Jack Layton's NDP plane, waiting for the weather to improve. The  old bush pilot at the controls of Air Inuit doesn't look so bad now.

- Richard Brennan

Dion lends his voice

Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion gave his vocal chords a work out today on his campaign plane, singing Happy Birthday to three people, including a Liberal staffer and two CTV sound guys.

They are Charlotte Logan, 25, who is doing administrative work for the party, and Dave Ellis, 49 and Scott Rothenberg, 39, who are part of the TV pool covering the Grit leader.

The Rock's English

Liberal Leader Stephane Dion says he feels right at home on the Rock. Why's that?

"I always feel at home in Newfoundland and Labrador for one specific reason: I am not alone to speak English with an accent," said Dion, an obvious reference to his struggle to learn English.

- Richard Brennan

'Noel' problem?

Problem with one of the Liberal candidates? What problem? News to Liberal Leader Stephane Dion.

All he had to do was turn around at an event in St. John's and he would have been looking right at the problem, Walter Noel, the candidate for St. John's East.

When Noel was a provincial Liberal cabinet minister he was implicated in a spending scandal that rocked the House of Assembly.

According to the Auditor General, Noel, who served under former Liberal premiers Brian Tobin and Roger Grimes, spent over $12,000 of taxpayer’s money on everything from perfumes and women’s clothing to wine, beer, luggage and electronics.

Noel has insisted the purchases were legitimate.

Dion seemed oblivious to the situation, "I'm not aware of this one."

- Richard Brennan

Liberal leader takes the cake

Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion had CanWest columnist Don Martin wondering what was going on when the leader came back on the campaign plane waving one of Martin's often-critical columns.

"Enough is enough," Dion declared repeatedly, stabbing a finger at the newspaper in his hand.

Martin stared wide-eyed at Dion, wondering if the usually mild-mannered Liberal was going to try to kick him off the campaign plane. . . . . .until Dion, wondering aloud what he could do to "sweeten" up the columnist, produced a chocolate cake to mark Martin's 52nd birthday.

-Les Whittington