Dion vows to stay the course in spite of heavy Liberal losses

By Juliet O'Neill
Canwest News Service

Liberal leader Stephane Dion leaves the stage with his wife Jannine Krieber and daughter Jeanne after speaking at his election night headquarters in Montreal. (Christinne Muschi/Reuters)

MONTREAL - Liberal Leader Stephane Dion called Prime Minister Stephen Harper after a minority Conservative government was declared Tuesday to assure him the economy is his priority and his depleted official Opposition party will co-operate to ensure Canadians are protected.     

In his election-night address to supporters, Dion made no mention of the heavy Liberal losses at the polls, nor did he address the future of his fragile leadership, as one adviser said he would.     

The 53-year-old MP who led a national campaign for his party for the first time pledged that "we Liberals will do our part responsibly to make sure this Parliament works" in the face of "an economic storm."     

Top Liberals said it was not the time or place to start in on Dion's leadership, which will be subject to a review at a party convention in May.     

"People should keep their powder dry," said Quebec Liberal Denis Coderre. Deputy Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff said it was "indecent" to discuss the leadership issue, since Dion fought so hard during the campaign.     

The Liberals had lost or were losing in 20 ridings when Dion spoke, compared to the 95 seats they held when Parliament was dissolved.

While Toronto MP Bob Rae and Dion's communications director, Mark Dunn, declared some victory for the Liberals in helping stave off a Conservative majority, Dion made no such claim.     

He stuck to a vow of co-operation with the government and with other parties to face the economic crisis that hit during the 37-day election campaign.    

"My priority, the priority of the official Opposition, will be the economy, will be the economic storm that we see around the world, will be to protect Canadians for our savings, our homes, our jobs, our pensions," Dion said. "And I asked Mr. Harper to make the same commitment at this time of global economic uncertainty. We stand ready to work with all political parties to make this Parliament work."     

A Liberal source said leadership issues will emerge soon enough, though, and that election night was a time to show respect for Dion's hard fight.     

The Liberal constitution provides for a leadership review at a convention in Vancouver in May. Ignatieff, Dion's chief rival for the leadership in December 2006, was fiercely opposed to addressing the subject during a CTV interview.     

"I think it's indecent after a man has fought heart and soul from coast to coast to coast for the sake of a party to start calling him toast or anything like that," Ignatieff said.     

"That's not a dignified way to talk about a man who's fought as hard as he has for this party and fought as hard as he has for Canada for so long. I owe him respect."     

Rae, another top leadership contender last time, boasted that "we've kept Mr. Harper to a minority, which is a significant achievement."     

Liberals gathered at Dion's election-night headquarters were staunchly supportive, some of them saying they believed he needed just a week or two more and he might have brought the Liberals back to power.     

"I still believe in the man," said Mamdouh Stephanos, a Montreal businessman and philanthropist who was a financial supporter of Dion's campaign for the Liberal leadership. "He can be respected."     

"It wasn't worth it," Stephanos said, shaking his head about the fact that Canadians were sent to the polls early. "We'll repeat all this in 16 or 18 months. Too costly for nothing."

Stephanos was among dozens of people assembled at a hotel ballroom watching results on giant TV screens as Dion watched in a suite upstairs with his wife, Janine, and daughter, Jeanne.     

Dion has now waged his first election campaign as party leader, learning the art of the stump speech toward the end of the  campaign and struggling to the end to sell his Green Shift policy to tax fossil fuels and distribute the revenue through income tax cuts.

Helen Ghadban, a volunteer for Dion's local campaign, said Dion, whom she described as humble and educated, needed more time. "He didn't have long enough to introduce himself to the people," she said.     

Denise Tremblay, a Liberal candidate in Saint-Hyacinthe-Bagot, also volunteered that Dion needed more time.

"If he had a week more we should have been able to turn it around," she said. Tremblay was at Dion's headquarters instead of her own because she had no chance of winning the seat held by the Bloc Quebecois.     

Tremblay said she hopes there will not be a leadership contest to dump Dion.

"We have the leader we need to have," she said. "He's a man with a great degree of integrity and intelligence."

"It will be a weak government," predicted retiree Yvon Gauthier. "For the next election it will be a real change, in a year."     

Said Hamid Khan said he was neither surprised nor disappointed by the results.

"Probably the Conservatives are more disappointed than the Liberals. They wanted a majority."