National Affairs

Dion 'constantly troubled by doubt'
In his best-selling book, Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golden wrote that, "A mind troubled by doubt cannot focus on the course to victory."

Obviously, Golden wouldn't have any idea who Liberal Leader Stephane Dion is, but the thought is eerily descriptive of Dion's ongoing inability to turn what he claims is his political vision into any kind of concrete action.

With Parliament returning to the Commons this week after their extended Easter break - we could be snide and ask, 'break from what?' - all indications are that Dion will continue his policy of non-leadership, of vacating the premises whenever he and his once-mighty party are faced with a vote which could bring down Stephen Harper's minority Conservatives.

Dion consistently appears as a leader constantly "troubled by doubt" and definitely unable to "focus on the course to victory" or anything else for that matter.

His serial dithering, no doubt, has contributed to his party's poor - and getting poorer - showing in public opinion polls and in increased grumbling, some of it in public view, from the party faithful.

For a man who was supposed to buttress the party's traditional stronghold in Quebec, for example, the Dionled Liberals have steadily slid in public appeal there to the point that a current CROP poll for La Presse has the Liberals at 20 per cent there, well behind the Bloc Quebecois (30) and even the Conservatives (29), and just five points ahead of the NDP. The NDP, for heaven's sake! Dion's Liberals spent most of the last session criticizing everything the Tories suggested only to head for the hills the moment the issue came to a vote. That's hardly a way to inspire confidence in the electorate, let alone among party partisans.

Which is why, so we're told, that Dion was forced into a meeting with his demoralized Quebec team last week - particularly after some prominent Liberal officials publicly rebuked his, ah, leadership skills - to try to explain why he continues to claim that things are improving for the Liberals in Quebec at a time when that aforementioned poll showed satisfaction with the Harper government hitting 55 per cent.

Many in Quebec, as you'd expect, point the finger at deputy Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff who, it must be said, has exacerbated Dion's woeful leadership by his relatively good performance in the Commons. And the comparisons with other Liberals won't get any easier for Dion now that former NDP Ontario premier Bob Rae has been sworn in as a new Liberal MP from Toronto.

With both Ignatieff and Rae performing in full public view - the two men who lost the leadership race to Dion - Liberals surely will become increasingly wistful in pondering why on earth they chose Dion over either one of these two men, let alone both of them.

But there you have it. They're certainly stuck with Dion until the next election, which is perhaps part of the reason why Dion is doing everything he can to forestall going to the electorate.

Heaven knows that the Harperites have given the Liberals all sorts of major issues to demonstrate that they have some principles, but, until now, the Liberals have chosen not to accept the invitation.

The current sitting offers yet another chance for the Liberals to take a stand, thanks to a controversial Tory proposal to revamp the immigration law, a move the Tories say will reduce a massive backlog of visa applications - some 900,000 or so - but which critics of the bill, including the Liberals, claim would give the immigration minister too much authority to settle immigration disputes.

Immigration always has been a hot-button political issue, one the Liberals in the past have used shamelessly to promote the falsehood that had it not been for them the massive number of immigrants who have streamed into this country over the past several decades would have been turned away at the door.

Despite the preposterous nature of Liberal claims, the party has done exceedingly well in convincing more recent arrivals that they owe a debt of gratitude to the Liberals and the party has been highly successful in ridings which house significant populations of recent immigrants.

Even so, all indications are that Dion plans to use the same techniques which have served him so poorly the last two years and change, i.e., make lots of noise about the unfairness of it all, hurl accusations of abuse at the Tories, but then, when push comes to shove, opt to leave the room and let the Bloc and NDP vote against the government.