Dion comes to Guelph to discuss the Green Shift ahead of by-election
While meaningless platitudes from Guelph NDP candidate Tom King make the news, the presence of a lot of retired people at a Liberal event in the middle of a business day is about the best the local paper could say about Stéphane Dion's visit to Guelph yesterday. The reality is that a crowd of some 500 people came out at lunch time on Thursday to participate in a townhall meeting put on by Stéphane Dion to discuss the Green Shift, including myself and quite a few other people whose hair is quite a distance from grey. Jack Layton, incidently, needed to hand out free food and hold his event on a weekend to get a comparable crowd.
It was an excellent event, with Dion showing once again that he puts his principles above all other considerations, setting him apart from his strategy-over-substance rivals on both the left and right. He did not discuss a lot of issues other than the Green Shift, but he was there specifically to discuss the Green Shift. Nor was the event restricted to partisans, with party affiliation not a question on the sign-in sheet, and people who are not Liberals asking pointed questions. My only regret is it could not go longer.
The questions were wide-ranging, from the president of the Chamber of Commerce asking about early learning and childcare to a participant asking about federal jurisdictional defense. Concerns were raised about the Green Shift pushing investment off-shore and mental healthcare as well. There was even one person who stood up with the intent of making a 15 minute speech about everything from hydrogen to copyright law, though she was cut off after only a couple of pages.
Dion's answers were in all cases candid rather than practiced as the paper suggested. While I've always been a strong supporter of Dion as one of the very few politicians who is an idealist rather than a crass partisan, Dion-cynic and fellow blogger Steve V attended the event and has been shown Dion for who he is.
Rumours are flying in Guelph that a by-election will be called here on July 23rd. With that in mind, the Mercury -- the same, usually balanced, Mercury whose assessment of a workday lunchtime crowd is that they have grey hair -- has launched a blog specifically to address the by-election.
Posted at 12:43 on July 11, 2008