Off to the Races: Dion, Ignatieff and Québec.

Just got back from a few days off, mostly spent frolicking in the Eastern Townships wilderness with Jules and the humans. Lots of catching up to do on my reading.

First big surprise, even Montréal’s Le Devoir
has nice things to say about our man Stéphane Dion. Sorry, just a partial link here
as you need to subscribe to read the whole thing.

However, here’s a rough translation on the subtitle: "The Big Surprise of the Summer: Stéphane Dion’s Performance". Le Devoir’s Hélène Buzzetti then goes on to say: "Without a doubt, the biggest surprise so far in this leadership race has been, at least from a Québec standpoint, Stéphane Dion’s performance. Indeed, despite a disappointing finance campaign, Dion succeeded in entering the top tier, next to Bob Rae and Michael Ignatieff."

I know that many pundits and bloggers have, in the past, doubted Mr. Dion’s capacity to gain traction in the province of Québec. If you lived in Québec, you would know that if even the separatist Le Devoir now considers their mortal foe to be a top contender, the times they-are-a changing. Actually, the mere fact that they’re writing about Stéphane Dion without any offensive and gratuitous remarks is quite telling. More on that topic later. Hope someone translates the whole thing.

I still have to read the quasi-novel about Michael Ignatieff in Saturday’s Globe. I hear it’s a good piece. I won’t link to it though, since everyone has already done so.

Finally, about a week ago, I referred to an editorial about Dion in Québec’s Le Soleil entitled Coureur de fond. You can read it here
in its English translation: Long Distance Runner.

All things considered, I’d say that things are picking up. Looks like a lot of people agree: we now have a Big Three: Ignatieff, Rae and Dion. September should be fun. Start your engines!

Wag on,
Dudley.