Segacs’s World I Know

Stéphane Dion is the new Liberal leader and is fairly likely to be the next Prime Minister of Canada.

Despite myself, I kind of like Dion, even if he doesn’t have as fun a nickname as Michael “Iggy Pop” Ignatieff.

The quote of the day probably comes from Pauline:

Much is being made of Stephane Dion’s being *everybody’s second choice*. While that is mathematically a good thing, it doesn’t resound well for the future federal election campaign. I can see the bumper stickers now.

I think that Dion has a history as an impassioned defender of Canadian unity, which is good, and could certainly be said to deserve this much more than Ignatieff, in terms of his having paid his dues to the party.

But, like Pauline, I too am a bit uneasy at his foreign policy stances. He’s come out in opposition to the Canadian military role in Afghanistan, and his friendship stance with Israel has been questionable, particularly during the summer’s Lebanon war when he made some worrying statements. Nothing much worse than the rest of the Liberal candidates, really, but a far cry from the staunch friendship I would hope to see from the leadership of this country. Now that he is the leader, he will of course be called upon to clarify some of his stances, but we’ll have to see where he goes with this.

The next campaign is a lock to be about the environment now, thanks to Dion’s impassioned position on the Kyoto accord. And the great losers in the next election could be the Green Party if Dion successfully picks up support from that camp.

Final thought: the Liberal party – or any party for that matter – will think long and hard before holding another leadership convention in Montreal during ice storm season.

After three ballots, it’s a two-man race: Dion versus Ignatieff. Perhaps surprisingly, Dion is in the lead.

Looks like Damian Penny’s early predictions are surprisingly accurate.

But all now rests on what Bob Rae decides to do, and where he throws his support. If he frees his delegates, it’s hard to predict where they’ll vote. If he chooses to back one candidate or the other, it will lock up the leadership for that person.

We’ll know soon.

Update: Rae has released his delegates. With Dion as the current momentum canadidate, and given the strength of the anyone-but-Ignatieff movement in Liberal circles, I think that Dion will take all in the end… but we won’t know until they vote.

Okay, so it’s not nearly as dramatic as Ice Storm 98. But today’s freezing rain left the trees beautiful but the houses dark.

Driving through the darkened streets was eerie, with a Halloween-like effect as the ice-laden tree branches shone in the reflection of headlights. Dinner with the folks was by candlelight – luckily it was cooked by the time the lights went out. And those with generators are finding that their lights act as beacons to neighbours seeking the use of a stove or a battery charger.

It’s only been a few hours so far, but most people in the dark pockets are already digging in for the long haul, as there’s no word when Loto-Hydro will have things up and running again.

Luckily I seem to still have power (knock wood) so I’m hoping things stay lit and warm here. And the trees really are beautiful; if the ice hasn’t melted off them by tomorrow, I’ll try to get some photos in the daylight.

The greatest goalie of our times, and possibly even of all time, Patrick Roy, was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame today.

And if they ever start a Hockey Hall of Shame, then Mario Tremblay and Rejean Houle would get my vote.

So much for all of his talk about “democracy” at city hall… Tremblay got his way after pressuring his councillors, and Park Avenue will soon be no more.

I’m not sure which is sadder: that Park’s name is being changed, or that this is the only issue for which Tremblay has cared enough about to fight for since taking office.

City politics are a mess, and it’s time for some new thinking down at City Hall. How about this: Segacs for Mayor! Not only will I change Avenue Bourassa back to Park Avenue, but I also promise to change Rene-Levesque back to Dorchester, Marcel-Laurin back to Laurentian, and – for good measure – Lionel-Groulx metro station to… anything else. Maybe I’ll even open that one up to a vote.

The Quebec nation debate is predictably irking some other nationa – specifically, the First Nations:

Canada’s indigenous peoples are feeling a bit snubbed by Parliament’s decision to recognize Quebecers as a “nation” within a united Canada and not them too.

Native Indian leaders say the vote in the House of Commons, which has helped reignite debate over the role of French-speaking Quebec within largely English-speaking Canada, ignored the peoples who lived in North America before European settlers arrived.

Either Stephen Harper completely didn’t think of this one, or he calculated that there weren’t enough votes among the First Nations communities for it to make a difference. In any case, this is just one more egg contributing to the giant omelette cooking on Harper’s face thanks to this issue that he should’ve refused to touch with a 10-foot pole.

Looks like it. A limited one, anyway. Or, as Meryl would say, another “shudna”.

Noteworthy: this would apply only to rockets, not “other” forms of attack, such as suicide bombing… which is now apparently a favoured activity among the geriatric set, too. What, knitting needles were too boring?

Anyway, we’ve all seen this song-and-dance a zillion times before. The Palestinians call for a limited truce but continue to openly and brazenly defy it. Israel is finally provoked into reacting, and the whole world condemns Israel for “breaking” the truce.

Here we go again…

Well, maybe. Or maybe not. Nobody seems to know for sure what the results of a vote on whether to re-open the gay marriage debate in Parliament will mean, other than that Stephen Harper will notch one more promise onto his belt that he can claim to have kept.

I suppose the Tories need to do this, get past it, and get on with things; Harper is probably even secretly grateful that it’s likely they’ll lose. Despite his personal convictions, the last thing he wants is a divisive fight on the issue and lengthy court battles. Then again, the timing makes me wonder whether he’s just trying to mobilize his conservative base ahead of an election.

In any case, the motion will probably be easily defeated. Here’s hoping people can get over it at that point and get on with things, and that they don’t allow this to devolve into a neverendum-referendum situation. The Quebec sovereignty issue is already one thing too many that refuses to go away. We don’t need another.

Now that Syria’s excitement in launching missiles at Israel through its proxy, Hezbollah, has been dampered thanks to the IDF, it has returned to its regularly-scheduled programming: assassinating Lebanese politicians:

Gunmen on Tuesday assassinated Lebanese Christian cabinet minister Pierre Gemayel, an outspoken critic of Syria, plunging Lebanon deeper into a crisis over ties with its dominant neighbor.

At least three gunmen rammed their car into Gemayel’s vehicle near Beirut, then leapt out and riddled it with bullets, firing at Gemayel with silencer-equipped automatic weapons at point-blank range in a Christian neighborhood, witnesses said.

Ten bullet holes were seen around the window of the driver’s seat of his grey car. The two front seats were soaked in blood.

The son of assassinated former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri blamed Syria for the killing in the Sin el-Fil area, but Damascus condemned the murder.

Yeah, that condemnation means about as much as when Yasser Arafat used to ‘condemn’ Palestinian suicide bombers who murdered Israeli citizens.