TheStar.com | Canada | Liberal leader urges 'discipline'
Sean Gordon
Quebec Bureau Chief
MONTREAL
Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion is taking on the grumblers in his party's fractious Quebec wing, warning that open dissent risks torpedoing the Liberals' electoral chances.
Dion was in Montreal to meet with the party's Quebec executive, where roiling internal opposition broke to the surface this month, and he implored his detractors to keep their criticism in the family.
"If we are not disciplined now we risk not being disciplined in an election. And in an election, an iron discipline is required to win," he said.
At a news conference, Dion ordered a conspicuous show of unity, standing with more than a dozen executive members.
"As the leader I am entitled to greater discipline," Dion said. "We have a lot of work to do, and we know that. We also know anything is possible when we work hard and when we have discipline, which has been lacking lately, but it will come back, let me tell you. Isn't that right?"
"Yes," the executive members answered in chorus.
Asked by reporters whether recent disgruntlement was evidence of a greater malaise over his leadership, Dion was categorical.
"No. It's a lack of discipline," he said, adding he doesn't plan to hit dissenters with any sanctions.
Dion said his party is ready for an election, but he signalled the Liberals won't topple the minority Conservatives over proposed changes to the Immigration Act that would give the minister sweeping powers.
"It's unacceptable It's something that we need to study closely, and we will use every means to ensure it will be looked at in committee," he said. "We will not strategize publicly. Mr. Harper has abandoned his power to call elections I have that power and I exercise it. We will go into an election when we think it appropriate to go into an election."
Despite Dion's efforts to calm the waters, there are still evident problems in the Quebec wing. Membership numbers have dwindled, contributions are lagging, and dozens of the province's 75 ridings have yet to nominate candidates â?? although a Liberal official insisted more than 50 have been "identified."
Leadership rival Michael Ignatieff, the party's deputy leader, and Etobicoke-Lakeshore MP, held a fundraiser in Montreal this week to help offset debts incurred in the race, and was quoted in La Presse as telling a supporter: "Mr. Dion was a good minister, but he doesn't have the stature of a leader."
The remark set the cat among the pigeons among Liberals, and was immediately denied by Ignatieff, who released a terse statement insisting: "The statement directly attributed to me is entirely false."
"No one has the right to call my loyalty into question," it continued.
But some Liberals interviewed think it was inappropriate for Ignatieff to be raising money in a province where the coffers are bare and where it will be harder for the party to tap donors if they have already committed part of their $1,000 annual limit to Ignatieff.
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