Dion wastes no time
Election expected as early as next spring
SUSAN DELACOURT AND LES WHITTINGTON - December 4th 2006.

MONTREAL—Canadians will get their first chance today to see new Liberal leader Stéphane Dion in combat with Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Dion said he talked to Harper on Saturday night, shortly after he won the Liberal crown in an exciting four-ballot convention, and the Prime Minister assured him he'd be in the Commons today to welcome him into the political fray.

Dion told reporters yesterday he'd wait to see whether he wanted to bring Harper's government down over the next budget, expected early in the new year.

"I don't want to rush to an election. I want to be ready for an election," Dion said after a working lunch with the seven other people who had vied for the Liberal leader's job. "I know that this government (will have) a lot of difficulty to go through its neo-conservative agenda."

Election readiness was the main talk at the lunch yesterday, sources said, with Dion going around the table and inviting his former rivals to give candid and practical advice on getting the Liberals campaign-ready.

The Liberals can be expected to fashion their agenda around that of the new leader, who won on what's being popularly described as a red-green formula — heavy on red Liberalism and green environmentalism.

Dion, who calls himself a "fast learner," isn't wasting any time assuming his leadership duties after a nearly year-long campaign to replace Paul Martin.

"I am the leader of the Liberal party 100 per cent. You are either not the leader or you are the leader. There's no in-between," Dion, 51, said.

This morning, Dion presides over a special meeting of the Liberal caucus, then he'll take centre seat in the Commons across from Harper for question period in the afternoon. Tomorrow, he's headed to Montreal for meetings and then it's back to Ottawa on Wednesday for the vote on whether to reopen the same-sex marriage debate.

Dion's stand is clear: "You don't pick and choose rights," he said yesterday when asked how he'd vote. He's not saying yet whether he will demand that all MPs fall in line behind him on this one, though. That's one of the things Liberal MPs will discuss immediately.

Once the winners in last week's two federal by-elections are sworn in, the standings in the 308-seat House of Commons will be: Conservatives, 124; Liberals, 102; Bloc Québécois, 51; NDP, 29. There are two independent MPs.

Dion, a former political science academic and national unity and environment minister, held a news conference yesterday morning, at which he was forced to field a lot of tough questions from Quebec journalists about perceived hostility in that province toward him because of his tough stands in the past against Quebec nationalism.

This appears to be his first and main challenge.

Dion also has to be concerned about party unity. Not only does he have to bridge the divisions that are a natural fallout of any long leadership campaign, but he is now in charge of a party that is prone to fractiousness, as seen especially during the decade that Martin and former prime minister Jean Chrétien were locked in a power struggle.

There wasn't much open talk of lingering leadership campaign bitterness yesterday, though Bob Rae's disappointment was only thinly masked. "Let's get the hell out of here," Rae said to his wife, Arlene, as they glanced back at the scene of reporters interviewing other losing candidates filing out of the lunch at Montreal's Le Place d'Armes hotel.

But behind the scenes at lunch, Rae gave practical advice as the voice of experience at the table, sources said, telling the group what lessons he'd learned from arriving at leadership positions in the past, in opposition and in government at Queen's Park when he was the NDP leader.

Rae came third on ballot No. 3 on Saturday, never making it to the final showdown between Dion and Michael Ignatieff, who had been the front-runner all through the campaign.

Ignatieff's disappointment was also evident, but he said "I'm not going anywhere," when asked whether he'd be staying in his job as MP for Etobicoke-Lakeshore. (Ignatieff did give a more ambiguous answer to the Star several months ago, which he later retracted, when he was asked if he'd stay in politics if he lost the leadership.)

It was Rae who was a little more ambivalent yesterday, in fact. Rae told reporters "it is certainly my intention" to run in the next election, which is expected next year. "How all that works out we will have to see. I indicated that during the campaign and that (loss) doesn't change my mind."

Gerard Kennedy, the former Ontario education minister who helped seal Dion's victory when he brought virtually all his delegates over to support him, is expected to have an important role keeping the new leader connected with Ontario and the goal of party renewal.

"There's a platform to get built and an election to get ready for and ... Ontario needs to feel fully part of it as much as the rest of the country," said Kennedy. "I will be available to help him out particularly for the transition," he said, adding while he will run in the next federal election he has no immediate plan to move to Ottawa to work in Dion's office. "I have not narrowed down my options."

Dion tried to cut through the lingering questions about internal party divisions arising from the leadership contest at his news conference. He said he didn't want MPs to waste his and their time explaining to him why they supported one of his opponents. "Instead, (they should) come to see me to explain what they want to do to win the next election."

And the new leader, who won the Liberal crown against the wishes of much of the party establishment, signalled that he hopes to use his grassroots appeal in the battle for the allegiance of the wider voting public in the next federal election. "This race has seen a lot of success for the bottom-up philosophy," he said of the leadership battle. "And we'll win the election the same way."

Dion made it clear that he intends to build the Liberal election agenda around the need to protect the environment. That was one of the three pillars of his leadership campaign policies, along with social justice and economic growth.

For a century, social justice and a strong economy have been key Liberal goals, he told reporters. "We need to add environmental sustainability at the core of who we are as Liberals."

I'm election-ready, Dion says
RICHARD BRENNAN - December 3rd 2006.

MONTREAL — New Liberal leader Stephane Dion says he will have hit the ground running because an election could be called at any time.

"I am a fast learner," Dion told his first press conference as leader.

Dion was still basking in his come from behind victory at the five-day leadership convention that saw him defeat frontrunners Michael Ignatieff and Bob Rae.

Dion also rushed to quell doubts that he can deliver seats in his native Quebec and Ontario where he had very little support.

Despite not having much support among his caucus he insisted there will be no price to pay for not backing him.

Dion also said he can win seats in Quebec. When it was suggested at a news conference that some in the province believe he is anti-Quebec, Dion replied, "I think an awful lot would say he is a proud Quebecer."

Dion has been vilified in many circles in Quebec for his tough stance on national unity and for being the architect of the Clarity Act.

He says he will win Quebec by reinforcing the value of staying within Canada, "inviting Quebecers to share the same vision, the same dream, the same action plan as all other Canadians and through that to see how we can succeed through working with the others instead of staying within ourselves."

Dion said he is confident of winning the next election. Dion says social justice and building a sustainable environment and economy will be key goals.

For Harper, a double-edged sword
Dion's victory gives PM an opportunity to advance in Quebec, but much depends on fickle federalist fortunes in the province
CHANTAL HÉBERT - December 4th 2006.

MONTREAL—The advent of Stéphane Dion as the leader of the Liberal party of Canada presents Prime Minister Stephen Harper with both a huge opportunity and an immense risk.

It offers the Conservative leader his best shot ever at consolidating his own coalition. But what looks like a window of opportunity today could become a deadly trap for the Prime Minister if federalist fortunes take a turn for the worse in the next Quebec election.

At least in the short term, the outcome of the weekend's leadership convention diminishes the Liberal capacity to swiftly build a pan-Canadian progressive coalition to defeat Harper.

Outside Quebec, Dion is currently less attractive to New Democrat sympathizers than Bob Rae could be expected to be and in Quebec he is less likely to raise his party from the dead than Michael Ignatieff would have.

The new Liberal leader will need more than the few months that may be left before Canada takes a return trip to the polls to fix the latter.

This weekend, Dion was the second choice of enough delegates from the rest of Canada to vault from fourth place in the September race for delegates to a decisive fourth-ballot convention victory, but he was not even the last choice of the vast majority of the Quebec delegates.

Almost to a man and a woman, the party's senior organizers rallied to Ignatieff on the final ballot. That includes Martin Cauchon and Denis Coderre. For the two former ministers, Dion's victory is a double disappointment as it dashes their own plans to secure a headstart in a future run for the leadership.

For all the talk of a generational change, it is not strictly out of admiration or abnegation that the rising stars of the party outside Quebec rallied so readily to Dion on the convention floor. By ensuring the victory of the only Quebec candidate on the ballot, Martha Hall Findlay, Gerard Kennedy and others ensured that when the party next changes leader, candidates from the rest of Canada will be first in line.

Once Bloc Québécois strategists wipe the grin off their faces, they will notice that the outcome of the convention is a double-edged sword.

They had no way of knowing whether Ignatieff's success at building a loyal following among Quebec Liberals was a sign of things to come in an election or how Rae's progressive credentials would play with the many Bloc supporters who are alarmed by the current directions of the Harper government.

With Dion, they are in known territory, facing a familiar adversary that much of the francophone electorate has come to see in a terribly negative light over years of post-referendum skirmishes.

His victory may amount to handing Quebec to the Bloc and the Conservatives in the next election. But that would also mean that the Bloc could not count on a division in the federalist vote to sap Harper's strength.

Instead Tory incumbents would be able to fight the Bloc without having to worry about being outflanked by another federalist party and Conservative candidates would have a larger pool of voters to draw from in their battle for more Quebec ground.

Even as the Liberals were choosing their leader, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty was confirming that he expects to include a deal on the fiscal imbalance in his next budget. Solving the fiscal imbalance to the satisfaction of the provinces, in particular Quebec, is now more central than ever to Harper's strategy and to his hopes to neutralize his new Liberal opponent.

For if Dion stands for anything it is national unity and the environment.

In the latter case, his victory positions the Liberals on a crowded ice, where they will have to jostle with the NDP, the Green party and the Bloc Québécois for a position. Dion will also be weighted down by a Liberal record that is less than stellar.

Moreover, by putting so many eggs in the environment basket, the other parties may be tempting Harper to take a more agressive course on climate change. Having just witnessed his stunning moves on Quebec's national character and on the income trusts, does anyone doubt the capacity of this prime minister to change tack ?

Unity is another issue. As he watched Dion come from behind to win the leadership Saturday, Harper must have congratulated himself for having had the prescience to bring him in the loop of his plan to recognize that Quebecers form a nation. As a virtual co-author of the controversal motion adopted by the House of Commons last week, the new Liberal leader is in no postion to take advantage of what could be a major Conservative liability, at least outside Quebec.

But with Dion in the rink, Harper can also no longer assume that he owns the mantle of unity champion.

More than ever, the Prime Minister has a vital interest in helping Premier Jean Charest secure a second mandate in the provincial election that will be taking place over the next year, or, short of that, in going to the polls before his Quebec ally does.

For nothing might accelerate Dion's ascent in the rest of Canada, and little could do more to remobilize Quebec federalists behind the new Liberal leader, than a Parti Québécois victory and the prospect of another referendum.

At that point, many of the conditions for a replay of Joe Clark's 1980 demise at the hands of Pierre Trudeau would be in place.

MONTREAL -- The Kyoto Protocol on global warming will be a central issue in the next election campaign following the election of Stéphane Dion as Liberal Leader.

Canada has fallen well behind its target and Environment Minister Rona Ambrose has insisted that it is too late to meet Kyoto without imposing harsh measures that would cause energy bills to skyrocket.

But Mr. Dion insisted during the campaign that if his new environmental plan is put in place by "early 2007," Kyoto's targets can still be met.

That pledge may explain the eagerness he is already showing for another election.

Mr. Dion was Canada's environment minister from July of 2004 to the party's electoral defeat in January of 2006. After much delay and internal debate, he released Project Green in April of 2005 that outlined how Canada would meet its Kyoto targets.

Though greenhouse-gas emissions continued to rise under his watch, Mr. Dion argues that is because his plan to force reductions in industrial emissions was not yet in place when the Liberal government fell.

He has been a critic of Ms. Ambrose's Clean Air Act, particularly because it is not a plan for Canada to meet its 2012 Kyoto targets.

In his first press conference as Liberal Leader, Mr. Dion said the environment is very important to him, but it is not his only priority.

"It's not one [issue] like the Green Party," Mr. Dion said. "I campaigned on economic prosperity, social justice, environmental sustainability together."

Mr. Dion told reporters that because the Conservative government is "so far right," there could be an election at any time.

Though the Tories and NDP have said Mr. Dion has a poor record on the environment, Mr. Dion dismissed his critics. "Greenhouse gases are going up, that's for sure. But we need to do more, not less. And that's what I want to do. The plan I put in place in 2005, that Mr. Harper rejected, would have allowed us to meet our Kyoto goals," he said. "My plan for energy and climate change, more efficiency, more recycling, less waste, that's at the heart of what I want to do."

Mr. Dion said he plans to compile the best environmental ideas of all the Liberal leadership candidates to develop "the best for energy and climate change that you can have in Canada."

Mr. Dion spoke specifically of Alberta's oil patch, which is the main source of increasing emissions.

"I have a very good plan for Alberta," he said. "If we succeed in Fort McMurray to have sustainable development, we will succeed everywhere in the world. We will export our know-how and we will make mega-tonnes of money."

Mr. Dion's 54-page environment platform calls for a wide range of targeted tax cuts to encourage action on climate change.

"We will not kill the industry. We will make the industry sustainable," he said.

NDP MP Nathan Cullen said he's open to working with Liberals on the environment, but said they have a long history of being all talk and no action on the environment.

With NDP amendments to the Clean Air Act and a private member's bill to implement Kyoto currently before the House, Mr. Cullen said Mr. Dion will be tested quickly.

"The proof will be in the pudding," he said.

Dion Liberals jump in poll
Leader's upset win puts party six points ahead of Tories, new survey shows
CAMPBELL CLARK AND BRIAN LAGHI - December 4th 2006.

MONTREAL -- Who is this man?

Stéphane Dion, age 51

Grew up in Quebec City, the son of a French-born real-estate agent, Denyse, and Léon Dion, a dominant federalist figure in Quebec.

As a child had a pet parakeet that could say "ideology."

Now has a husky named Kyoto.

Earned a doctorate in sociology in Paris. Married to Janine Krieber, a fellow political scientist who is an

expert in counterterrorism issues. They have an 18-year-old daughter, Jeanne, adopted from Peru.

Former professor at Laval University. First elected to the House of Commons on March 25, 1996.

Represents the riding of Saint-Laurent-Cartierville.

Stéphane Dion emerged from his stunning convention victory with early signs that his win places the party ahead of the governing Conservatives for the first time since the Liberals' election defeat in January.

The Liberals have moved six percentage points ahead of Stephen Harper's Tories, while a sizable majority of Quebeckers say the Liberals made a good choice, according to the survey conducted by the Strategic Counsel for The Globe and Mail and CTV.

The poll was taken in the hours after the dramatic convention, where Mr. Dion, teaming up in an alliance with fellow candidate Gerard Kennedy, surged past front-runner Michael Ignatieff and Bob Rae to claim the Liberal crown.

It shows that if an election were held today, the Liberals led by Mr. Dion would garner 37 per cent of the vote, compared with 31 per cent for the Conservatives. The NDP polled 14 per cent, the Bloc Québécois 11 per cent, and the Green Party 7.

Liberal support in the poll is up five percentage points from a Strategic Counsel survey in October. Most of the gain came in Ontario, at the expense of the NDP and the Green Party.

And in a reaction that defies the conventional wisdom of Quebec pundits, 62 per cent of respondents in the province said that Mr. Dion was a good choice for the Liberals, with only 29 per cent saying he was a bad choice. The approval of the Liberals' pick was higher in Quebec than in the rest of the country, where 55 per cent liked the choice.

Still, as the new leader of the opposition, Mr. Dion now faces a series of challenges.

On Wednesday, his first day as Leader in the House of Commons, he will have to tackle potential dissent in his caucus, when MPs vote on reopening the same-sex marriage debate. Mr. Dion refused to say whether he would force his members to vote against it until he meets them today.

Moreover, he also faces the possibility that Mr. Harper will try to engineer a quick election before Mr. Dion can properly unite his party and organize for a vote.

He must also seek to overcome doubts about his ability to win an election, especially in Quebec, where he has the image of a hard-line federalist, and members of his own party are nervous about his voter appeal.

The poll suggests that might still be an open question. Across Canada, 26 per cent said they would be less likely to vote Liberal now that Mr. Dion is leader, and 20 per cent said they would be more likely; 47 per cent said their vote would be unaffected.

"What this shows is he has a chance of accomplishing job one, which is the opportunity of coalescing the federalist vote in Quebec," said Allan Gregg, head of the Strategic Counsel. "In Ontario, these are the highest numbers that we have had for the Liberals since 2004."

Mr. Dion won the leadership in spectacular fashion after he barely nosed in front of Mr. Kennedy to finish third on the first ballot and then parlayed the support of Mr. Kennedy to propel him past the two leading candidates.

He moved immediately yesterday to prepare for a possible election when he announced the formation of his transition team, to be led by former Chrétien-era cabinet minister Marcel Masse and Ottawa entrepereneur Rod Bryden, a party activist and key fundraiser.

"I am a quick learner," he told reporters in his first news conference as Liberal Leader. "We don't have a lot of time, as you know. We may be in an election at any time."

And while some in the Liberals' already-deflated Quebec francophone establishment privately expressed concerns that he cannot build support -- leaving open the question of who will help him re-build the party's tattered organization there -- Mr. Dion has a reply.

"People have always underestimated me. Perhaps it's good that people have underestimated me -- it has worked for me," he said. "But I think I have built a relationship of mutual respect with Quebeckers. You feel it, you see it, and you will see it more and more."

Minutes after his victory, opposition politicians tried to tag Mr. Dion for being part of the Liberal Party during the sponsorship scandal and for wrapping himself in green despite the fact that greenhouse-gas emissions rose under his watch. "Like my father used to say when he was not impressed: 'Weak, mister, weak.' They have to find something a little better, I think."

Mr. Dion met for lunch yesterday with the seven defeated candidates, and the two leading candidates he defeated said they intend to run in the next election -- with different degrees of enthusiasm "Oh yeah. I'm not going anywhere," Mr. Ignatieff, already a Toronto MP, told reporters. Mr. Rae, looking drained and puffy-eyed, was not so effusive. "Yes, that's still my intention," he said when asked if he will run.

Mr. Harper, who had promised during the last election campaign to hold a vote on reopening the same-sex marriage debate, moved Friday to spring the vote on the Liberals just as their new leader arrives.

"To me it's a matter of rights and you don't pick and choose rights," Mr. Dion said. "I think it's a very bad idea from the Prime Minister to reopen this debate."

The poll surveyed 1,000 Canadians yesterday, and is accurate within 3.1 percentage points, 19 times in 20. The polling in Quebec used a sample of 247 and is considered accurate within 6.3 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

With reports from Alex Dobrota, Gloria Galloway, Canadian Press

Polling Canadians

A Strategic Counsel poll of 1,000 people conducted yesterday found a thin margin of support for the Liberals' choice of a new leader.

Do you feel that Stéphane Dion is a good choice or a poor choice as the new leader of the Liberal Party?
	CANADA	QUEBEC	ONTARIO	WEST
Good choice	55%	62%	57%	48%
Poor choice	19%	29%	14%	19%
Don't know	27%	9%	29%	34%

*Note: Numbers may not add up to 100 due to rounding [SOURCE: THE STRATEGIC COUNSEL]

37% of Canadians would vote for Dion's Liberals; 31% back Harper's Tories

61% oppose sending troops to Afghanistan; Dion hasn't said if he'd pull them out

20% say it's now more likely they will vote Liberal;

26% say it's less likely

62% in Quebec say Dion is a good choice as Liberal Leader.

Green hue to Dion policy
Vows best electoral platform ever seen
SEAN GORDON - December 4th 2006.

MONTREAL—It was hardly an accident that in their push for victory Stéphane Dion's supporters donned bright green garb.

The showpiece plank of Dion's campaign platform was sustainable development and a renewed focus on Canada's role in the fight against climate change, a theme the Liberals hope will be a winner in the next election.

"We need to add environmental sustainability at the core of who we are as Liberals," Dion said at his maiden news conference as leader, adding that he is committed to producing "the best electoral platform Canadians have ever seen."

Throughout the campaign Dion has said he would champion social justice, economic development and the sustainability principle, although the environment has been his central thrust — largely to build on the reputation he gained during his year-long stint as federal environment minister.

The highlights of his green plan include rebates for home renovations, tax credits for energy efficient appliances, tighter rules for biodiversity and land conservation, regulations for sustainable agriculture, and changing tax rules to ensure a stronger focus on developing environmentally friendly technologies. Dion has also proposed the creation of new nature reserves, and stricter enforcement of pollution laws.

He expounded on other aspects of the flurry of policy proposals he tabled during the nine-month campaign.

Dion wants to reduce "the distance between the lab and the market" by spending more on research and innovation, and by "targeted tax cuts" to spur development of new technologies.

He has also proposed that instead of cutting the GST, the government should take the $4.5 billion it would cost to do so and give a National Child Benefit Supplement of $5,000 per child to every family earning $25,000 or less "to bring 800,000 children out of poverty."

Although he still hasn't acknowledged the existence of a "fiscal imbalance" and skirted the issue yesterday, Dion has said the equalization formula must be updated to provide more money to provinces.

He's also said he'd like to focus foreign policy more on humanitarian aid and development, and would consider a withdrawal "with honour" of Canadian troops from Afghanistan because the mission is ill-conceived and has bogged down.

Party unity on menu at luncheon
`It's a bright new day,' Ignatieff says as he joins other candidates to support Dion
BRUCE CAMPION-SMITH, LES WHITTINGTON, RICHARD BRENNAN - December 4th 2006.

MONTREAL—Fish, pork and chicken were on the menu but as the eight leadership candidates gathered for lunch, they were hoping to serve up a few helpings of party unity too.

The candidates, who spent months battling for delegates and sparring with each other, gathered for the last time in this campaign at Le Place d'Armes hotel, just a few blocks away from the Palais des congrès where the convention drama played a day earlier.

They arrived one at a time for a group lunch, nursing bruised egos, shattered dreams and, in the words of one, licking their wounds after a contest that Gerard Kennedy admitted has "no second prize."

But they also came making a deliberate show of support for Stéphane Dion and expressing confidence in his leadership.

Kennedy, whose support of Dion after the third ballot proved key in the victory, acknowledged the "obvious" symbolism of the get-together but said it will take hard work by everyone to ensure no lasting bitterness lingers from the contest.

"People need time to lick their wounds ... . It's going to take a real studious effort when the cameras are gone to pull everybody together," Kennedy said.

"I think Mr. Dion is very, very up to that task. He is going to invite other people's perspectives and make use of them.

"He understands that, in some ways, he doesn't have a choice. We all have to find a way to make this work."

Martha Hall Findlay, who went into the convention weekend as the lone woman in the race, was first to arrive.

Joe Volpe arrived next, leaving his red SUV idling in the street for the valet to park. And while he dropped out even before the first-ballot results were released and backed Bob Rae, he said yesterday he was glad Dion had won.

"He's going to need everybody's help and I'm here to help him," Volpe said.

Volpe added the road ahead for Dion will be easier because he is already an established figure in the House of Commons.

"We just have to get Canadians to know him a little better," he said.

Scott Brison was next in and expressed confidence in Dion's ability to perform as leader.

"I think he will do extremely well. Dion's speech was gracious and inspiring. It's clear that we're moving forward very positively, unified and with an ability to give Canada a clear direction," Brison said.

"Stéphane's going to be able to inspire Canadians on what's the most important ballot question in the next election, and that is Canada's response to climate change and the environment."

Ken Dryden admitted disappointment in his early ouster from voting. He initially backed Rae and then moved to Dion on the last ballot.

Dryden thinks the new leader can pull the party together and tackle Prime Minister Stephen Harper. "There's nothing that focuses attention and purpose" more than the need to win an election, Dryden added.

"I think it was a good weekend" for the party, Dryden said, noting the party seems to have overcome the divisions that were on everyone's minds a few weeks ago.

As he arrived at the lunch, Michael Ignatieff, who lost to Dion on the final ballot, met the victor getting out the elevator. The two exchanged a warm handshake.

"We've got a great new leader. It's a bright new day for the party," Ignatieff said.

Rae said he was going to use the lunch to discuss what he thinks Dion should do first, but declined to share any details.

"I am going to discuss that with Mr. Dion. I am not going to discuss that with you. My dealings with the leader will not be done in front of the media," a weary-looking Rae said.

Rae told reporters "it is certainly my intention" to run in the next election, which is expected next year.

Quebec reaction fast and furious
Dion a polarizing figure there, but he moves quickly to build bridges
SEAN GORDON - December 4th 2006.

MONTREAL—It's hardly an auspicious sign for a politician to dramatically win the leadership of his party at a convention in his home province, only to see tears of despair spring up on some hometown faces.

But such was the case for new Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion, a polarizing figure in Quebec, and a man much of the Quebec wing of the party considers a political liability.

His biggest challenge now will be to win over Quebec Liberals like the sniffling delegate who predicted "we'll be lucky to win five seats" in the province in the next election, or another who lamented that "Dion, even if he has his qualities, is not loved in Quebec."

The Liberals currently hold 13 of the 75 federal seats in Quebec. The Bloc Québécois holds 51 and the Conservatives 10. There is one independent MP.

Pundits in the province wasted no time in putting the boots to the new leader, and some senior Quebec Liberals indicated they might have difficulty rallying to his side.

When long-time MP and former cabinet minister Denis Coderre was asked on Saturday whether he would support Dion, he said he needed some time to think.

"I have an MBA, so I'll be okay," he said, before adding he plans to return to work quickly.

Roughly half the province's riding presidents and the president of the Liberal Quebec wing supported Michael Ignatieff's leadership bid.

But Dion said yesterday he had spoken to Coderre and other senior players in Quebec and he is confident of leading the party to victory in the province in the next election.

He pointed out that "hundreds" of Quebec Liberals supported him and added he would succeed in correcting negative perceptions by "inviting Quebecers to share the same vision, the same dream, the same action plan as all other Canadians, and through that to see how we can succeed through working with the others instead of staying within ourselves."

Sovereignists could barely contain their glee at front-page photos of a triumphant Dion in the Quebec papers.

"The Liberal Party of Canada has decided to take on a pretty daring bet ... and it has risks," said Bloc Québécois MP Bernard Bigras (Rosemont-Petite Patrie). "There are risks in Quebec because no one could pick up a newspaper this morning without thinking back to the strategy after 1995, and the Clarity Act."

Dion, as intergovernmental affairs minister in the Chrétien government after the near-victory by sovereignists in the 1995 referendum, was the architect of the Clarity Act, which sets out strict conditions under which Quebec can separate.

At the same time, Bloc strategists worry that a diminished Liberal vote will cost them seats where they have previously benefited from federalist vote-splitting.

Political watchers in the province predicted the Liberals would rue their choice; that the old strategy of electing a Quebec-born leader who stands up to Quebecers with a tough-love approach will no longer work.

"I think that recipe worked quite effectively during the Trudeau period, but it can no longer work given where Quebec is at now. Quebecers no longer content themselves with the mere presence of one of their own, they also want recognition and compromises," said Université de Sherbrooke political scientist Jean-Herman Guay.

Dion and his senior advisers bristle at the sovereignist stereotype of him as a Trudeau-style centralist and self-loathing Quebecer, pointing out he has always believed in a more decentralized federation and that he voted for a Commons resolution recognizing "les Québécois" as a nation. While no regional breakdowns were made public for the final ballots, the Dion campaign acknowledges it did not carry the candidate's home province. But there were early signs yesterday that Dion is working to bridge gaps.

Former Quebec Liberal lieutenant Jean Lapierre said Dion's election is a conclusive end to the days of party division. Ignatieff said yesterday: "I'm in politics to unify the party, to win seats in Quebec. I'll roll up my sleeves and work with Stéphane. If he wants it, I'll roll up my sleeves and go town to town with him."

Former Quebec wing president Pablo Rodriguez, a Montreal MP who was Ignatieff's campaign co-chair, said: "I am rallying behind our leader. We have a common goal, and that's to beat Stephen Harper."

Meanwhile in Other News:

'Steady Eddie' wins in Alberta
Premier-designate Ed Stelmach stayed true to his roots in his long-shot bid to replace Ralph Klein as Tory leader
DEAN BENNETT - December 4th 2006.

EDMONTON—He learned to write with either hand after breaking both legs, climbed to the political summit by staying true to his roots, and, like his predecessor, never lost an election in a province where everyone calls him by his first name.

Ed Stelmach won the right to be Alberta's 13th premier because he relies on self-help and on helping others, said Health Minister Iris Evans, the highest-ranking of the few legislature members who backed what everyone agreed was his long-shot bid in the race to replace Ralph Klein as Progressive Conservative leader.

Evans said Stelmach looked worn on the night of his greatest triumph not because of the politics but because he'd been up all night fixing a furnace on the fritz.

And she said when her car broke down in bitterly cold temperatures in the first round of party voting last weekend, it was Stelmach's children who gave her a ride home.

"That's the Stelmach way — helping other people," said Evans.

The 55-year-old third-generation Ukrainian will soon add premier to the lengthy list of cabinet portfolios he has held, including agriculture and intergovernmental affairs.

He was the soft-spoken dark horse from the riding of Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville — farm country north of Edmonton, where Stelmach and wife Marie still raise Angus cattle.

While pack-leading opponents Jim Dinning and Ted Morton fought highly publicized campaigns, Stelmach quietly toured the hustings in a bus plastered with his confident grin, drawing hundreds at one point to a $45-a-plate fund-raising dinner.

The man known as Steady Eddie and Honest Ed seemed to capture the hearts of party voters before swaying their minds.

When he finished a surprising third in the first round of balloting to move on to Saturday's decisive vote, he first thanked his brother for staying on the farm to look after the cows.

In his acceptance speech Saturday, he credited the birth of his grandson with giving him the inspiration to fight on to help future generations of Albertans.

When a newspaper asked the candidates to name their political heroes, others answered Lincoln, Churchill, and former Tory premier Peter Lougheed.

Stelmach replied: his grandparents, for settling in Alberta and not Saskatchewan.

His answers were often brief and succinct. Surrounded by a moving cocoon of well-wishers chanting "Eddie! Eddie! Eddie!" after his triumph, he credited his success to "sticking with the message and hard work."

Even Gene Zwozdesky, a cabinet colleague, who backed Dinning, and fellow member of the Ukrainian community, said he's now ready to work with a Stelmach team and called the win "a silent wave that nobody anticipated."

The odds of victory seemed daunting at first. Stelmach seemed wooden and nervous during the televised debates, hands chopping the air in self-conscious robotic gestures.

But the seeds of victory were there. When Stelmach finished a distant third in the first round, three rivals who finished even further back could have covered their political bets by backing Dinning, who was in front.

But Dave Hancock, Lyle Oberg and Mark Norris went instead to the guy at the back.

"His integrity is beyond reproach," said Norris.

But then Stelmach, like Klein, never lost a political contest, dating back to his days as the county reeve in Lamont in the late 1980s. He was elected to the Alberta legislature in 1993 and has never left and never quit, a legacy that may have started when, as a child recovering from a playground fall that broke both his legs, he taught himself how to write with both hands. Today he's a voracious reader who stays grounded through Marie, four children and Ukrainian-Catholic faith.

And the loyalty of his friends.

When asked Saturday about those who supported him, he never hesitated: "All of those MLAs and ministers that helped me will play a prominent role."