Dion's Honeymoon Over

Dion may be one Quebecer too many for voters
February 27, 2007
Richard Gwyn

Few Canadian political leaders have undergone as rapid a reversal of public fortunes as has Stéphane Dion in the less than three months since he became Liberal leader.

Comparisons have been made with Stockwell Day's spectacular fall after he became leader of the now-vanished Alliance Party. Day, though, while he did take a deep dive as soon as he put on his wet suit, never started out high.

Dion at his start was genuinely popular. People were intrigued by him.

Sure he was geeky, but he clearly was brainy. He possessed the especially attractive quality of "authenticity," of being someone who was real and who actually meant what he said.

His handicaps are now much more obvious.

On television, he just doesn't look like a leader. On both television and radio, his weak voice simply doesn't make him sound like a leader.

Dion has another handicap that everyone was aware of at his beginning but sort of assumed would go away by itself. This is that he's a Quebecer.

Dion's core problem may be that he's one Quebecer too many.

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