Petty Iggy elitism

I am all too well familiar with ruthless internal party politics. But past leaders, unless forever mired in scandal, are a treasure. Stéphane Dion deserves better than this:

[Stéphane Dion] deserves better than to have his back stabbed by the likes of Denis Coderre, a party apparatchik whose contributions to Canada are minimal compared with those of Dion. But Coderre apparently has the ear and the support of Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff, which greatly enhances his ability to make mischief in the ranks of the party's Quebec wing. And Coderre seems to think, according to our columnist L.Ian MacDonald, that Dion should have the decency to disappear before the next election and leave his riding open for a "star candidate."

This is the kind of nastiness that gives party politics a bad name - and rightly so. For all his errors as leader, Dion has long been a stalwart defender of national unity. He rallied to the Liberal cause in the dark days following the 1995 referendum precisely to fight the very real threat of national dissolution. His three open letters to separatists demolished the arguments of those who would tear the country apart and his Clarity Act stiffened the spines of discouraged federalists and infuriated their foes.

After Jean Chrétien's departure as party leader, Dion was relegated to the back benches in an act of particular vindictiveness by the ascendant Paul Martin. But Dion hung in, a faithful Liberal soldier, eventually re-emerging into prominence as an eloquent defender of the environment.

Given his bruising experience in the world of real politics, we wouldn't blame Dion if he did decide to return to the more theoretical world of the Université de Montréal's political-science department. But he has served his country well and we suspect he still has contributions to make. Leave him alone, Mr. Coderre

Just one more reason why I don't support the Liberals anymore.