No sign of Liberal Leader Dion stepping down immediately

Last Updated: Thursday, October 16, 2008 | 2:21 AM ET

CBC News

Stéphane Dion acknowledges supporters in Montreal on election night. (Fred Chartrand/Canadian Press)

Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion appeared to be in no hurry to step down Thursday after his party's defeat in Tuesday's federal election, with officials denying a report that he would immediately make way for someone new.

The Toronto Star had cited Liberal party insiders who said Dion would make the announcement on Thursday and then stay on as leader until a successor is chosen.

But a spokeswoman for Dion said the Liberal leader would make no such announcement on Thursday and that her office would inform the media when Dion is ready to speak.

Dion avoided the subject of his future as party leader in the aftermath of Tuesday's federal election, in which his party lost 19 seats and received only 26 per cent of the popular support.

The pressure on Dion to move along seemed to be growing as time passed, however. The National Post carried a story Thursday in which Liberals speculated that former New Brunswick premier Frank McKenna might be drawn into a leadership race. A former U.S. ambassador and now deputy chairman of Toronto-Dominion Bank, McKenna had no comment.

The Globe and Mail cited senior Liberal party members Thursday as saying that Dion would face pressure to declare quickly that he will end his leadership and let the party start procedures to replace him.

The paper quoted one well-connected party member as suggesting that if Dion didn't announce his departure promptly, the party should move the furniture out of his office.

"How do you do a putsch on a guy who doesn't understand he's being putsched?" the Globe quoted the unidentified Liberal as saying.

Former Liberal cabinet minister Liza Frulla said it's only a matter of time before Dion steps down as leader.

"He doesn't really have a choice, and I think he knows that," she said.

Frulla said Dion was probably the best environment minister the Liberals have ever had but was never leadership material.

"We all knew in 2006, anyways us from Quebec. We knew in 2006 that Stéphane Dion as leader was probably not the right choice," she said.

Dion, who served as intergovernmental affairs minister under Jean Chrétien and environment minister under Paul Martin, claimed the mantle of party leader on Dec. 2, 2006.

His victory came as a surprise to most after he finished third with less than 18 per cent of the vote on the first ballot.

But with the backing of leadership candidate Gerard Kennedy, Dion was able to vault past the two star candidates Michael Ignatieff and Bob Rae.

Leadership style came into question

However, Dion's leadership style soon came into question when he directed MPs to abstain on key confidence votes, reasoning that Canadians did not want to go to the polls. Party officials privately said the strategy made the party look weak and others pressured Dion to trigger an election.

But Dion refused. Instead, he eventually unveiled the Green Shift. Dion said the carbon tax plan, aimed at weaning people off fossil fuels, would be revenue neutral and offset by broad-based business and personal tax cuts.

When Canadians eventually went to the polls, the policy had become the centrepiece of the Liberal platform.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who, leading up to the election, had dismissed the plan as nothing but a cash grabbing device to raise taxes, continued to pounce on it during the campaign. Harper warned there would be dire economic consequences were the plan implemented.

Some observers say Dion was never able to sell the plan well and counter the criticisms effectively, leading to the party's misfortunes on election night.

Political columnist Manon Cornellier of Le Devoir agreed that Dion cannot stay on as leader but added that he should not shoulder the brunt of the Liberals' defeat.

"It's not only Mr. Dion that [will] have to look at himself in the mirror, but the party also. Mr. Dion was elected without the support of the establishment. The establishment — you know all those people well-versed in organization and financing were with Mr. Rae and Ignatieff."

People who read this also read …