Stéphane Dion has probably had better birthdays.

At 52, he finds himself leader of a beleaguered federal Liberal party with a possible election in the offing. Not exactly the birthday gift he was expecting.

What's more, the little things that may have slipped by before relatively unnoticed are now magnified. Take, for example, what's happening with Jamie Carroll.

Carroll is the Liberal party's national director and a handful of senior Liberals are today calling for him to be fired.

The story goes like this: at closed door meeting in Ottawa last Sunday many senior Quebec Liberals asked for more francophones to be brought into the Dion inner circle.

Depending on who you talk to that's when Carroll may have said the following, "Do we also have to hire people from the Chinese community to represent the Chinese community?"

Some Quebec Liberals say the comment was "shocking" and "revolting," and viewed it as comparing francophone Quebecers to just another ethnic group.

But others who were also at the meeting say Carroll was misinterpreted and would never say anything like that.

Of course, it may not matter what was actually said, the upshot is that Liberals are in a panic today trying to deal with the fallout. And some of the Quebec Liberals are angry with Dion for not doing anything.

It comes the same day that a potential Liberal candidate in Quebec, a former mayor of Brossard, Paul Leduc, says he won't be running for the Liberals. What's more, Leduc says other Liberals encouraged him to tell the media all about his problems with the Liberal party.

These are all headaches Dion doesn't really need right now. Worse, they may be a symptom of other things such as problems within the party's organization, or the Quebec wing feeling disconnected, or Dion's leadership being questionned at a time when he is trying to prove himself yet again.