In the days leading up to last night's town hall in Oakville, Ont., the host, Liberal MP Garth Turner, billed it as the largest non-partisan meeting in history. Hype, yes. Even so, more than 1,300 people showed up at the St. Volodymyr Cultural Centre to hear the man whom Turner describes in his blog as "willowy" — Liberal leader Stéphane Dion.

Many of attendees were, in fact, non-partisan. Some said they wanted to hear for themselves how well Dion speaks English. Those who have been receiving Conservative flyers about the Green Shift said they wanted to hear Dion explain it.

And just like any election-style event, many others came with personal grievances. How would a Liberal government improve EI benefits for cancer survivors? Would Liberals reverse the new copyright law? And how does Dion propose helping the ailing auto sector?
Dion fielded questions on all those topics and more for an hour. But his focus was to sell the Green Shift.

To date, Dion has been mocked for being unable to clearly communicate his plan to ordinary people. Last night, that task was left to Garth Turner who laid the plan out in a humourous and detailed multi-media presentation. When Dion talked about it, he kept most of his answers the length of a sound bite. And when he didn't, Turner reminded his leader to keep it short.