Liberal leader Stéphane Dion picked up his walk to a full-scale run as he approached the venue for his first Ottawa news conference in a while this afternoon. Once inside, he kept up the rapid-fire pace and it was pretty clear he was angling for a fight.

In a very short opening statement, he said he had been on vacation. "I cut bait, I fished, I cut the fish, I won the tournament, we cooked it, we ate it, it was delicious.

"It had the taste of victory," he went on. "And all of this because we struck at the right time."

Politicians (and journalists) often use sports analogies to make their political points. But fishing — other than the standard jibe about fish or cut bait — is new to the lexicon.

Dion, though, wanted to make it clear he was not the one with the hook in his mouth. He said he was considering stopping his strategic voting (ie. supporting Conservative legislation) and possibly triggering an election this fall.

His position, he said, had always been to respect the wishes of Canadians when it came to an election and he now believes Canadians are ready for one.

As for the election threats and talk of a dysfunctional Parliament emanating from the prime minister in recent days, Dion went on to say it was the Conservatives who were stalling the committees, into Conservative election spending among other things, and even playing fast and loose with their own fixed-date election legislation.

Clearly trying out some of his own election lines, Dion said "This government is wracked with major ethical problems." And, "the prime minister wants to run everything but he won't run the official opposition."

Looks like it may actually be time to fish or cut bait.