Dion Talks to Bloggers

Dion and Harper are nothing alike. More than his environmental stance, his belief in national unity, or his francophone heritage, what always strikes me about Stephane Dion versus Stephen Harper is that Dion is unafraid to let people know what he thinks. Compared with our current prime minister, who remains a mystery to us, Dion is an open book. If you want to know what he thinks - ask him - and tonight we did.

Many smart people I know and respect argue that Harper and Dion are personally similar. I look at tonight's call, an "on-the-record" deal with Libaral and non-Liberal bloggers, and I see that as a clear example of something Harper would never do. If he did, I'm sure I wouln't be invited. I think he's still mad about the grammar error I found in his letter to the editor, but I digress...

"I strongly believe in the train," Dion said to us on the phone tonight. "Fredrich Engels, the German philosopher, said that Canada is a 'railway looking for a country.' Now we are a country looking for a railway."

Listening to the man, I was relieved. Not only do we have a politician here who is willing to let us know what he thinks, but his thoughts are high quality ones, filled with philosophers and national projects. The only philosoher I seem to remember Harper quoting is someone named Gomery, but he has largely ingnored that thinker since taking office - says Gomery...

In the next election, Canadians will not only choose between a vision of Canada that takes responsibility for greenhouse gas emissions or a government that talks about setting targets for "so-called greenhouse gasses" by 2012. Also importantly, they will be choosing between two very different styles of leader. On the one hand, Harper avoids the press at all costs, citing partisanship, and Dion will spend half and hour with me - nobody - to talk on the record about whatever I want.

One thing I always like to relate to people when they ask me about Dion is that he is not afraid of anyone. He wants more debates, not fewer. He is more open to questions, not hiding as Harper does. Anyone questioning the gravel in Dion's guts should just look into the threats he received when he was working on the Clarity Act. The man does not back down, and anyone who thinks that Harper can bully him with fish metaphors and election talk is out of their tree. Dion loves to fish. He won a competition recently.

The other thing I always tell people, if they ask, is that Dion is smarter than I am. Because he is.

So while I concede some of the points made by my friends who point to similarities between Harper and Dion (both of them are married to highly intelligent women, for example) I say that as leaders they are opposites. One is open, one is shut. One is green, the other is, well, Stephen Harper.

I'll continue to get an argument, I expect. Some from partisans, from atheists desperate to believe that all politicians are the same; I even expect that Jack Layton, in this his last election, will try to tar them with the same brush in order to win his bid for official party status.

But anyone who thinks that the Green Shift and Harper's Clean Air Act are similar has been smoking Orwellian victory weed. That's at least one difference we can all agree on.