Dion and a Great book

Good ol' Reader's Digest. This month they featured an interview with Liberal Leader Stephan Dion. Although I'm not a Liberal myself, I am helping James with his campaign to be a Liberal MLA in the next provincial election. So I figured "why not highlight some of the interview to share some facts on a quiet guy whom a lot of you probably don't know much about?"

Dion is a modest, courteous man, an intense thinker with a doctorate in sociology who gets by on five hours of sleep a night.

Still, with Dion, the less formality the better, as witnessed when Reader's Digest met him recently in his office on Parliament Hill. During an easy hour long conversation, the Opposition leader displayed a ready sense of humour - especially when recalling his politically rebellious youth: He related that, after his father shot down his arguments for Marxism and Trotskyism, Dion flirted with separatism - until age 21, when, campaigning door-to-door for the Parti Quebecois in 1976, he was invited into the home of one voter ready to debate. "I got there at 7:30 pm, and the man's wife poured rum and Cokes for us all evening," recalls Dion. He finally left and 10:30, "completely drunk," and by now convinced he was on the wrong side.

Since then, I stopped being a separatist," he says with a laugh. "and I never drank a rum and Coke again."

RD: How would you improve Canada's health-care system - an issue, along with the environment, that's top in the minds of Canadians?

DION: The link between environment and health is key. Though we need to improve the capacity of the heath care system - one in three Canadians will have cancer in their lifetime - it's our way of life that lead to things like obesity and asthma. If we don't change our environment and our lifestyle, our hospitals will stay crowded, and our health-care system will continue to face difficulties

RD: Canada has fallen behind the other G8 countries in reducing greenhouse-gas emissions, and in fact our levels have increased by 27 percent since 1990. So the environment issue could also become your weakness if the Harper government blames Canada's poor performance on the Liberals' time in office.

DION: In 2005 [then finance minister] Ralph Goodale introduced the greenest budget since Confederation; [former Liberal environment minister] David Anderson expanded the Canadian Environmental Protection Act and created legislation for endangered species. Our climate-change plan was by far the best Canada has ever had, bu the [Conservative] government cancelled it and didn't replace it with anything.

The reason we've fallen behind other countries in reducing greenhouse-gas emissions is we're exporting more oil and gas now. Also, our economy is build on waste - Canada is one of the worst for water consumption, and we're not very good at recycling. We need to do much more, and in a way that will benefit the economy. I want Canada to be on the podium of the new industrial revolution for a sustainable economy. Because of climate change, the world risks losing a fifth of this wealth in the coming decades - and we will number nine billion human beings by 2050. I want to become prime minister of my country and the G8 leader for the world because I want Canada to be part of the solution.

You can read the full interview by Christoperh Guly in the April edition of Reader's Digest (51).

Dion's an interesting guy, and I can't wait for a Televised debate in the next election with him AND Elizabeth May. What a shift in political strategy that will be!! ("What, we have to actually KNOW what we're talking about now with the environment? They're bringing out this whole 'Environment is linked to Health Angel? CRAP!") It will be a sweet sweet day indeed. Especially since this next generation is the FIRST generation to have a SHORTER life expectancy than the generation before. Yep, we are actually regressing. Oh humanity, how evolution has smited us.

On a separate note: Mel's reading recommendation for March is Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O'Neill. I absolutely couldn't put it down. Even while I was in Toronto on a whirlwind Dove Campaign, I had it with me at all times. Absolutely an amazing read (and the Winner of Canada Reads on CBC Radio!)