Epic fail. FAIL, Canada.
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Stephane Dion: Canada’s Palin
October 11th, 2008
25 Comments
Oliver Willis
Like Kryptonite To Stupid
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Dion’s no Palin – he’s too kind and educated. He’s not a very good politician though. Harper could be a Palin, or at least many of his party members (and supporter) have that disposition. However, Harper has them all muzzled, at least until the election is over.
I don’t know — sorry, I’m not sure how to comment — starting now? Should I respond now? Can we start over?
Parlez vous anglais?
Man, the word “liberal” has been stained on this day. Who is this guy?? Thank the good man or woman upstairs that Barack is our guy.
It’s time for Ken Dryden to lead the Liberal Party.
Can’t see the video, but I assume it’s bad if it gets a comment south of the border.
Ohhh poor Stephane. He is actually an accomplished guy who has worked extensively int the international arena. I think he didnt understand the question because he is French and the CTV people – who are in the tank for the conservatives were just enjoying messing with him. Someone could have easily translated that small part.
by the way…NOTHING compares to Moose-o-lini
But the question kept changing. “If you were prime minister NOW” followed by the past tense “what WOULD you have done?” I think he just tried to be too precise. He wanted to know if his answer should be WOULD have done during the past two years or would do NOW. It’s not THAT ridiculous of him. IMHO
Goddamit Canada, is this the best you can do against that Tory prick?
Why is it that on rare occasion when you Democrats pull your head out of your ass to have a look around at the world it’s always to kick Canadian Progressives in the balls.
This is an unfair (and insulting) characterization. Dion’s first language isn’t English, and he often says he doesn’t always understand when people ask him questions in English. This is the first time since he entered the political arena that I’ve seen him behave like this, and who knows what the reasons for it were. I’m not even voting for the Liberals next Tuesday, but I’m going to defend Dion against any comparison to that asshat moose killing hick.
I heard about this, wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Dion was a professor of law, I guess he gets frustrated when people ask questions that are imprecise.
Way off base on this one Oliver. He’s French Canadian and his english is a little suspect just as many english speaking Canadian politicians have dubious french skills. Palin in operating in her FIRST language. Huge distinction.
I’m a Canadian (and also an American) and I gotta say, this isn’t so bad. He wants to think about his answer and say exactly what he means. This isn’t a live interview, so I think asking to start again is fair. He hasn’t changed his answer.
It isn’t an “epic fail.”
Stephane Dion (as is obvious is a French Canadian) was a former Minister of the Environment in the Liberal government that had led Canada for years. He’s a STRONG supporter of Kyoto and his policy this election is to introduce a massive realignment of how taxes are paid towards a “Carbon Tax.” He’s in favor of massive increase in wind and solar power for Canada.
Mostly because of his commitment to the environment the Liberal Party (a centrist party) elected him as their leader – despite the fact he is almost illiterate in English. The guy is brilliant, a progressive and wonderfully honourable. However, unfortunately – his weakness in English is killing him. Not because he’s French – just because his English is SO borderline.
By the way in Canada this election the Conservatives are expected to from a Minority government with the Liberals second and the NDP (Social Democrats), Greens (self evident) and the BLOC ( a Quebec separatist part) expected to between them hold the majority of seats.
Canada presently has a Conservative minority government and Canadians find that generally speaking minority governments seem to produce the best legislation.
By the way – I come from a Canadian family.
For the record, some of Dion’s bio-
Education:
* BA in political science – Université Laval
* MA in political science – Université Laval
* PhD in sociology – Institut d’études politiques de Paris
Profession:
Professor of political science and author
Comparing Dion to Palin because his english is bad is somthing I would expect to find on a far right Canadian blog. Epic Fail. FAIL, Oliver.
CTV promised Dion not to show the error. It happens all the time in interviews, but it’s always edited out. CTV did to Dion what Hannity and Limbaugh do with Obama everyday when they loop all his normal stutterings into one colossal political slant. You know the routine, make people look stupid when they are not. Harper’s the sleaze ball with a hidden agenda “under his sweater.”
This is a language barrier problem, not a desire to change his answer.
The question is very poorly worded, but that might not be obvious to some one who is not a native speaker.
Comparing him to Palin is, sadly, Oliver, inappropriate and unfair.
I dobut Palin can spell “Clarity Act” let alone devise it. For all of Dion’s weaknesses as a politician (and he has many), he is nothing like Palin. Think of him as Al Gore, but smarter, without Al’s mad political skills and blinding charisma.
It’s not a language problem — he just makes a bad political move. If you’re unsure what the interviewer is asking, you assume one or the other and answer that. If the interviewer corrects you, then you skip over to that interpretation. To try for a restart that many times means you weren’t prepared for the question. The BQ and New Democrats need to put aside their differences and provide a real alternative to the Conservatives, and yes, the Liberals too.
Like I said earlier, he’s not a very good politician, but he’s no Palin.
Dion is clearly in the right here – his only failing is trying to make sense of the poor English used by the interviewer.
“If you were Prime Minister NOW, what would you have done?”
It’s a nonsensical question that mixes past and present tenses. Send that reporter back to language school, and CTV to ethics classes for trying to spin an issue out of their own employee’s weak language skills.
We agreed not to show it, but we changed our minds?
There’s some journalistic integrity for you. Either keep your agreements or don’t make them.
Epic Fail Oliver!
I’m disappointed in you Oliver. This is the sort of ‘gotcha’ crap we ridicule the right wing for. A few minutes of research would show (as a number of posters pointed out), that Dion is an intelligent and decent man (although an exceedingly uncharismatic politician). He was asked a poorly phrased question with mixed tenses in a language that is not his first, and he apparently also has a hearing impediment. One can say many unkind things about the Liberal party under his leadership but I don’t think this interview was at all fair. You really should update this post.
I think it’s the interviewer who’s not understanding what Dion is asking. Dion asks a very simple question : “At what point did you want him to start as a PM?” so as to be able to answer his question
Does he speak English! What the f###!!