The Conservatives have run advertising comparing Liberal leader Stephane Dion to an out-of-touch academic who doesn’t care about the priorities of average hard-working Canadians.
In this video that I captured from a press conference Dion gave in Richmond BC just minutes ago, Dion says “I like to have a lot of PhDs in Canada but we need also to have plumbers, and all the skilled workers that are needed must have the ability to come here in Canada. Not only PhDs”
While Stephane Dion would like to have Canada populated by like-minded academics like himself, he seems to begrudgingly concede that Canada also needs plumbers.
Imagine if you were somebody with skills that the Prime Minister of Canada only needed rather than liked.
I received an email from a reader which reads,
Professor Dion showed his true colours on the issue of immigration– He would prefer Professors coming from other lands– but knows that he needs plumbers etc.
This is elitist and reveals the true attitude towards the Liberal Party’s view of immigration. We are looked down upon– by this elitist group. Incredibly this elitist view makes the “beer and popcorn” seem tame in comparison.Signed,
An Immigrant that came to Canada on December 20th 1959
Stephen Taylor is a scientist, political analyst and a blogger. Taylor writes here regularly and is the founder of bloggingtories.ca. Taylor has contributed to Macleans, CTV, talk radio and has been a featured speaker on new media at numerous events including the Western Standard Cruise and the Forum for Public Policy. In December 2008, Taylor organized Rally for Canada, a series of rallies held coast-to-coast to protest the proposed coalition government.
September 13th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
So what exactly is your point?
September 13th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
It is absolutely painful to watch Dion giving his presser and answering reporters questions. On CBC this morning an image consultant said he had the “cringe” factor going for him. When Canadians see him they cringe. How true. He keeps going over the same old lines; a richer, fairer, greener Canada..What the hell does all this mean. They are meaningless words. Nanos tracking poll shows the Cons continue with their lead. Canadians are not being fooled by the nutty professor.
September 13th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
In this same campaign stop Dion rants that he will reverse the Conservative legislation this past spring -The same legislation his party abstained from voting for or against. How does anyone believe/trust THIS guy?
Why isn't he talking up Carbon tax in BC? Could it be because BC has a carbon tax and BC residents hate it?
September 13th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
I'm pretty sure the point to Dion's comment was that its a lot easier to immigrate here at the moment if you have a PhD than if you're a plumber – he'd like that to change…
September 13th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
And didn't that legislation include lowering the gst again. And there are media and liberals out there who deny he said he would raise the gst back to 7%. What else was in the budget that he will reverse.
September 13th, 2008 at 4:24 pm
OK all you Dion apologists, what is the translation of this latest episode of Dion speak?
It sounds like a beer and popcorn moment to we “outsiders”.
September 13th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
When I heard him say this I couldn't believe my ears and I don't have a hearing problem!!
Is this the best the liberals could find for a leader? Sad.
September 13th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
Dion is great, and I think he will make a fantastic Prime Minister on Oct 14.
September 13th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
I like to have a lot of “pee gees” in Canada??
Well Mr. Dion definitely need more plumbers.
To plug all the holes in the sinking Liberal ship
September 13th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
translation:
“I like to have a lot of PhDs in Canada but we need also to have plumbers, and all the skilled workers that are needed must have the ability to come here in Canada. Not only PhDs”
September 13th, 2008 at 5:57 pm
I'm voting Conservative this election; and just donated 50$ to the party… That said, what we have here is cheap, grasping-at-straws spin that can only reflect badly on the Tories. Dion is trying to say — albeit in his usual mangled English — that we need all kinds of immigrants, not just the PhDs in engineering. By the way, I just want to say that Harper's hard 2011 pullout date has got me thinking that maybe I'll spoil my vote next election. I know a Canadian political party has to tilt-left to get elected, but that's really one compromise too many…
September 13th, 2008 at 7:22 pm
I'm a Stephen Harper supporter, but it's misleading to say that Dion says that he prefers PhDs to plumbers. He simply doesn't say that.
September 13th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
I quit University to go learn a trade and I make more per year than any University prof, member of Parlament…or the Prime Minister for that matter.
September 13th, 2008 at 8:12 pm
Really like how Liberal flunkies have to automatically translate and say what “he actually meant to say”. Can't he speak for himself ?
Oh, I guess he's not doing that too well, is he?
September 13th, 2008 at 9:42 pm
I don't see the big deal here.
September 13th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
Dion's professorial mentality is to lecture, even hector, his audience with a massive amount of verbal output and presenting his reasoned argument with references to economists and Suzuki … and it all goes “swoosh” over the listener's head.
What Dion is attempting to do is convince the media following him that he is right and Harper is wrong … except the media has no great minds to transpose Dion's massive tomes into something for the “stupid”(a la May) Canadian public.
Dion is drowning in his own desperation and it manifests itself in his complex, convoluted explanations of how good his Green Shift carbon tax will be for the nebulous Canadian 'green' economy of the future … 2020 if you can survive that long on welfare.
September 13th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
I came to canada, july 57, I arrived as a P.Eng. but could not work as such, I found my Journymans papers and worked as a carpenter until such time I was able to write and become accredited.
PHD's then and today are only wanted if they are british. I hope that dions toilet will plug and he has to call a plumber.
proud to have been a tradesman.
September 13th, 2008 at 11:13 pm
We're not suffering from a shortage of plumbers… are we?
The man doesn't have the slightest clue how to run a country… let alone a campaign that he was so desperate for…. several times…. on and off.
Dion would be a complete joke on the world stage. It wouldn't be hard for Obama and the american populace to squeeze a new NAFTA deal for themselves out of this poodle. They may even get a few timeless laughs too.
Harper is the only one out of the bunch thats able to carve out a fair enough deal that works to the benefit of both countries. Shouldn't we be showing a bit of unity behind our PM? Obama's gonna have a lot behind him and thats just gonna add further to his capital in any new deals.
Wish the rest of the Liberal supporters up here would just wake up and realize their turn is over and they should of jump-ship long ago and of gone independent or form a new party. But its too late for that I guess. I hope that party totally crashes into the ground federally. it's been a long time in coming.
September 14th, 2008 at 12:32 am
I rather be ruled by the 1st 10 people in the phone book than all the PHD's in eastern Canada.
PS the credit for the above line goes to an American, his name escapes me right now.
September 14th, 2008 at 2:45 am
I agree with the “immigrant previous poster…the statement reflects how elitist and out of touch the Liberals and Dion have become. Canada needs Farmers too. Where would Ontario and Quebec be without the OIL from Alberta and Saskatchewan.?
But like the explanation of the gas guzzler/environmentally unfriendly of a plane they rented..it is ok to fly it over the Prairies and Atlantic provinces but only the best for the Golden Triangle. A pox on all their planes.
September 14th, 2008 at 4:16 am
Yes Harper will do a great job standing up to the Americans. Look how well he did with NAFTA in regards to the Soft Wood deal. . We got rulings in our favor from the NAFTA panel and the WTO and he caved. Look at where we are now, exporting more logs from BC than ever. Get ready for the group hug in the in the Northwest Passage. There isn't decent one in the bunch to vote for.
And by the way the companies are saying there is a trades shortage in BC.
In BC we also have a Carbon Tax that everyone except the tree huggers likes, so you can imagine what I think of the Green Shift ,not to mention the Gun Registry boondoggle. Dion is a poor leader, but the Conservatives shouldn't be making such a big deal of his poor way of getting his point across in english.
September 14th, 2008 at 4:34 am
So let's say Harper wins, which is quite possible. Come spring-time, our economy will completely crash as it's spiraling out of control at the moment. Do you think Harper has any plan for this? He sees it coming (which is why we're in the middle of an election right now) but won't know what to do except for riding it out. It's easier for him to take the shots now as opposed to next summer when he'd have no chance in hell at a majority. Also, having the election now doesn't give the liberals a chance to mobilize with a “real” leader. Otherwise, he'd be looking at another minority government at best.
September 14th, 2008 at 5:27 am
I watched him try to explain in BC how we need more language training. For immigrants, and Liberal Leaders.
YJCMTSU
September 14th, 2008 at 6:46 am
So PlumberfromMontreal, are you saying that Harper could fix the slowing Canadian economy which is based on a worldwide downturn but simply won't do it?…Please enlighten us on how any other leader could truly fix the nation's slowdown? By throwing a few billion around? That would'nt even make a ripple on lake Ontario…And where would these 'stimulus' dollars come from? More taxes? Green taxes?
I appload the tradespeople of this country like yourself, I truly think that you have a 'real' job compared to the lefty socialist that wants a job via more taxes to push papers and ideologies on others which only culmunates in more taxes. You need to leave the economy into the hands of an economist like Harper though and stick to plumbing. Less taxes where possible and yes, riding the coming recession out are the best and only solutions.
September 14th, 2008 at 8:06 am
Dont try to defend the weasle.You know perfectly well he wants to open up the immigration system to people who vote Liberal only.We dont need more Liberals,we need more new Canadians with skills that we are in need of ,not more that go on welfare.or Canadians of convenience that send their pay cheques to their old country and only visit Canada to use the health system.Thats the kind of immigration Dion wants,well no thanks.
September 14th, 2008 at 8:11 am
What a stupid way to point out your Liberal Johannes.
September 14th, 2008 at 8:35 am
WT…plumbers ! we need plumbers !. i've been mis-led….i thought it was lap top dancers er… exotic dancers. geez
September 14th, 2008 at 9:08 am
I haven't had that much trouble understanding the words since “Smells Like Teen Spirit” came out.
September 14th, 2008 at 9:24 am
Da plumber is da plumber. Once you have da plumbing, you need da plumber!!! Any questions?
September 14th, 2008 at 10:20 am
“The Conservatives have run advertising comparing Liberal leader Stephane Dion to an out-of-touch academic who doesn’t care about the priorities of average hard-working Canadians.”
Anyone who's ever read any comment of mine knows that I support the Conservatives unequivocally. However, I still feel some of these ads are of poor quality.
1. Why dwell on Mr. Dion being a professor, as if that were the negative point? Mr. Harper has professors advising him. It’s Mr. Dion’s IDEAS and PROPOSALS that are wrong-headed, not the fact he’s a professor.
2. Instead of simply stating Mr. Dion wants to return the GST to 7%, why not quote from newspapers showing WHEN he said it?
3. Why keep saying he wants to remove the $100/month allowance for children under 6? He recently said he would double it. Why not go instead with ‘first he voted against it’ and now he wants to double it?
4. Why not tell Canadians how much he wants to charge per tonne of carbon and how that would affect the price of gas for the average Canadian?
5. Why not ask Mr. Dion how many actual tonnes of GHG emissions his proposed carbon tax would result in lowering?
6. Why not ask Mr. Dion why he keeps repeating he wants a respectful debate, yet he keeps calling the PM names, with his neo-con mantra of “Bush/Harper” this, “Bush/Harper” that … doesn’t he know Mr. Bush’s term is up in Jan. 09? He should get with the times!
7. All told, the last ad (on the right) is the most acceptable.
Finally, why is there no link to the Conservative website here?
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story//20...
Stephen, you know I don't want to hurt the Conservative cause. I leave it to you to decide, as usual, whether this comment should appear. It's just that I find the personal attacks launched against Mr. Dion's person are
1. really amateurish and in poor taste (like someone wrote elsewhere, the Southpark approach)
2. that kind of ad is counterproductive, because they will portray Mr. Dion as the underdog, and undecideds may then want to help the underdog.
If you have any pull behind the scenes, ask the boys and girls designing that type of ads to please grow up.
September 14th, 2008 at 10:21 am
Makes one wonder if Professor Dion has similar views to Heather Mallick? One thing this election season is showing us is the true nature of so-called “progressives”.
September 14th, 2008 at 10:33 am
Approve
Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network
September 14th, 2008 at 10:38 am
A Richer, Fairer, Greener Canada.. Is that like “The Just Society?” Gag!
September 14th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
Peter Puck: “I rather be ruled by the 1st 10 people in the phone book than all the PHD's in eastern Canada.
“PS the credit for the above line goes to an American, his name escapes me right now.”
The American you're looking for is William F. Buckley, and his actual words were: “I'd rather be governed by the first 100 names in the Boston phone directory than by the entire faculty of Harvard University.”
You're paraphrase is a reasonable facsimile.
September 14th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
Wow. You always seem to keep things interesting, Stephen.
September 14th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
Agree with Gabby. Stop the juvenile personal attacks. Mr. Dion will present his views and policies and people will decide for themselves what they feel about them. It is necessary to point out our differences however.
As for the PHD/Plumber statement, it really needs no explanation, we get it, that's his train of thought, that's the world he's lived in, no surprise. However he should be better at communications and better tuned in given he's been an MP for several years.
Upon thinking about it, we could get along without a PHD but it's nice to have a plumber when you need one. We can conclude Dion has conceded that.
September 14th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
“There are some people who, if they don't already know, you can't tell 'em.”
-Yogi Berra
September 14th, 2008 at 11:27 pm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Flanagan_(poli...)
Why does Harper like some academic people, and not others?
October 30th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
Thanks,
October 30th, 2008 at 9:41 pm
Thanks,