Dion Meltdown!

[cookerg]

I like Dion and am sorry he didn't do better. It was very sleazy, and clearly partisan of ATV to release this tape.

At the same time, Dion should also blame himself. A more skilled and confident politician would have ignored or even exploited the vagueness of the question, and simply given the answer he wanted to give.

[cookerg]

Politicians get asked lousy questions all the time, and it's an opportunity to say what you want to say directly to the audience, instead of being trapped into saying what the interviewer may or may not want you to say. Dion should have been able to do that.

See Elizabeth May's smackdown of Mike Duffy for a good example of that. She refused to play his little game and answer questions as he framed them. Instead she said what she wanted to say.

[student431]

30 day plan.... great job man hope thats still not ur coalition plan cause if that happens omg wow. man ur soo fucking dumb

[124otterstreet]

Mr. Dion came across as a gentleman struggling with the english language. Mr. Regan needs to know that it is impossible for Mr. Dion to give a "barn burner speech in english." I do not question Mr. Dion's abilities, nor his competencies in other areas. Mr. Regan could have been honest and said, "we are at the end of the campaign Mr. Dion is tired, did not understand the question, and has a track record to show that this was an isolated incident. The truth Mr. Regan, just the truth.

[124otterstreet]

This is a no brainer. Mr. Dion is not fluently bilingual. That is it.  No excuses needed just the truth. Mr. Dion is not fluently bilingual.

[purplecorn2]

Stephane Dion misunderstood the verb tense (he understood the conditional past instead of the conditional future). Not impressive, but I heard Stephen Harper and Jack Layton make much more elementary French mistakes in the French leaders' debate (wrong genders, wrong tenses, anglicisms, etc.)

I am more concerned about the substance of his answer: he will ask a bunch of people if they have any ideas. Rather, he should push for a real Canadian securities regulator instead of 13 useless ones.

[steveofunk]

If you cant understand the people Mr. Dion, you shouldnt be leading them. God forbid we have him as our PM. What happens when he doesnt understand a question on the international stage? All the liberal spinsters should leave Duff alone...Thank God for journalists like him that have the integrity to tell it like it IS and not back down from political disinformation and strong-arming. Good job Duff and CTV.  ~ A Concerned Canadian.

[steveofunk]

If you cant understand the people Mr. Dion, you shouldnt be representing them. God forbid we have him as our PM.  What happens when he doesnt understand a questions on the international stage?

[steveofunk]

Wow...I hope this opens peoples eyes. Agreed, regardless of how stunned & confused Dion was with the tense of the question, certainly he could manage some intelligent response. Liberals have been critical of Harpers handling of the recent bank & stock crisis and the reporter simply wanted to know what he would have done differently. Not 2.5 yrs ago... Dion really hasnt a clue...thats why he couldnt answer. Dion doesnt even have a plan 4 the economy until 30 days AFTER hes...Prime Minister LOL!

[dustyskates]

Journalist with an agenda. He wants to make a splash at the expense of another. Very poor question. He says 'if you were PM TODAY what would you HAVE DONE differently from Harper' then when Dion asks if it was for the past 2.5 yrs he says no 'if you were pm today and the past 2 yrs' Then changes it again to say something with a totally different meaning when he sees Dion is struggling. I will not be voting Liberal, but this reporter is a joke and didn't even show respect...not very Canadian.

[gdoak25]

Decent guy...wrong gig...he should stay in teaching..not cut out for the game

[cobbcon2001]

Even if you totally ignore his misunderstanding of the question, when he finally starts giving an answer it contains nothing different or extra than what's already being done. So why does he say Harper is mishandling the situation when he offers nothing different himself?

[dayjackal]

oh come on, face it - the earlier part of the question cued him to recite his speech about his plan, and the "now" gave him a surprise that he couldn't really recover from.

that said, the opening question quotes Dion saying "we must act now", and Dion nods in agreement, so what is that action? that's the question.

And regardless of whether it's 2.5 years ago, now, or Tuesday, a national leader should be able to answer it, while making his points.

His response is totally ridiculous.

[ossian27]

Mike Duffy, that fatass. Just had a quadruple bypass. They could do a whole exposé on his inability to make wise food choices, but that would be inappropriate. What's more is that he's a liar. He says that they were generous enough to give Dion several chances... To do WHAT? Try to answer the same poorly formed question without even making the effort to reformulate it? I say that Dion was the generous one. He's a busy man to gave THEM 4 chances to pose him a proper question and they failed.

[ossian27]

Meltdown my ass! Dion, from the get go, shows that he is confused by the question, yet the interviewer purposely refuses to clarify or reformulatre the question. He just keeps repeating himself. Dion clearly thinks he's asking what Dion would do if he were PM today, as in starting today. All the interviewer had to ask (in strictly correct English, nonetheless) was 'What would you have done had you been elected PM two years ago'. That's what he wants to know, but that's not what he asks.

[OptimusHide]

He's acting like he doesn't understand the question but really it's his way of stalling cause he has NO ANSWERS, NO SOLUTIONS!!! This isn't the first time he's had to ask his little buddy advisor about something cause he didn't have an answer. Check out this one.... watch?v=LkugrPCD4U0 !!

[charlesautos]

wow, that was lame, I agree.

But even if I don't support the Liberals, I still think he would be better for canada than Harper. Harper may understand every complicated questions in english, but he's still a dick.

I'm voting Bloc, because I want Québec to be a country, so then we could stop laughing at each other's second language skills, and truely respect each other.

[Vigocarpath2008]

Can you imagine Dion breaking down like that on the national stage. Scary stuff.

[CCRS4]

It was a retarded question. The interviewer ask what Dion would have done (past tense) if he was prime minister now. No wonder he was confused..he was right to be.

Silly question.

[jldupont21]

I didn't find he gaffed. He asked for clarification as to when the hypothetical question placed him as PM and the interviewer repeated the same question in the same words. Weak interviewer. Let's carry on...

[kilgoretroutcanada]

Why do so many people give this guy a free pass? If this was the PM (in french, say), you'd be all over him. Dion knows that there's nothing that our puny little government can do in the face of a global crisis. He's been hammering the tories over their handling of the economy and this is just Dion caught without scripted rhetoric. If he can't say "Harper..." in his answer; he has nothing to say. Btw, I'm not partisan this is simply my analysis of Dion and his campaign.

[Ditchryder]

To gaff is human. Good for a chuckle and that's all. The real issue is still weather you offer all the bells and whistles when a world wide economic hurricane is bearing down on you. If Canada parties on when we should buckle down the hatches the hangover could last for decades.

[Hadogei123456789]

Dion's a nice guy. Everyone makes mistakes. Liberals are still better than Conservatives. I'm still voting NDP. Long live the future Canadian Republic!

[jackferwerda]

it looks like he was confused by past and present tense and could not answer because he just can't speak english that well. This is unfortunate. Even to listen to him speak you can tell that he has not mastered the language. I think even Gilles Duceppe has a better hold on the language than dion. It is too bad. I like some of his policies better than Harpers but it must shake the voters to see this. -- once in a while though if you are tired, even the best of us choke. Maybe that's it.