So Stephane ...

I like him. No his English is not great. But he's endearing. And earnest. And attractive. And smart. Very smart. Doggedly determined. What's not to like?

He is not charasmatic as Trudeau was but as Trudeau fit the 60s, Dion fits the 00s. Elizabeth May, the leader of the Green Party, gave him high praise yesterday, saying he was not part of the Liberal scandals and that if the ReformTories try to hit on his environmental record "they don't know what they're talking about."

May and Dion are the new politics. Much less bullshit and much more substance. Harper tried to cast himself that way but he's revealed himself as just another politico, smarter than average but just as cynical, and focused on a neocon agenda rather than on doing what's right.

Dion has been sure-footed his first week in power and it will continue. Prediction - this man will go right over Harper's pointy little head to the hearts of Canadians. If not a majority, then very very close to it in the election, whenever Harper calls it.

Second prediction - Dion WILL play in Western Canada. He won't sweep any western province but he will gain a few seats and, after almost 40 years in the wilderness, that will be an accomplishment. Remember the jokes about holding Liberal conventions in a phone booth? After Trudeau's "why should I sell your wheat" and the finger job from the train, Liberals weren't endangered, they were extinct.

Dion is an underdog and westerners can identify with that. He's nerdy but he's a scrapper and he's not a quitter and that plays well in the west. He will gain maybe 4 or 5 seats on the prairies. He may make a breakthrough in Alberta for a seat or two and he will do well in BC. Betcha.