Dion rises from the Ashes

Think about it: Dion and Duceppe have fought hard battles against one another, but during the leadership debate in English when Dion said he was a member of the Quebec nation Duceppe did a double take and took greater measure of the man, and then they sat on stage today, and both stated clearly that they still disagreed about Quebec's place in Canada, and that their deal did not deal with that issue, but rather with what the Bloc was willing to do, which was to support an environmentally intelligent economic approach to crisis solving from within a social and liberal democratic context. The NDP did the same, which after all, is what Rae is all about, the charter of rights is a liberalizing influence within the sphere of social justice and democratic reform and Jack Layton finally lost himself long enough to serve the greater good under Dion. Dion was supposed to be down and out in his own party. And yet, he just pulled them back into power inside the box by thinking in larger terms outside the box. Does anyone really think Liberals will hold it against him for losing the last battle and winning the war against Harrisite-Harperistas ? Berated and humiliated and savaged by Harper and the right wing media Dion re-emerged today as victor by hard work and honest intention in front of the entire press corps - the vast majority of whom - behaved as if something new under the sun was taking place in front of them. And when Dion said he would willingly bow out of the leadership in May and live the country with a sound government he was deeply moved and so were the people in the room and so will be most Canadians once they've watched the footage. Dion did not sacrifice liberalism, but every hurdle was removed, every obstacle overcome, every dignity preserved. And, as a bonus, Dion knows that Harper knows that Harper defeated himself, defeated the already fragmenting coalition that was Reform-Alliance-PC. And that must taste sweet to Stephane Dion.