Guess who's coming to breakfast?

This week Liberal Leader Stephane Dion sat down with the Young Liberal Summer Students in the Office of the Leader of the Official Opposition. Over breakfast he thanked us for our months of service to the Liberal Party around Ottawa and discussed matters of importance such as the ageing population and post secondary education.


“He welcomed us and our ideas, and spent a great deal of time just listening” said Ozren Jungic from Vancouver B.C. “Dion recognizes youths’ ability to tell it like it is; and he was very accepting of that.”



Stephane took the time to lay out some of his thoughts on different ways of addressing post secondary education tuition. “He has put a lot of thought into the various combinations of possible actions” Said Meghan Pritchard who is studying abroad in Geneva at the Institut Universitaire de Hautes Etudes Internationales, “together we went over all the options and offered our input and tried to flesh out the best solution.”

Wow. Talk about the emporer having no clothes.

What were they thinking?

Dion-Top of the World

La rencontre avec Stéphane Dion était une expérience de laquelle je me rappellerais pour longtemps. As a first-timer at the OYL’s Summer Fling at Nipissing University in North Bay Ontario, I was impressed by how welcome everyone made me feel. Stephane came in and greeted us as friends; he took the time to listen to our concerns. J’étais tellement impressionné avec le respect et la considération qu’il a donné a chaque question de notre groupe. His inspiring speech was a refreshing change from the rhetoric of the Harper government. A la fin de la journée, je savais exactement pourquoi je suis Liberal!

Once we were done with the day’s activities the group went to North Bay’s waterfront to celebrate with a cruise on Lake Nipissing. Awards were announced and I was thrilled when my riding club of Toronto Centre Federal was awarded Best Riding Club of the Year and its president, Chris Drew, was awarded as Best President of the Year, the awards solidified the sense of camaraderie between all of us. We are all excited to deliver a victory for Stephane Dion and the Liberal Party of Canada by getting Bob Rae elected in Toronto Centre in the upcoming by-elections.

Aaron GlynWilliams- Toronto Centre

Dion’s pledge motivates young women

“Stephane Dion’s pledge to have at least 1/3 female candidates in the next federal election has inspired women across the country to become strong Liberal candidates” said Caitlin Townsend VP- Youth of the Ontario Women’s Liberal Commission. “The importance of female participation in politics just became that much more important as Steven Harper has cut yet another woman out of cabinet.” It is for this reason that Townsend co-founded the Ontario Women’s Issues Committee (OWIC). The Young Women’s Issue Committee will have four major tenets: Young Women’s Policy, Community Outreach, Networking, and Mentorship.

Building on the vision of Stephane Dion, this committee and its federal counterpart hope to create a formal mentorship program with federal and provincial female caucus members across the country for young women who show interest in running as Liberal candidates in the future. “A Young Liberal Women’s mentorship program will help give young women the tools that they need to succeed in aspiring to become elected officials.” said Townsend this weekend at the official launch of the WIC at Nipissing University in North Bay Ontario.

To get involved in OYL Women’s Issues Committee contact Caitlin Townsend at kate_townsend@hotmail.com or to get involved in the National Young Liberal Women’s Association contact Denise Brunsdon at dbrunsdon@liberal.ca

Another one bites the dust

Just when you thought Stephen Harper couldn't care less about women's equality, it turns out he can! With a cabinet shuffle that booted one woman out, he's but a few more steps away from "Boys only" cabinet meetings. Just like elementary school, except with longer recesses.

db

Summer Fling in North Bay

This weekend the OYL held its 7th annual Summer Fling in North Bay Ontario. It was a great time and we had the distinct pleasure of being joined by our Leader Stephane Dion. The local media ate it up, check out these links below.

Here, here and here

Also, enjoy some of the highlights with this photo essay



Melissa, Elyse, Meghan, Mary-Rose and Matt on the boat cruise



Stephane Dion and Anthony Rota take questions



Ahoy there. Welcome to the Chief Commander



En Route to North Bay we celebrated Paul Martin Dr


Mike, Claire and Chike on Lake Nippising




Ian, Matt, Meghan,Kelly, Kate & Denise at Cecil's in down town North Bay


The local MP Anthony Rota at opening ceremonies

Harper snubs another Premier...

Stephen Harper came to the NWT for a three day visit...and failed to notify anyone but his riding association. Paranoid secrecy? Check. Disregarding regional leaders and politicians? Check. Half hearted environmental protection? Hey, he's three for three.

"Dion stayed. And fought."

I've been looking for an excuse to post this photo again, and then along came this article.

My fave line is, "Dion stayed. And fought. To any Conservative (or Liberal) who thinks this guy isn't tough enough to be prime minister, maybe you'd better think again."

Conservatives best wake up
The Winnipeg Sun, The Toronto Sun
Lorrie goldstein

The more I learn about Stephane Dion, the more I think it would be dumb of the Conservatives to underestimate him.

I know, according to the punditocracy, the federal Liberal leader is a dud-man-walking.

But they also told us Stephen Harper was a dud and Paul Martin was dynamite.

Oops.

Two books suggest why Dion could be a serious threat in the next election.

The easier read is Linda Diebel's Stephane Dion, Against the Current, published earlier this year.

The tougher but more eye-opening one is 1999's Straight Talk -- a collection of Dion's speeches and writings when he was Canada's unity minister, following the near-disaster of the 1995 Quebec referendum.

Reading these pieces, you quickly discover that Dion is, like Harper, scary smart.

His speeches, letters and essays -- most given when he first entered Jean Chretien's cabinet on the advice of Chretien's wife, Aline -- literally demolish the separatists' arguments.

No wonder they hate him. He's smarter than they are. More>>

Atlantic Caucus: More than meets the eye

We've arrived in the fantastic city that is Moncton in search of Magnetic Hill. A phenomenon we were later told by a disgruntled Moncton Tourism employee (before attempting the hill itself) that is just an optical illusion. Talk about ruining the awe factor. Despite the authority that is the disgruntled employee, we plan to wikipedia this immediately upon arrival to Halifax for details, as we are sure that wiki is in fact the repository of all human knowledge.

There's a killer boardwalk at Magnetic Hill, on what looks like a large muddy puddle with beavertails and everything.... We might actually get a chance to eat something other than tim hortons which seems to be the roadtrip staple this week

The whole magnetic hill theme park thing is pretty cool...we just finished that and now we're driving across a covered bridge. We're buying into every touristy thing we can find here, I mean 5 bucks to stick a car in neutral and roll up/down a hill? Elyse just attempted her moose call in the magnetic hill zoo so I'm slightly worried about some sort of animal rampage so I'd better go...

Here's to hoping we don't get mauled by some rogue wildlife...

Kelly-Anne