Jamming with Stéphane Dion

As most of the Liberal Bloggers on this site were aware, I recieved an email from Stéphane Dion's campaign yesterday and decided to join the conference call today. I had the opportunity to ask Mr. Dion some questions. I want you to keep in mind that I tried to type as fast as I can and realize I might have accidently mangled some views. If I am guilty of that, please do not hesitate to tell me I made a mistake.

Regarding Equalization Formula, recently Premier Lorne Calvert of Saskatchewan has gotten angry at Stephen Harper's perceived renegging of his promise to take out oil and gas revenues from the Equalization Formula. My Question to you is: What would you do to fix the equalization formula?

I think we (the federal government) made a mistake when we killed the equalization formula, The federal government should be helping provinces below the canadian average. We have accepted to see the amount of equalization go up by 3, 4 or 5% a year. The Rich provinces have got richer and the poor provinces have got poorer. The gap has becoming bigger and not narrower. I would add to the formula a ceiling that would cap the amount of equalization a province could receive.
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How much Ethanol would you require in Gasoline?

I would require more then 10% Ethanol and use a Canadian Company (I forgot the name so I can't remember what it was) to produced a special type of ethanol (The ethanol does exist just can't remember what type it was called but it was basically a long name that started with an S}. I would oppose using corn imported from the United States.

What is your opinion on Kyoto?

Kyoto is demanding, but Kyoto does work, we had only begun to start meeting our kyoto targets. I hope that some time in the near future when I am Prime Minister we will hopefully be able to salvage Kyoto, If you look at a country like Sweden, It has some of the most efficient technology in the world and it operates fantastically under Kyoto.


Overall the interview was great, I was extremely impressed by the answers he gave and enjoyed talking to him.