Canada’s Liberals pick former environment minister

MONTREAL – In a convention that underscored the rising political weight of climate change issues, Canada’s Liberal Party on Saturday chose Stephane Dion, a former environment minister, to lead the party and try to wrest power from the ruling Conservatives in the next national election.

Dion, 51, was elected head of the party over seven other candidates, including Michael Ignatieff, a renowned Harvard professor who returned to Canada last year and had quickly become a front-runner in the race to head the opposition against Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Ignatieff’s drive for the post stumbled in the fourth and last ballot over his opinions on Iraq, Afghanistan and Israel. The fragmented delegations at the convention turned to Dion, whose environmental credentials overcame his thickly accented English and lackluster convention speech.

In his acceptance speech, Dion repeatedly emphasized his top goal: dealing with what he called “the greatest challenge we have today, sustainable development.”

He was elected, he said, because “Canadians have a deep concern about the main issue of our time – building a sustainable environment for our children.”

Dion must regroup the Liberals, long the dominant party in Canada, to try to reverse the loss in January to Harper’s Conservatives. The party hopes that disillusionment with Harper for cutting social programs, rising despair over Canadian military losses in Afghanistan and opposition to Harper’s retreat from the Kyoto environmental accord will topple the Conservative minority government.

An academic and native of Quebec City, Dion entered parliament a decade ago and has held a variety of Cabinet posts under Liberal governments. In his last post, as environment minister, he won credit for devoting enormous effort to extending the provisions of the Kyoto accord. He owns a husky named Kyoto.

But he is less popular in his home province of Quebec for his opposition to the popular movement to make the French-speaking province an independent country. In the late 1990s, Dion carried on a long-running debate with supporters of separatism and eventually assisted in drafting a law that many Quebecers feel helps block their movement.

“It will be an uphill struggle for Dion in Quebec,” said Charles Hubbard, a member of parliament from New Brunswick, in the convention hall. “The people who question federalism see Dion as the arch devil.”