Earlier this week I accepted an offer all Canadians should get. Half an hour to sit down with the leader of a major federal party and discuss any issue they deemed important. Monday I was given the chance to chat with Liberal leader Stéphane Dion while he was in town on the campaign trail meeting with local candidates.

Dion and I spoke over a wide range of issues, from Quebec, safe-injection sites and Afghanistan to climate change, the recent global financial crisis and even Stephen Harper.

Dion, understandably, is a busy man these days, consequently slightly worn down during our talk. It didn’t seem to hamper his apparent commitment to the campaign and his party. Rather, he showed a few signs any politician would after weeks of little sleep on the campaign trail.

It was easy to pinpoint what he wants his Liberal party to stand for, if Oct. 14 turns his way from the ruling Conservative party. A vision of Canada as a ‘green’ nation, a progressive one leading the world on climate change solutions, what he called “the number one priority” if he were voted into the prime minister’s office.

“Climate change is the challenge of the century,” said Dion. “We want to pass onto our children and our grandchildren a better living as our parents and grandparents did for us. For that we need to make the right choice and there is a way to do a green shift that is good for your wallet and good for the planet.”

The logistics of his plan are all over the newswires.

They include refundable tax credits for retrofitting homes to reduce power usage, interest-free ‘green’ mortgage loans for up to $10,000 per household and ‘green’ tax rebates for low-income families — all paid for by raising taxes on all fossil fuels except gasoline.

“We are not proposing to tax at the pump,” he clarified, distinguishing his federal platform from the provincial carbon tax. “We will also give an additional green credit for rural residents so they will have additional help that is not a part of the provincial scheme.”

In terms of his proposed $70-billion infrastructure fund, it will also have green elements, meaning money for a light-rail transit line from the West Shore to downtown Victoria could be a federal priority, he said.

“This is the kind of project I would be pleased to be a part of. It’s my priority and the priority of my party to push green infrastructure. This being said, I will need to listen to the premier and the mayors as to what they propose, is this a priority to them or not?”

Concerning homelessness, Dion promises 30,000 more social housing units nationwide as well as $140 million to upgrade low-income housing. He also fully supports the stand being made by Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca Liberal candidate Keith Martin on tackling drug addiction.

Martin, who’s worked in detox and emergency rooms as a physician, supports projects such as InSite and NAOMI, a pilot project funded by the Canadian Institute of Health Research which provided pharmaceutical-grade heroin to chronic addicts for study purposes.

“If the science is saving lives,” said Dion, “why would I change? Why would I want to go against the science and the doctors who have spoken on the issue?”

His English is passable at best and he is void of the charm of previous Liberal leaders such as fellow Quebecers Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin. Dion seems more message-oriented than character-focused, dedicated to a vision of a country with ‘green’ values embedded in the economy, infrastructure and everyday life. He sees a less oligarchial government, with a team of ministers running the country alongside him, with the prime minister in more of a captain’s role than outright leader who has the last word on decisions.

Questions have been raised about his apparent ‘academic elitism,’ which I still find funny when tagged to any politician. At times in past decades, we’ve elected leaders based on their ‘average Joe’ status and connectibility to regular working folk. However, this hasn’t proved a reliable way to elect at all. It seems electing Dion would be a vote towards a more progressive/pragmatic leader and less caricature or flashy prime minister.

Canada would undergo a dramatic shift in both economic policy and ideology were the Liberals voted back into power next week. But this is the beauty of democracy and every Canadian will help make this decision on Oct. 14.

patrickb@vicnews.com.

— Patrick Blennerhassett writes for the Victoria News.