Dionistas rejoice!

To paraphrase our original posting back in January, why is nobody talking about how we were first to talk about Dion?

It was our first post to be noticed by our blog idol, Paul Wells and he credited us as the original Dionistas, and Andrew Coyne noted that the original blogs to endorse Dion were him, Wells, Colby Cosh, and us, so it's so exciting to see your candidate move from fourth to the final ballot. Ok, so maybe we're bragging just a bit.

Thrilling convention, absolutely thrilling, as candidates crossed the floor (Martha, we love you), and the delegates debated. We would vote against a one member/one vote system just for this reason. The CBC's coverage was great too. To see Boolinda in Black, John Manley, Rex Murphy and Rick Mercer talking in panel, with Andrew Coyne and Chantal Hebert on remote was enough to make these politics junkies absolute ecstatic.

And Chretien's speech was fantastic. The man can still stump. He connected all previous leaders into a Liberal continuum, pointed out their landmark achievements, including the No to the Iraq war (sorry Iggy). The olive branches to Paul Martin were remarkable. First was Chretien's comment that he was a delegate at Pearson's convention, but voted for Paul Martin Sr. Next, he credited Martin Jr. with the deficit slaying. His partisan attacks on Harper were classic Chretien, street fighter who takes no prisoner. As John Manley remarked, had he given that speech on Friday night, he would be voted leader today.

Anyway, an absolutely thrilling race. It's not over yet (10 min), but the final result is all over the Ignatieff camp's faces.

Some days, the man who fights the good fight, and does the hard thankless work, in the face of doubts, dismissals and enormous competition,...some days, like today, that man wins.

It's a good day, for Liberals and for Canada.