Angry in the Great White North

This is absurd, but in today's Globe and Mail article, there are hints of a strange plan taking shape:

Stéphane Dion is not acting like a man easily accepting his defeat as he is expected to announce today that he will step down as Liberal leader.

He has been in seclusion at Stornoway, his official residence in Ottawa, for nearly a week now. And while he began to reach out on the weekend to some MPs defeated in last Tuesday's election, he doesn't appear to have been in a rush to contact some one of his most senior caucus officials. That included, as of Saturday morning, Whip Karen Redman, who lost in her Kitchener, Ont., riding. And for at least three days after Tuesday's result, Mr. Dion had not spoken to his closest rivals, Toronto Centre MP Bob Rae and deputy leader Michael Ignatieff.

Mr. Rae would not comment yesterday as to whether he has yet spoken to Mr. Dion.

Over the weekend, Mr. Dion told one defeated candidate to "stay strong and trim and be ready," surmising that the budget that the Harper Conservatives deliver in February "is going to be a mess." The Harper Tories were held to a minority government last Tuesday and a budget vote is a confidence matter that could bring down the government.

"He didn't sound like someone who is leaving," a senior Liberal source said.

Imagine that Stephane Dion announces that he will quit the Liberal leadership today at 2pm, as is widely expected (though no sure thing).  But Stephane Dion also announces his decision to stay on until May as interim leader.  The next Liberal Party convention is in May, and that would be the earliest opportunity to choose a new leader.

Consumed with guilt, the Liberals allow Stephane Dion to stay on.   Of course, this is no sure thing either:

"There are those who feel that Mr. Dion deserves to stay on as leader until the May convention, which will obviously be a leadership convention," said a strategist who travelled with him during the campaign. "A number feel since he won the leadership fair and square he should be allowed to leave with dignity at the convention."

Another Liberal said that those who want him to stay "can't fill a small automobile."

Let's assume, though, that this is what Stephane Dion has been working feverishly on for a week -- lining up enough support to hold on as interim leader.

Imagine he succeeds in becoming interim leader.  A harmless decision, right?  But the Conservatives bring down a budget in February.   Stephane Dion has told one defeated candidate to be ready to go back into an election in February.

But that would mean the Liberals would lead a vote against the budget in February.

Would that been Stephane Dion leading that vote?

Would that be Stephane Dion leading the Liberals through the resulting election?

I can't imagine the caucus of a financially broke Liberal Party allowing this to happen.  But maybe Stephane Dion thinks that in the next three months, he can swing the caucus to his way of thinking, especially of he explains that he has learned from this mistakes in this past election.  Maybe Stephane Dion thinks that, this time, Canadians will vote a ham sandwich as prime minister as long as the ham sandwich is a Liberal running against Stephen Harper and the Conservatives.

Stephane Dion certainly thinks himself as more electable than a ham sandwich.  If enough Liberal MPs come to that conclusion as well, Dion hopes, they'll back him in another election fight.

It's all ridiculous, of course.  But as I've pointed out, Stephane Dion is exhibiting the behaviours of someone who is almost pathologically fearful of being labeled inferior.

The bonus is that if Stephane Dion were to lead the Liberals into an election by defeating a Conservative budget, he would be able to put the Ricker Mercer Liberal video behind him.

A slightly less crazy plan: Perhaps Stephane Dion isn't as crazy as all that.  Perhaps all Stephane Dion wants to do is lead a Liberal caucus in a vote against a Conservative budget, but is fully expecting the NDP or the Bloc Quebecois to abstain in sufficient numbers to avoid an election.  One actual vote, and then he'll go away.