Profile: Stephane Dion, new leader of Canada's Liberal Party
MONTREAL, CANADA, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- Canada's former
environment minister Stephane Dion was elected on Saturday new leader of the
country's Liberal Party, which lost power in January after 13 years in power.
"I'm so happy and proud of my party. I'm so pleased
to serve my party," Dion, 51, told reporters immediately after the results were
announced at the Liberal convention in Montreal late Saturday.
Dion, who vaulted into the lead on the third ballot,
won 57.4 percent of about 5,000 delegates' support in the fourth-ballot, beating
the 59-year-old Michael Ignatieff, who led through the first two ballots.
Dion is seen as a fierce defender of the Liberal
record who served in the cabinets of former prime minister Jean Chrestien
andPaul Martin, a champion of the anti-separatist Clarity and the Kyoto
environmental accord.
He was born on Sept. 28, 1955 in Quebec City. Dion
graduated from University Laval with a B.A. in 1977 and an M.A. in 1979, both in
political science.
In 1986 he received his doctorate in sociology from
the Institut d'etudes Politiques in Paris. In 2002 he received an honorary
doctorate from the Carlos III University of Madrid.
In 1996, he was recruited by former prime minister
Jean Chretien in 1996 and given the job of improving federalist fortunes in
Quebec in the wake of the 1995 referendum.
He authored the Clarity Act, which set strict terms
for negotiating Quebec separation. He argued that claims by sovereignties that
separation could be painlessly achieved were a myth.
Dion held the post of minister for intergovernmental
affairs for seven years but was dropped from cabinet in December 2003, when Paul
Martin was sworn in as prime minister.
He was named environment minister after the Liberals
won a minority government in the June 2004 election. He impressed his colleagues
in that post - and he chose that theme as he announced his candidacy.
Dion is married to Janine Krieber, and has one
daughter, Jeanne.
