He’s like a visiting in-law who doesn’t know when the welcome has worn thin. So he just hangs around waiting. Nobody dares tell him to go.

Dion says he’ll rebuild the Liberal Party. Yeah, just like he promised 22 months ago. We saw what that got us.

Second Reason: So he can fill up the party’s coffers with money in time for the next election. What? This is the guy who still hasn’t paid off his $200,000 debt on the 2006 leadership convention. He’s going to pull the Liberals out of debt?

The real reason, which Dion doesn’t say, is that he wants another kick at the can and a chance to keep his precious Green Shift alive. He thinks he can sell his carbon tax this time if he calls it a ‘price on carbon.’ Yeah, as if the Conservatives won’t see through that.

The Liberals have already said ‘Goodbye carbon tax.’ Two days after the Oct. 14 election, every mention of ‘carbon tax’ was wiped off the party’s web site.

Politics is like that. You get one shot at the prize. That’s all. Who promotes Meech Lake anymore? It wasn’t such a bad idea. But Brian Mulroney couldn’t sell it. Remember Pierre Trudeau’s National Energy Policy? Same thing.

If it doesn’t sell, drop it. You won’t hear Harper talking about ‘Right of Recall’ or ‘Triple E Senate.’ Even uttering the word ‘abortion’ is forbidden. Moved on.

It was negative television ads that beat him, Dion whines. To a degree. The Conservatives’ hate machine cranked out those ‘Dion is not a Leader’ ads and had a Puffin pooping on him. But what makes him think they won’t do it again, and with the same success? At least get the suit cleaned, Stéphane.

Right now it’ll take a revolt in the Liberal caucus to get Dion out of there. It could happen this fall if he starts playing possum to Harper again in the Commons.

He voted 43 times with Harper to avoid an election last time.

What did it get him? An election.

The Liberals’ leading heavies, Bob Rae and Michael Ignatieff, want an early leadership convention. They want it in central Canada, not Vancouver, and if possible, before the snow flies. Why give Justin Trudeau and the rest of them time to organize?

Or why let Harper hold an election over his February budget?

Harper still dreams of a majority. He’s failed three times. That hardly bothers him. He’s working on a scheme to defeat his own government in the Commons so he can face Dion again before the Liberals have their new leader.

Crippling committees in the Commons won’t cut it anymore. Maybe the current economic crisis could provide an answer. Why not a fall budget? It wouldn’t be hard to justify it with a crisis. It’s already here. Now there’s an idea.

‘Vote for our budget Dion or we see you on the hustings.’