I don’t know much about Stephane Dion yet, but I’m looking forward to finding out. The one thing I’m immediately excited about is that he was formerly the Environment Minister during part of the Chretien era. Some might say they didn’t do great on the environment during that time, which is true. However, I would normally assume the Environment Minister is committed to those issues even though their superior puts constraints on them.

The other thing I like about him is explained very well here: Good for the Grits; Good for Canada?. Dion strikes me, on the surface, as an “intellectual” that has been brought into politics, rather than a pure politician. Harper does seem the same way. So, it will be interesting to see how both of these politicians fare in the next election.
Short Stephane Dion biography