TORONTO - Win or lose, Stephane Dion says he's not going anywhere after Tuesday's election.
"I will never quit. I will stay for my country," the Liberal leader said Sunday during a last swing through southeastern Ontario before flying off on a frenetic coast-to-coast tour seeking the NDP and Green votes he desperately needs.
"But I'm working hard now. We're working all of us for a victory, for a progressive government. This is what is at stake."
When pressed on how he would respond if Liberal rivals push to oust him, a chippy Dion raised his voice.
"I'm the leader! I am the leader. And I'm working to win. I'm not a quitter."
It was a label Dion slapped on Prime Minister Stephen Harper earlier Thanksgiving Sunday in a TV interview.
"Yeah, well, he's a quitter. I'm not," Dion said. "I will fight for my country. I love Canada."
He made the remarks when asked about an interview Harper gave in which he said either he or Dion will soon be out of a job.
"I think it's inevitable that the party that loses this election will be looking for a new leader," Harper told Sun Media.
Dion's strident tone may raise eyebrows in Liberal circles where private reaction to his campaign performance has typically ranged from tepid praise to hand wringing. Dion, a political scientist and former professor of public administration, has a reputation for tenacity and a mile-wide stubborn streak.
He is set to face a Liberal party leadership review next spring.
Despite his strong performance in the leaders' debates, Liberal support is well off historic highs and continues to trail the Conservatives. Dion has struggled to sell his Green Shift plan to tax pollution in return for income tax breaks.
His halting English, which has improved over the last five weeks, has not helped. And his bookish demeanour has not exactly caught fire with the electorate.
Dion was borderline combative when asked by two separate television interviewers Sunday about what appears to be a slight uptick for the Conservatives as the election clock winds down.
Poll trends have shown Liberal support hovering around 25 per cent nationally, 10 points behind the Tories and down from what's needed to match the 99 seats won in 2006.
"Come on! Do you believe in polls?" Dion asked Ann Rohmer, host of a call-in TV show on Toronto's CP 24.
"They're like tides. They come and they go," he said, using one of his favoured catch phrases.
"Come on!" he said again to Jane Taber, co-host of CTV's Question Period during a pre-taped response to a question about the apparent collapse of Liberal support in B.C., already home to an unpopular carbon tax.
Dion argued there's a much more pressing issue at hand than whether he is destined to stay at the Liberal helm.
"The pressure we have today is to elect a progressive government and to make sure that we'll not only stop Stephen Harper but we will replace him. And this will not happen if we do not pull our vote out together.
"I think I have shown through this election how much I will change not only the orientation of this country, but the tone. I'm here answering every question. Where is Mr. Harper?"
The last remark was a swipe at the prime minister who is not scheduled to speak again with reporters on his campaign tour until after the election.
Harper has lowered the democratic bar and been a more secretive leader than Canada has ever seen, Dion charged.
He chided Harper again at a rally in Orleans, Ont. east of Ottawa on Sunday night for cloistering himself from the media as the campaign wraps up.
"He has decided for the last two days of the campaign that he will not take any questions," Dion said to cries of "Shame!" from Liberal supporters.
He accused Harper of trying to dodge reporters' queries on the true cost of the Conservative plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
"Harper said yesterday it will increase your energy costs by four per cent -- that means it must be much more than that. His plan is all pain, no gain. And let me tell you: no tax cuts to offset the cost of his plan, no tax cuts. This is why he (doesn't) want to answer" questions from journalists, Dion said.
By contrast, the Liberal leader says his Green Shift plan to tax pollution would in return save a family of four earning $60,000 about $1,300 in tax breaks by its fourth year. Low-income families would receive up to $2,400.
After a central Ontario tour jam-packed with local interviews and minglers -- including some in ridings already considered Liberal bastions -- Dion heads Sunday night to Fredericton.
Asked why the leader would troll for support in assumed safe zones, one candidate said it's part of a strategy to show appreciation for vital ground workers charged with getting out the Liberal vote.
Plans to spend the last day of campaigning in the Montreal area were suddenly nixed for a coast-to-coast marathon that schedules Dion to arrive back in his Quebec riding of Saint-Laurent--Cartierville on Tuesday.
It's reminiscent of a similar cross-country dash that helped former prime minister Paul Martin turn a rocky campaign into a minority victory.
Dion plans to make stops in Montreal and Winnipeg en route to Vancouver where he'll spend Monday night before flying back to vote.
There will be little left to do after that but watch the results roll in.
