Mr. Dithers jibes aside, PM PM got a solid endorsement from the Liberal faithful -- a reward for taking over all those riding associations in his long march towards the leadership, no doubt. :)

He was given an 88 per cent vote of confidence today, although as Darrell Bricker of Ipos-Reid told CTV Newsnet, "I thought it was interesting that they didn't show us how many people voted."

When he won the leadership in 2003, it was with about 94 per cent of the vote. He had one opponent on the ballot -- Sheila Copps.

There were about 2,500 delegates at the Liberals' biennial policy convention, held in Ottawa over the last four days.

What they were actually voting on is whether a leadership review was required at this time.

Going into the convention, some pundits had been predicting he would be getting support in the 70s or so.

But apparently Martin gave a great speech on Friday night (oddly enough, I spent my evening at the Herbie Hancock concert instead of watching Martin say what he's done right) and was a hit at the "accountability" infomercial on Saturday afternoon.

CTV's Mike Duffy said Saturday that based on those two performances, he suspected Martin would get a higher-than-expected approval. He was right.

But I wonder how different things might have been had Martin not rejected climbing all the way into bed with the Americans on continental missile defence.

While this convention will likely help his image, Martin's two big problems when he next sends Canadians to the polls will be maintaining popularity in Ontario and gaining it in Quebec.

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty is trying to pin his province's budget woes on his federal cousins, and Martin has no traction in Quebec. In fact, the last Ipsos-Reid poll showed Martin's personal standing with Quebecers weakening.

I'm waiting for the next poll to see if the budget and the missile defence decision gave the Grits a sizable bounce.

Anyways, CTV.ca has a story on the vote with lots o' video.