When the Liberals trot out the "you need us to save Canada" nonsense in the next federal election read this post by Paul Wells.
...Martin road-tests his latest national-unity doctrine. Turns out a million jobs would be endangered if Quebec seceded.
Just kidding! No, the new line is actually more pathetic than the one that made Martin the star of the 1995 referendum campaign, dunce-cap division:
The prime minister says that because we live in a "world of giants" — China and India, don'tcha know — Quebecers need to live in a great big country like Canada — 1.5% of China's and India's combined population! — rather than going it alone. Quebec, population 7 million, can't compete in the real world, you see. It's too wee.
This is a bone-stupid line of argument from the git-go, but it will look even worse, when the latest in a line of authoritative studies shows next week that Sweden (population 9 million) and Finland (population 5 million) are kicking Canada's ass when it comes to competing in the real world.
What the heck - read this one as well.
...The prime minister of Canada, two years into the job, with the polls looking very shaky on the national question and with his party in very bad shape in his adopted home province, trudges through the rain into two Montreal editorial offices. Of course Quebec separatism is among the first questions in each meeting. And he comes up with an answer that cannot be taken seriously for two minutes. This is a problem.
To be fair, PM Chretien post referendum strategy didn't exactly work out very well either. Speaking of which, where are my tires!
