Well, we certainly attract some flies

I'm vaguely astonished that after such a long hiatus we have people who still read us.

That said, I'm also astonished by the rank stupidity of some of our readers. Check out the comments.

First off: The "liberal" supreme court of Canada in fact had nothing to do with anything. It was the Court of Appeal for Ontario (the Chief Judge of which (and who wrote the opinion) incidentally happens to have been a TORY appointee and unless I'm mistaken, was also the Attorney General of Ontario under a TORY government), followed by the Courts of Appeal for every other province save for barbarian Alberta, that pointed out the constitutional flaw.

Second: Give me a fucking break with the "no input from the people" bullshit. Our constitution is crystal clear that the rights of minorities aren't subject to the whims of the people. Otherwise we'd have idiots like Jonathon and Trevor--mouth breathing slack jawed cro magnons--deciding that no, only white Brit-descended men can vote.

Third: Mike is abso-fucking-lutly right that the Jeanfather had to be dragged to the altar. And to his everlasting credit, he acknowledged that even he is subject to the rule of law (something that the US president would to well to recognize, pace extraordinary rendition and whatnot).

And lastly: Anyone (Trevor) who thinks that the Liberal government was the "most corrupt government in history" has a deeply shaky view/understanding of history and probably should read a little more. But then, if your only source of knowledge is Fox News, of fucking course you might have such a weak understanding of anything. Still, for these people, I suspect they don't make enough big-print simple-english books.

We will be vindicated of all of this. The Chretien years represent the flowering of our society. Canada sits on the pinnacle of human achievement, and though of course everything also rests upon our great predecessors and hundreds of years of work as a society (need I point out we are one of the oldest democracies going?), the ten years of the Jeanfather will rank as ten of the greatest we have ever had.

I am an unreconstructed devout Chretienite. I would have had another 10 years of him as Prime Minister. He stood up to the Yankees, he kept us from Iraq, he throttled that anti-Canadian protester, he introduced the Clarity Act and was responsible for the Separation Reference. Unlike Muldoon, he didn't open up the Constitution.

Our federation is immeasurably better because of him, particularly in light of the two small minded men who came after him. It may have been bland government, but god save us from visionaries. The MacKenzie King and Borden governments may have been the same, but those too were some of our greatest years.

And the small minded fools who think otherwise--likely former Alliance voters--can go back to their caves, club their wives, shoot the homos/blacks/asians/immigrants/Quebecois. But you are against the tide of history and one day we will be rid of you all. You have 10 years, and then finally the children who grew up in these glory days of Canadian society will be of age--the children who don't give a shit about race/language/colour/religion. You old guard are doomed, and maybe Alberta--the rural areas--will hold out as some old guard, but the rest of the country, particularly Toronto/Montreal/Vancouver, will be striding forward and will leave you in the dust.