Silver Lining?

Paul Martin's recent flirtation with the idea that a vote for the Conservatives/NDP is a vote against Canada is not a reassuring sign for Liberals. The idea that some other party could do more for the Quebec (heck, and Alberta) separatism movement than the Sponsorship Squad is on a plane of absurdity worthy of Ionesco. If the Tories weren't so seemingly reactionary (is it fair to say they have any real policy perspectives on social issues?), the Liberals would be in serious danger. If the NDP could get itself together and get on the map, federalist Quebecers wouldn't be so reluctant to see the next election as anything other than a two-horse race. And in that race, the suddenly not-a-joke-anymore Gilles Duceppe is going to be a lot harder to fight than the old we're-the-lesser-of-all-these-evils line that Martin has been road-testing.

The always excellent Chantal Hébert provides aid and comfort to those of us not interested in living through another exhausting and frightening referendum season (especially since we went and bought property in downtown Montreal). In Friday's Toronto Star (memo to Le Devoir: give it up online already), Hébert writes that, as much of a godsend the Liberals have been to the indépendantistes, the support (like Stephen Harper's surge in the polls?) is ephemeral: "In the case of the sponsorship scandal, it is the Liberal party that they are turning their backs on in disgust. But that feeling has, so far, not translated into an outburst of referendum fever."

A Tory sweep to minority - or even majority - power may not be much worse for Canadian unity than another lacklustre Liberal victory (though it would open the door to new blood on both sides). Though that's about as grey as a silver lining can be, for the moment, I'll take it.

As it happens, and as Hébert wrote a month ago, Quebec separatists may be getting all they need from the ailing provincial Liberal government. The conventional wisdom seems to be that Jean Charest's days are numbered, and that the party just might be able to turn things around enough in the next two years to neutralize a Parti Québecois whose house is not exactly in order either. Another grey lining, but, again, I'll take it.