IN THE days following the
referendum, I had a feeling
that reminded me of the first
time | tried to cut a chick-
en’s head off, and [ only
managed to chop the neck in
half.

Worse, the axe got stuck in the
chopping block, and lalmost gut-
ted myself trying to get it out so |
could finish the poor creature.

~ When I finally did manage to
sever the neck, the body Hopped
around on the ground, and the head
stayed on the block. The eyes
stayed open and the beak continued
to open and shut accusingly.

This will seem like bad taste, to
equate the historic moment we
Canadians just went through to a
bungled chicken slaughter, but
that’s how it felt. That's how it
feels now. ‘

Watching Canada come apart
isn’t a pretty sight. And it’s not
going to get any prettier.

_ So far — with the federation
as we know it still connected by

~ not much more than a jugular
vein — it is indeed very much
like a botched kill.

Certainly, that’s how the
Pequistes felt. And they haven't
gone away.

That's Une of the reasons I -
am convinced the Canada that
we have known since
Newfoundland joined in 1949, the
Ottawa-run sea-to-sea peaczable
kingdom, is finished.

Some sort-of Balkanization is in
the works, and can’t be avoided.
.The agony can only be prolonged.
If the separatists could muster 60%
of their white tribe to vote to leave
this time, they' ve definitely got the
momentum. «:

Too bad about all the cheating

‘> and fudging and racism. But hey! I

“notice the Quebec goveriment has
gotten its mitts on control over.
immigration, which is suddenly
‘down dramatically } in La Belle
Province.

<: While ethnics are justly crowing
about having been the ones who
kept Quebec in Canada this time

around, if the next referendum goes.
~ apainst them, they'll be hitting the “

For over P50 years, | “weve been creating individual solutions through ar ange

ie

of products, including GICs, RSPs and our family of Mthical Mutual Funds.
Plus. fora lied ume, there's ¥E, UX term96. Bub wine. is running oul, _

strictly
personal

road en masse for points west. |

It's not that Canada wasn't -— or
isn't —- a good idea, But a nation-
state is basically a concept. ft can
be, and always is, sooner or later,
changed around.

‘The concept of Canada is OK.
Anybody who thinks that Canada is

Utopia, however, is wearing their

beaver hat too low over their eyes.
Improving on the working

model is almost always a good
ideas) think a fot of people outside
Queher have the same feeling,

“which is one of the other reasons

the centre won't hold it its current
configuration.

‘Foo many of the Rest of Us are
fed up with the status quo too, even
if for different reasons.

My main lack of faith, however,

is in our feadership. it has been an

education watching Jean Chretien
melting down in the last couple of
months.

He went from being u street-
smart guy with an ace up his sleeve
to being a wandering standup
comedian on a convenient interna-
tional junket, making one dumb
pronouncement after another, any
semblance of control gone poof.

It turned out the prime minister
didn't have a secret game plan to -
save the country other than keeping
his head in the sand.

He didn't have a fall-back plan,
either, even though this is the first
thing every leader is supposed to

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And after the referendum, while
he dithered and drifted around the
world, talking totigh to rogue
regiines in Africa even though
unable to stop a rebellion in his
own back yard, the political initia-
live slipped back into the hands of
the sepsratists.

ft would be reassuring if there
was a.single English- speaking
leader on the horizon who had a
hope of bringing any serious num-
ber of Quebec voters on side. But
the way things are set up, the
champion of all of Canada has to

-be, for the foreseeable future, a

francophone.

This strikes me as unsustain-
able. There used to be a practice,
among both the Liberals and.

Tories ut the federal level, of rotat- -

ing the party leadership between

—in the

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the Two Solitudes.

With the Tories banished to vir-
tuality. the Liberals locked into
Ontario and the Maritimes, Reform
rampant in the West. and the Bloc
astride Quebee, there is nu longer
an opportunity for the sharing of
the powerful prime minister's office
between French and “Enylish.”

There goes one of the basie old.
sleazebag deals that kept the coun-
try intact. The spectre of a fran-
vophone prime minister in perpetu-
ity isn’t something that the rest of
the country is likely to be able to
stomach, Who else, though, could
hold it together? Preston “Manning?

Ralph Klein?

Right now, Canada is like that
chicken with its neck haif cut off.
And no one around to mend it.
Certainly not Jean Chretien. |

He's not the man for the job
any longer. The way he’s continu-
ing to-go, he’s going to cost us the *
country.

Miracles don’ t strike twice,

emphasize, the

simple human.
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