Mario Dumont, Friend Of Steve, Separatist

Is it raining toads? I just thought I would ask because Rex Murphy agrees with me. That surely, is a bad sign for us all. In particular, these paragraphs summarize everything I feel is going on with Mr. Dumont (behind the wall, but this is working for the moment):

I suggest the reason Mr. Dumont is so obliging in dismissing a referendum from his political arsenal is that he sees it has become a useless ritual toward the advancement of goals ever so conveniently being achieved without one.

After all, if the federal Parliament declares by resolution that “the Québécois form a nation,” if its “powers” are ever more exercised separately from any central mandate, if Quebec has an international presence, and if the goal of the only dynamic party in the province of Quebec right now is to expand the latitudes of its already generously established autonomy — why chatter about some damn referendum? This boat sails better without that dropped anchor.

Quebec is and has been quietly disengaging itself, with the co-operation in particular of Mr. Harper's government, from its provincial status within the Confederation. It is edging toward an equivalent status with the rest of the country seen as a whole.

In other words, when you have a Prime Minister who either because he shares your vision for an indepenedent Quebec within a loose confederation of independent states, or for crass political expediency, does a limbo dance in order to help your cause, you don't need referenda. You just need to act. Mr. Dumont said it would be a mistake to think of him as a federalist. We should believe him. I would only add, that I think it is a mistake to think of Steve as a federalist, too.

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