Two things I could care less about

By MICHAEL COREN

Toronto Sun
Saturday, December 2, 2006

Two of the things that we should care least about in all the world are dominating the news at the moment in this country.

Quebec and the Liberal Party of Canada.

Not that we should be indifferent to the needs and well-being of the people who live in Quebec.

But no more and no less than to the needs and well-being of any other Canadian.

As for childish screams from the sovereignists about separation and unique identity, they ought to interest us not a jot.

If Quebec wants to leave Canada, close the door on the way out, please.

There, I said "please".

Polite enough for those of you who are willing to sell your soul for the sake of a bunch of spoilt separatists living a few miles away?

Just living in this country makes us members of a privileged class.

We are residents of one of the wealthiest, freest, most caring and civilized nations on Earth.

I'm tired of the paroxysms in which our political elites indulge each time another nationalist leader moans on about oppression.

It's bad enough that we pretend to be bilingual, especially with the language in question being French.

Either of the two major Chinese languages are today more useful. So is Spanish.

Outside of Quebec, French is spoken primarily by the French, slices of Belgium and Switzerland and a handful of former colonies, some of which are allergic to democracy.

We've sat by and done nothing as English-speaking Canadians were humiliated in Quebec and then tried to bribe separatists into remaining part of a confederation that they frequently despise.

I say it again.

I couldn't care less if Quebec becomes a country, as long as it takes its fair share of the national debt and doesn't try to impede commerce and contact between western and eastern Canada.

Call it a nation, call it a people, call it a community -- but please, just shut up about it.

It's a colossal digression from the real issues of life, liberty and morality that face us all everyday.

Get over it, people.

But while doing so don't forget that Quebec gave us that friend of dictators, Pierre Trudeau, whose fatuous son is now explaining why life is so hard for him.

Thus making the fellow a perfect potential leader of the Liberal Party.

GREAT IRRELEVANCE

Bringing me to the other great irrelevance.

Whether it's led by a failed New Democrat called Rae, a virtual American called Ignatieff, a little-known federal politician called Dion or a provincial politician with no national experience called Kennedy, the Liberal Party is an anachronism.

In fact, it is precisely what it likes to call the Conservatives.

A dinosaur. A large, unwieldy creature that has survived merely because it had no natural enemies that could bring it down.

So it grew fat and tired and predictable, then toppled over and became a fossil.

Watch them run around in panic at their convention this weekend as they choose a new leader, who will remain in charge for a few years before strolling off to some lucrative post in business, law, a university or government.

Listen to their self-important chatter about the future of Canada and what Canadians supposedly want.

Then shake you head, relish the real Canada, hug the kids and ignore the Quebec question and the Liberals for years to come.