Its kind of mom and apple pie.

Cameron is trying not to "scare the horses" by fighting off any hint that there is a "hidden agenda". He leads by a significant amount, massively in fact. He has to bridge the gap till next summer when he may or may not face Gordon Brown, who may or may not resign before the next election.

However, if you read the rest of the speech, did you read it Mr Wherry, it talks of reducng the role of the state in peoples lives, devolving powers from the centre and expecting responsibility…..it is an old style tory speech.

Stephane, yeah right, its more Stephen but actually more Stanfield.

Good point Jolyon, ….and I wonder why Quebec separatists look longlingly at nation states in Europe where each individual "nation" has signifciantly less sovereignty than Quebec does now in the federal state we call Canada. It may be one of the reasons why the separatist movement is having so much difficultly gaining traction.

I have long believed that separatists don't really want to separate from Canada because they know they have it pretty good here. Separatists do keep up the din though because they know squeaky wheel/grease and all that.

I keep thinking EU is going to blow up any day but it never happens. Now that EU has formal president and foreign minister maybe people will react to the behemoth that's making the laws for them regardless of sovereignty.

Pour Gilles Duceppe, qui s'est rendu trois fois prêter main-forte à sa candidate Nancy Gagnon, cette défaite est toute une gifle. D'autant plus que les partielles servent généralement à passer un message au gouvernement, pas aux partis de l'opposition.

Pour les souverainistes, c'est une deuxième défaite en quelques mois dans le Bas-Saint-Laurent, là où les libéraux de Jean Charest ont gagné une partielle en juin après la démission de Mario Dumont.

http://www.cyberpresse.ca/opinions/chroniqueurs/v…

That's highly optimistic.

"Fairer" is definitely a word. It's commonly used, too. You could look it up.

Bah. A small loss here; a small loss there–cancelled out by a gain here, a gain there.

What is the Bloc polling in Québec these days, CR? 35%? 38%? That's plenty of traction.

Your car is worth $200? No fair!

West Island, eh? So I was right, you really don't understand Québec… Joking! I said I was joking!

But really, you should know better. For one, even the têtes-carrées put an "e" after "Point" in Pointe-Claire. For most of the recent campaigns, both the PQ and the BQ have done their darnedest to ask the electorate to pay no attention to "Article 1" behind their curtain. Neither party has been in any particular hurry to "achieve" the "dream" since your buddy Lévesque and maybe monsieur By-Jove Parizeau. If you think whatever % support for the Bloc means that souveraineté is gaining traction, then you well and truly don't understand Québec.

"Mirror, mirror on the wall, who in the land is fairest of all?"
"Queen, you are full fair, 'tis true, but Snow White is fairer than you."

No. If you're actually ready to declare separatism dead based on a superficial reading of the current situation, you really don't understand Québec. Separatism has been given Last Rites by cleverer lads than you many times over the years, and it has always reared its head again. I take it you're old enough to remember 1995, when we almost lost the farm?

If Québec were really politically stable, anglos in exile like me would return. It isn't, and we won't.

And I will laugh in your face so hard…

Laugh all you want, but try to think a bit at the same time. A definition might help.

"To gain traction" means literally "to acquire the ability to move or be effective". To say what you’re saying–that Québec separatism has not gained the ability to move or be effective–is to deny the entrenched position and widespread support its federal vehicle currently enjoys and will continue to enjoy indefinitely. Quibbling about the current coyness of the BQ's separatist intentions is feeble. May I take it that, if a federal Islamist party sprung up in Ontario that highlighted its fiscal programme and soft-sold its Islamism, you would interpret its core support as evidence that its constituency was attracted by its tax-reform proposals rather than its Islamism? Please.

Shall I take it, then, that you were indeed inventing words out of thin air, since you have failed to point out where I am administering last rites?

Separatism is NOT dead. Never said it was. I shall try again with the simple message: the fluctuating number in the opinion polls next to the "BQ" in no way tells us what Quebecers feel about sovereignty. Although now I worry that sentence may not have been simple enough.

…the fluctuating number in the opinion polls next to the "BQ" in no way tells us what Quebecers feel about sovereignty.

Right. Because support for a manifestly separatist party in no way implies support for separatism. Just like support for the Taliban in no way implies support for Islamism (as their transportation policy is pretty cool, too). Got it.

Separatism is NOT dead. Never said it was.

No. You merely agreed with someone who argue that separatism has "not gained traction" in Québec–that it has not been able to mobilise and establish itself as an effective entity. That's totally not saying that it's dead.

I suppose the bottom line here is that you really don't know what "gaining traction" means, do you?

I realize this was about Cameron, but I see him as copying the rhetoric of Obama.
Was Obama's speech at Fort Hood simply boilerplate? I thought it was one of his best speeches describing America's aspirations. America fails to live up to the perfect ideal but it constantly strives. I would like to hear a Canadian politician make a speech like Obama did. I'll wait.