Mon pays, c'est l'Iggy: the critics rave!

Jeffrey Simpson:

Fuss around with the word all you like. Give it sociological, ethnographic, linguistic connotations, even definitions. In English or French, "nation" elides into sovereignty, as in the United Nations (Nations Unies), or national anthem (hymne nationale). It would be completely reckless, for all those who favour a united Canada, to include such a concept in the Constitution, now or ever, for there could never be any escape from the link of "nation" with sovereignty in a constitutional document.

Norman Spector:

... with Mr. Ignatieff having played the constitutional card, there's something almost Orwellian in mentioning his name in the same breath as Mr. Trudeau's... Any attempt to achieve his agenda would inevitably set off the same negotiating dynamic that led to the Charlottetown accord fiasco... Canadians are being asked to buy a pig in a poke ... It's been said that members of the Liberal Party fear a backlash if they reject Mr. Ignatieff's idea, but it's hard to believe they would leave the field open for Prime Minister Stephen Harper to campaign on a platform of "one Canada" in the next election.

Lysiane Gagnon:

Under the erratic guidance of Michael Ignatieff, the Quebec wing of the Liberal Party of Canada has happily gone down the road to political suicide... In the foolish hope that a veiled promise of recognizing Quebec's national character in the Constitution would give them back the lost votes of Quebec francophones, the Liberals are unleashing a process that will inevitably lead to division and resentment throughout the land, and end in abject failure...

William Thorsell: "... dangerous ... [a] can of worms...." Norman Webster: "... ill-timed ... an opening of Pandora's container that has so many dangerous implications it makes the head hurt to count them..." The Globe and Mail: "... with his troubling constitutional dreams, including his call to recognize the 'national status' of Quebec, Michael Ignatieff has divided his Liberal Party and, very likely, the country... It is a lamentable solution to a problem that is largely of Mr. Ignatieff's own making..." The Toronto Star: "... a 'winning' strategy for Ignatieff and the Quebec wing of his party could be a losing one for the country. It risks igniting a divisive debate within the Liberal family and a far uglier one across a country still haunted by the Meech Lake and Charlottetown constitutional debacles... Rather than legitimize folly, the Liberal Party of Canada should put the interest of all Canadians first and reject the Quebec-as-nation resolution as a non-starter..." The Montreal Gazette: "... this emotional and political minefield. Nothing good will come of it... We cannot suppress the suspicion - not to say fear - that Ignatieff was wooing delegate votes by playing fast and loose with the future of Canada. We're almost afraid to ask if he took this position out of cynicism, or naivete." On the other hand, Bernard Landry likes it. WHAT ALL OF THESE CRITICS HAVE IN COMMON, if memory serves, is that every last one of them (except Landry) were supporters, to varying degrees of shrillness and hysteria, of the Meech and Charlottetown "debacles."

But give them credit: at least they've learned something from the experience. As Simpson writes: "Any person or institution can make a mistake. Any person or institution who makes the same mistake twice is, as the saying goes, a fool."

Well, that takes care of Meech and Charlottetown. But, "what word applies to any person or institution that makes the same mistake a third time? ... What manner of man or party, and what kind of country, would take immense risks to try a third time what disastrously failed twice?"

Hmmm...

David Peterson, a former Liberal premier of Ontario who is now chancellor of the University of Toronto, said the Liberals must confront the constitutional status of Quebec, and that a leadership race is the appropriate forum for that debate. "Most of the leading political leadership in Quebec, and I'm talking about federalists like Jean Charest, believe that without some formal recognition of Quebec uniqueness, distinctiveness and nationhood within Canada, there will always be a gaping wound," said Peterson, who supports Ignatieff's leadership bid and was an ardent defender of the failed Meech Lake constitutional accord, which, among other things, would have recognized Quebec as a "distinct society."... Peterson said "there is nothing to fear" from formal recognition and that it is the only sure-fire way to defuse sovereignist sentiment in Quebec...