Kill me now

You see these two ten-inch spikes? Hammer them into my eyes, won't you?

British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell is calling on Ottawa to extend the same acknowledgment of Quebeckers as a nation within Canada to the country's aboriginal peoples, opening another front in the fractious debate. In an article he wrote that was released to some media organizations, Mr. Campbell praised Prime Minister Stephen Harper for moving to recognize the uniqueness of Quebeckers within Canada. But he said there is a "third solitude" out there that now needs to be given the same honour. "Indeed, I would urge the Prime Minister to work with aboriginal leaders to develop a similar motion that offers a positive affirmation of Canada's three founding nations -- French, English and aboriginal alike," he wrote, under the heading Setting A More United Canada in Motion. Mr. Campbell, who in recent years has championed a new government-to-government relationship with first nations in B.C., said he could understand why aboriginal people might feel "confusion, frustration and disappointment," at not being included in the Quebec motion. That omission should be put right by Parliament, he said. "Canada's first nations, Métis and Inuit people should not be further marginalized by dint of this effort to unite Canada, which leaves them noticeably out of the picture," Mr. Campbell said. "It is high time we formally acknowledged Canada's 'third solitude' -- the aboriginal peoples of Canada. We should do that formally, proudly and emphatically in a similar resolution that embraces our heritage as a nation of many nations."

This, from the guy who once -- rightly -- opposed the Nisga'a treaty. Which leads us to Coyne's Irrevocable Third Law: "To know what a politician will do tomorrow, assume the reverse of whatever he is campaigning on today." It's quite simple. They're all working off the same playbook: If you want to get to China, first make like you're Nixon. AFTERTHOUGHT: Of course, by that reasoning, I should be supporting Iggy.