Insight

In 1991, Tom Lukiwski stood in a campaign office in Saskatchewan, looked into a video camera and made some very derogatory remarks about gay men, to the giggling delight of whoever was filming.

It's the start of 2008. Do you know where Canada's international priorities are? When the Harper government took office in 2006, although its famous "five priorities" were all domestic, one of the goals that hovered around the edges of the Conservative agenda was to beef up Canada's role in the world.

'I have often regretted my speech, never my silence," the Greek philosopher Xenocrates said. One wonders whether, when the Bouchard-Taylor commission on reasonable accommodation has aired the thoughts of every Quebecer who chooses to take the microphone, the province (and indeed the rest of Canada) will feel satisfaction or regret.

It's been nearly a year since Earthlings everywhere were informed that if they wished to stone women, imprison girls, and ruin Christmas, they had better not try any of this in Herouxville, Que.

Asked to state his political philosophy in a nutshell, long-serving Ontario premier Bill Davis famously said, "Bland works." For his Progressive Conservatives, it worked until 1985, when he made the surprise announcement that his government would extend public funding to Catholic schools through high school.

Were you, like me, watching Quebec's election results pouring in last night, remembering Jacques Parizeau's denunciation of "the ethnic vote" in 1995 and anticipating that one of the defeated candidates might blame his ill-deserved fate on veiled Muslim voters - all 67 of them?

In June of 1989, a remarkable thing happened. When Environics asked Canadians what they saw as the top problem facing the country, the most common answer was the environment.

The members of the Parti Québécois have spoken, electing as their new leader a young, handsome, gay, and postcocaine André Boisclair, who has assured supporters a vote for him is a vote for a referendum " immédiatement" upon his moving across the aisle in the National Assembly.

Okay, Canada, Mother's Day Pop Quiz. Question: What policy idea is capable of uniting: (a) social conservatives, (b) advocates of smaller government, and (c) Quebec, the most socially progressive region in North America?