March 20 is an important anniversary in Canada.
Stephen Harper secured the leadership of the Canadian Alliance on that date in 2002 and the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada, again on that date, in 2004.
His leadership led, in due course, to his Prime Ministership. And that resulted in ten years of constitutional existential silence. For a decade we heard nothing of separatism, from the West or the East. The silence was noteworthy, but like the Conan Doyle dog that did not bark, it is easily overlooked.
Today we have a different situation. Within weeks of Justin Trudeau taking the office of Prime Minister, the stirrings of separatism in the east were awakened. And the same stresses and strains appeared in the west months later. The silence was broken.
The differences in tone and content continued to be manifest.
Corruption at the most senior levels of government became commonplace. The Ethics Office has not been this busy in decades. The habit of profligate spending has returned with a vengeance, debt levels not seen since Trudeau the First are savaging future generations. And the emptiness and shallowness of the symbolic leadership has replaced the substantive and meaningful direction we experienced under Harper.
I celebrate and regret March 20th. The Ides of March are upon us.