Yesterday's commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the pre-referendum Save Canada rally was underwhelming, to say the least.
But who remembers such things even a year after such ephemeral events as referenda and championship victories, when the events that sparked them have passed and passions cooled? You don't see them holding rallies in Boston this week for the one-year anniversary of the World Series win.
I was in journalism school during the 1995 referendum. I was offered the chance to take a free bus ride to the rally in Montreal, and turned it down.
I thought the rally was undignified, desperate and pathetic, like a battered wife's tearful plea to her drunken husband not to leave her.
Confident nations and people do not grovel for anyone's continued loyalty, especially not for the loyalty of those who have never given it except grudgingly, after continued threats to leave if their constantly rising demands are not met.
Even though the federalists won, I still believed that the rally was an embarrassing spectacle that did more harm than good to the federalist cause. And seeing how it indirectly led to the sponsorship scandal, maybe I was right.
Source: National Post
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