A matter of principle

Agree or disagree, one has to respect Michael Chong for resigning from cabinet over the motion on Quebecois nationalism. Here's a man who has sacrificed something few people are willing to give up on a point of principle. Not that he'll be hard done by as an ordinary MP, but that's not the point. Mr. Chong wrote what I thought was an excellent op-ed in the Globe a couple of years ago about getting past identity politics in Canada, and his concern that this resolution recognizes an "ethnic nationalism" is quite understandable. It was interesting to watch how much trouble two cabinet ministers had explaining just who the Quebecois were in a press conference after the resignation.

Incidentally, I wonder if Gerrard Kennedy's opposition to this motion will help him in the leadership race, setting him apart from the rest of the field that seems now to have gone along with Michael Ignatieff's once-controversial proposal.