Sun Jan 9/05
A most inconvenient flag

He can buy anything, but he can't buy backbone
I can only wonder how many tense meetings, how many sleepless nights, went into Paul Martin's no-brainer decision to tell Danny Williams, in the Post's words, "no flag, no talks." Martin, it seems to me, is the prototypical 21^st century Canadian politician: utterly devoid of instincts (save self-preservation), vision and gumption, and to such a degree that he actually believes that having no vision or gumption benefits his self-preservation. But surely it was just as extraordinary that Williams backed down, and I mean instantly. I don't know who looks more stupid in the end: Martin for waiting so long to state the obvious (i.e., "Mr Williams, what exactly are you threatening me with?") or Williams for folding up his tent at the first sign of pushback.

Wait, sure I do: it's Williams, by a furlong at least. Here he is in Friday's Post: "This is not about an issue we have with Canadians, this is about an issue we have with their government." A couple of points:

• The Canadian flag is a symbol "of the nation's unity, for it, beyond any doubt, represents all the citizens of Canada without distinction of race, language, belief or opinion." I don't see anything about the Liberal government in there.
• Dude, you're Canadian.

Williams goes on, astonishingly, to claim that Martin's ultimatum is akin to "using the flag as a negotiating tool… We're not going to use [the flag] as a means of getting a meeting, the Canadian flag is too important for that." I… uh… snuh?! What the hell can you say? A Rhodes Scholar he may be; a genius he most certainly is not.

Can you plagiarize yourself?
Renowned non-partisan thinker Licia Corbella has been actively supporting Williams' mission, and his tactics, in her Calgary Sun. This is a woman who only 18 months ago whinged that "Alberta gets a bum deal" when it comes to subsidizing the have-not provinces through equalization payments — "the average gain in Newfoundland is almost $7,000," she wrote, "but Alberta families pay out more than $6,000." All is forgiven, apparently. Though his people have received millions of dollars from Albertans, Corbella thinks "Rock Star Williams" is now bang-on in trying to keep hold of all his oil money.

She really, really thinks so. Writes Corbella on January 5:

[Williams'] controversial and symbolic gesture was done to protest Prime Minister Paul Martin reneging on a deal made June 5, during the federal election campaign that Newfoundland could keep 100% of its provincial share of offshore oil revenues, rather than having most of it taken by the feds who then dole it out again as provincial "equalization" payments in an effort to keep the islanders beholden to the Liberal party.

Writes Corbella on January 6:

In that deal Martin vowed that Newfoundland could keep 100% of the provincial share of offshore oil revenues rather than having 86% of it taken by the feds who then dole out a fraction of it again as provincial "equalization" payments in an effort to keep the islanders beholden on the Liberal party.

Writes Corbella on January 9:

Williams ordered all Canadian flags lowered at all provincial government buildings to protest Martin reneging on a deal made June 5 during the federal election campaign that Newfoundland could keep 100% of its provincial share of offshore oil revenues, rather than having most of it taken by the feds, who then dole it out again as provincial "equalization" payments to keep the islanders beholden to the Liberal party.

Got that?

Corbella does have actual arguments, mind you — two to be exact, both extremely weak. After Martin called Williams' stunt "disrespectful of our most treasured national symbol," Corbella fired back on January 5:

Curious comments coming from the leader of the Liberal government that used the Canadian flag as the excuse to steal more than $100 million of taxpayers' money in the sponsorship scandal which it doled out to Liberal-friendly advertising agencies in Quebec who in turn gave a lot back to the Liberal party.

And on January 6:

Then there was the use of the flag by the Liberals to steal $250 million from the taxpayers under the ruse [sic] to plaster Quebec with the maple leaf.

And on January 9:

His party has been using the Maple Leaf in a shameless way for years to steal from Canadians and fill up — if not their personal coffers (though don't rule that out) — then certainly the bank accounts of friends and party supporters.

This is silly. The sponsorship scandal is what it is, but the theory behind it insofar as it involved the flag was to use the maple leaf to promote Federalism. I never thought paying for advertising space at the Bell Centre was particularly good money management, but it made sense conceptually — given that the maple leaf is, you know, a symbol of Federalism. I'm no happier than Corbella about the corruption and graft, but linking it directly to the flag is absurd.

The other argument is as follows. On January 5:

But it's even more disgusting coming from Martin, whose company — Canadian [sic] Steamship Lines (which he has since handed over to his sons), lowered the Canadian flag on seven of his tankers, hoisting up other flags of "convenience" in order to avoid paying Canadian taxes…

On January 6:

It's a pretty precious comment coming from a man who lowered the Canadian flag on seven of his company's ships for crass profit reasons to avoid paying Canadian taxes.

On January 9:

By lowering the Canadian flag on seven of his Canada Steamship Lines tankers, Martin's family firm saved tens of millions of dollars in Canadian taxes…

This is even sillier. Flags of convenience are a fact of life in the Martin family's line of business, and Corbella knows it. Every industry has its dirty little not-so-secret: high-tech has its overseas call centres, aircraft manufacturing has its massive government subsidies, and international shipping has its flags of convenience. Don't hate the player, Licia; hate the game. Certainly I think calling him a psychopath was a bit much:

That Martin didn't blush brightly this past week as he condemned Williams for lowering Canada's flag surely tells us about Martin's conscience — or lack of one. Surely, psychiatrists and psychologists would label him with another word that starts with ps. His effrontery appears boundless.

(Or did she mean psychic? Psilanthropist?)

Dude, you're Canadian!
Here's John Crosbie's "beef with Canada." I see nothing new or particularly revelatory in there, but this trend towards referring to Canada as some sort of foreign power is off-putting to say the least.

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