is that John Manley, Deputy Prime Minister, blames honesty for the monarchy furor that’s going on at the moment. Wow it’s tough to live in Canada sometimes. This whole story is ridiculous – Manley was chided into giving his opinion on the monarchy last week and now is being called upon by monarchists to step aside and NOT host the Queen when she visits Ottawa because he said that he wasn’t a huge monarchist, essentially. Of all the things to worry about, this isn’t even in the top 1000. I think some people in this country must be living in a really nice cozy fantasy land if they feel this is an important issue.

come pearls of wisdom, from time to time. Such is the case with new Canadian Foreign Minister Bill Graham, never an imposing or overly impressive figure though possessed of an interesting candour. Today he clarified the Canadian position to the current shenanigans between the US and Iraq, however, and he hits the nail on the head: “U.S. Has No Right to Invade Iraq, Canada Says.” Quote: “The further you move the argument away from an actual direct threat to a suggestion that, well perhaps, one day maybe… then of course you are opening the door to a basic destruction of the world order as we presently know it.”

This, of course, is exactly the US policy on this matter. So maybe the most amazing thing is that this piece appeared at all. I’m taking side-bets on how quickly someone else in the administration backs off the positions Graham noted in the article. I say within 4 hours. But even that is pretty much standard for the Canadian government – get one minister to proclaim the true policy of the government while another prepares the speech backing off that policy statement.