Enter Barack Obama. Washington and a labour union (and to a much lesser extent Canada) now own Chrysler; GM is heading for a similar fate; taxpayers control America's largest insurance company; the nation's banks and mortgage companies are dancing to the administration's tune; health care and education are priorities as is much heavier market regulations.

[Michael Ignatieff] has given some hints about what he'd like to see in the party's policy paper. He's preoccupied by questions of identity, patriotism and national unity -- all old Liberal chestnuts. But these ideas are not relevant any more. Endless surveys, all faithfully reported in glossy magazines in your doctor's office, say Canadians know who they are; they are proud of their identity and they know why they are different from Americans.

Ignatieff wants more, big east-west projects such as railways, oil pipelines and hydro lines to balance the north-south trade we do with the U.S. But what's the point? An east-west oil pipeline isn't going to make many of us more patriotic. So why build it if it doesn't make any economic sense?