At Uni.ca, we welcome the fact that finally, national unity is being given the attention it deserves. It is unfortunate that this is only because the present Prime Minister Paul Martin is desperate to be reelected. He and his advisors believed that if they called it a "referendum election", it would galvanize and motivate federalist voters enough to avoid complete destruction at the hands of the Bloc Quebecois. In so doing, Paul Martin wrapped himself in the flag and embraced Jean Chretien's version of federalism, a pro Clarity Act, strong central government vision. His deathbed conversion to Jean Chretien's strategies finally exposes what many observers have suspected, that Paul Martin has no new ideas on how to promote national unity. Worse, after promising in English to debate Gilles Duceppe on every street corner in Quebec, he ran like a barnyard chicken when Duceppe agreed to debate him on TV. Typically, Mr. Martin was all talk and no action.

Paul Martin will not deliver national unity if he continues on his present course. Happily, however, there has been a positive breakthrough on the unity front as the result of Paul Martin's decision to make national unity a central plank of his campaign.

This breakthrough is as follows: The Conservatives and Stephen Harper have offered Canadians a serious competing vision of federalism. In so doing, they have responded to the dangerous fallacy that only Liberals can represent federalists. Conservatives are offering Quebec a different type of federalism, a more flexible federalism wherein the "fiscal imblance" would be rectified, provincial jurisdictions would be respected, and Quebec would have a voice at certain international events. This generated great excitement in Quebec and the rest of Canada. Conservatives now have a realistic opportunity to win seats in 3 to 5 Quebec ridings. Whether one agrees or disagrees with the Conservative vision, it is overdue that federalists have two competing visions to consider, to debate, and to choose from. After all, if federalism is to succeed in promoting unity in Canada, federalists must continually debate and improve the formula of federalism, owing to the complexity of the country and the fact that the country will continue to change. Sadly, this debate has not been taking place. The present election campaign is providing a fertile forum for that debate. In particular, the vision offered by Conservatives finally offers hope to Quebecers who for too long have been forced to choose between the Liberal vision and the separatist vision.

At Uni.ca, we have seen the amount of traffic on our website increase dramatically in recent months. We hope fervently that the national unity debate will continue and thrive in this election campaign. Even more, we hope that the debate will continue after the election is over. After all, talk is cheap, and Canadians need national unity, not just hot air from our leaders.