by the sword. We might also speculaternwhether it was wise to attack JusticesrnScalia and Thomas, as Al Gore did duringrnhis campaign. No matter. Those ofrnus who still believe in the rule of lawrncould rejoice that seven of the nine justicesrnof the U.S. Supreme Court had therncourage to say the right thing, and fivernhad the courage to do it.rn— Stephen B. PresserrnCANADIAN ALLIANCE leader stockwellrnDay, I asserted a few months ago inrnChronicles (“Taking Stock,” Views,rnNovember 2000), would “seek to persuadernMiddle Canadian voters that thern[governing] Liberals are their enemies,rnnot their friends.” I also argued that herndidn’t “play by his enemies’ rules,” andrnthat his partv’ was “a viable alternative tornLiberal (and liberal) hegemony.” I evenrncompared Day to Ronald Reagan. In thernwords of Johnny Rotten, “Ever get thernfeeling you’ve been cheated?”rnCanadians voted on November 27,rnand Prime Minister Jean Chreden wonrnhis third consecutive majority government.rnThe Liberals took 172 seats (uprnfrom 155); the Alliance, 66 (up from 60);rnthe separatist Bloc Quebecois, 38 (downrnfrom 44); the socialist New DemocraticrnPart)’, 13 (down from 21); and the otiosernProgressive Conservatives, 13 (downrnfrom 20).rnRepeating the failures of its predecessorrn(the Reform Party), the Alliance tookrnonly two seats in Ontario; the Liberalsrntook 100 (out of 103), This was particularlyrnbitter for the Alliance, as Day hadrnspent as much time in Ontario as in all thernother nine provinces combined. Evenrnmore galling, the Alliance failed to finishrnoff the Conservatives, who differ from thernLiberals only in the sense that arsenicrndiffers from cyanide. The Conservativesrnretained official-party status; leader (andrnformer prime minister) Joe Clark, completingrnhis transformation from haplessrnBoy Scout to the troll beneath the bridgernof Canadian politics, was elected in tlie Alliancernheartland of Calgary.rnOnce again, Canada split from east tornwest. The Alliance won 64 of its seats inrnthe four Western provinces and almostrnswept Alberta and British Columbia.rnThe consensus is that Ontarians were repelledrnby a “scary,” “divisive,” and “extreme”rnsocial conservatism from the hinterland.rnRubbish. Day ran an almostrnissue-free campaign. The same man whorndeclared that “the era of political correctnessrnis over” ran headlong from his ownrnpolicies in a futile attempt to persuadernCanadians that he represented no threatrnto liberal hegemony. He gutted the Alliance’srnsingle-tax plan and was unable torndeliver a single philosophical or moralrnjustification for an end to tax robbery.rnDay swore he would outdo the Liberals inrnbuttressing Canada’s collapsing medicarernsystem. He became almost hystericallyrnincoherent when presented with the detailsrnof his party’s direct-democracy plan.rnDay is a Pentecostal Christian, and hernhas been accused routinely of desiring torn”impose” his religious beliefs on the nation.rnNever mind that the Liberals havernimposed their atheist immorality onrnCanada for over three decades. Thernsame man who, earlier in the year, hadrnquoted Hilaire Belloc and decried thern”naked public square” turned yellow. Hernpandered to every ethnic group he couldrnfind: Chinese, Sikhs, Muslims, Greeks,rnArmenians. He hinted that he would increasernimmigration—even though Canadarnalready takes in more immigrants perrncapita than any other country in thernworld. He practically promised to makernIsrael the 11th province.rnHis pandering only upped the multiculturalists’rnransom demands. Liberalrnminister Elinor Caplan said that Alliancernsupporters were “Holocaust deniers,rnprominent bigots and racists.” Liberalrnminister Hedy Fry said that Day’s beliefrnthat “Jesus Christ is the God of the wholernuniverse” is “an insult to every Muslim,rnBuddhist, Sikh, everybody else who believesrnin other religions.” Chretien wasrnmore oblique, conjuring visions of Europernlaid waste by the Nazis and concludingrnthat the Alliance appealed to thern”dark side.”rnChretien and Clark lied repeatedlyrnabout the Alliance platform, but Day,rnadopting the same holier-than-thou attitudernthat crippled Reform leader PrestonrnManning, could only whine. He beggedrnChretien to “call off your dogs” and commendedrnhis “agenda of respect” to thernprime minister—his pre-election decisionrnto campaign with one hand tied behindrnhis back.rnDay refused to be drawn on abortion,rnwhich became a campaign issue for thernfirst time ever. Despite his pro-life views,rnhe remained silent after Chretien andrnClark, both nominally Roman Catholic,rnalleged that Catholic teaching was uncertainrnon the subject. Day remainedrnsilent even after Chretien hinted (at arnCatholic high school, no less!) that abortionrnwas not a problem for him, as he wasrntoo old to force his wife to have one.rnIn the end. Day was left with nothingrnto sell but the cult of his (as it turned out)rnshallow and not especially interestingrnpersonality. Ronald Reagan? More likernReagan without the brains.rnHow bad is the state of the Canadianrnright? Bad enough that Canadian conservativesrnlook longingly at George W. Bushrnas a paragon of principled conviction.rn—Kevin Michael GracernOBITER DICTA: The caption belowrnthe photograph on p. 23 of the Decemberrn2000 issue is incorrect. It shouldrnread, “A statue of St. Paul erected byrnBlessed Pope Pius IX in front of St. Peter’srnBasilica, Vatican Cit}’.” Our thanksrnto the many readers, including E. ChristianrnKopff and Paul Check, who calledrnthis error to our attention.rnOur poet this month is Bradley R.rnStrahan, who teaches poetry at GeorgetownrnUniversity. The publisher of Visions-rnInternational, Mr. Strahan has hadrnover 500 poems published in such journalsrnas America, Christian Century, CrossrnCurrents, the Seattle Review, the ChristianrnScience Monitor, First Things, andrnthe Rollins Critic. His latest book, ThernConjurers Gallery was released last yearrnby Crosscultural Communications.rnChronicles is illustrated this month byrnStephen Warde Anderson, a self-taughtrnartist from Rockford, Illinois. Mr. Andersonrnis affiliated with the Phyllis KindrnGallery in New York, Dean JensenrnGallery in Milwaukee, Aron Packer andrnEarth Works Gallery in Chicago, andrnWebb Gallery in Waxahachie, Texas.rnBOOK OF NEXT MONTHrnOur book for next month is Fire in the Minds of Men: Origins ofrnthe Revolutionary Faith by Librarian of Congress James H.rnBillington. A scholarly examination of the intellectiial and socialrnforce behind modern revolutions, the book proves that just becausernyou’re paranoid, it doesn’t mean that they aren’t out to get you.rnFEBRUARY 2001/9rnrnrn