Is one reason for that the rather controversial trip you took with Parti Québécois premier Lucien Bouchard?
It’s hard to tell what causes what in this very complex environment. But I certainly never imagined when I was in the Ontario government as the secretary of cabinet, say, that I would later find myself doing a six-day tour with the PQ premier trying to advance the economic development agenda for Quebec! I wouldn’t have thought it possible. And there was incredibly negative feedback from a whole bunch of people at the time, although I’m convinced I did the right thing, in the sense that I believe that the person who’s the premier is everybody’s premier, not just those people who elected him. That’s a bit naïve in itself, I suppose, but you have to act that way or democracy makes no sense. What helped me most was that in two of the cities we visited there were people from McGill picketing the events that were taking place. The premier’s staff said to me, “You need to avoid these people, so we’ll take you in by entrance A instead of entrance B.” And I said, “That’s not going to help. I’m
