text: But Fdionne,
  
  Don't take my word for it - read it in the history books, where "get-tough-and-clear-on-Quebec" Preston Manning's underling assistant at the time, an unknown named Stephen Harper, is described as follows:
  
  "The (1995) post referendum activities.... on the Reform Side, MP Stephen Harper introduced a Private Member's Bill that dealt explicitly with a referendum on separation. It was really the precursor to PM Chretien's Clarity Act, passed in 2000." (from: 14 Days: Making the Conservative Movement in Canada, by Bruce Carson).
  
  It is a fact that Chretien and his underlings were in panic and despair and almost destroyed the country with their MASSIVE underestimation of Quebecers' swallowing the separatist propaganda in the weeks before that 1995 referendum. The separatists nearly won and the Liberals were reckless, incompetent and dangerous in their foolish approach of the time, thankfully replaced in 2000 by the hardball approach birthed by the other side of the Commons.