If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it must be a duck.

It should come as no surprise that the PQ government is going on the offensive against Ottawa.

Despite soft-pedalling the separatist agenda in the election campaign, Premier Marois and her band of anti-federalist warriors are embarking on something they call sovereignist governance.

Just what did our Intergovernmental Affairs Minister say this week?

“Our main objective is to make sure Quebec becomes a country,” said Alexandre Cloutier.

The priority is not the economy, not education, not health care.

What all this really means is that this government will pretend it’s running its own country.

It will poke and jab at Ottawa whenever it can. It will try to relight the fires of separation while it continues to trample on minority rights.

First step: The creation of a caravan that will travel across Quebec to seek opinions on federal Employment Insurance changes and job training.

Quebec may have a legitimate beef here but this is not the way to do it.

Duceppe-led commission cannot succeed

$1.5 million of your money for a partisan committee co-chaired by Gilles Duceppe -- who has dedicated his life trying to break up Canada.

This circus will be just the first shot over the bow in Quebec’s campaign to create winning conditions for another referendum.

But it won’t work.

No one in Ottawa is going to listen, no matter how much Quebec threatens to take its ball and go home. The old quarrels are finished.

Quebec no longer can hold a knife to the throat of Canada, as was once the strategy in days when it really did seem the fate of the country was on the line.

I would bet there is not much sympathy out there in the rest of Canada anymore.

The unity question is dead as Monty Python’s parrot.

Sovereignty movement is dead

Do you think another referendum would bring thousands of others Canadians to Montreal to another unity rally as happened in 1995? Fat chance.

This government was elected by 32% of the voters but it’s starting to act like it has a mandate from a higher authority to pursue its option.

The Marois government has also issued instructions to its ministers not to speak English at meetings with other provinces and the federal government.

It’s okay presumably to speak English with Americans.

If not, we are really in trouble from this childish move which will hurt Quebec more than anything.

It’ s not something that even Rene Levesque or Jacques Parizeau would have dared to consider even in the darkest hours of federal-provincial relations, but obviously their English skills were not as challenged as those of the current premier

Our ministers will however, be allowed to speak English at cocktail parties, providing someone invites them for a drink and few hors d’oeuvres.