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I hope this doesn’t sound mean-spirited, but I can’t say I feel a great sense of security knowing Stephane Dion will henceforth representCanada in the salons of the European Union (oh, and Germany).

It’s not that Dion is unsuited for the job, or might have difficulty adapting to the gilded halls and spacious debating chambers of Brussels and the other EU capitals (including Germany). It’s the opposite: if anything, Dion is a perfect fit for the great talking shops of the Old World, where manners are proper, clothing is formal and a long plenary session followed by a firm statement of intent is considered a significant achievement, particularly if they worked right through lunch.

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These are the people, after all, who’ve done such a great job of uniting Europe under one set of mutually agreed upon rules that Britain is quitting the club, Greece is bankrupt, Italy is in crisis and the very survival of the 28-member alliance is in question. Recent accomplishments include a total failure to deal intelligently with the flood of refugees fleeing Syria in search of safer shores. Hungary erected a barbed-wire fence and fired tear gas to keep them out. The approach to the port of Calais is now bordered by a four-metre concrete wall, even though a nearby “jungle” camp has been emptied of its 7,000 refugees. There are real fears that upcoming elections could see radical change to the governments of France and Germany, the two biggest economies in Europe once Britain is out.