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Thin-skinned. Tribal. Ultra-sensitive. “Butthurt” (as in “Quebec is butthurt again,” the headline of a podcast on the Canadaland website).

There has been a wave of criticism of Quebec and Quebecers since Andrew Potter’s now notorious Maclean’s article linking social malaise with the overnight traffic jam on Highway 13 this month.

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The Gazette has refrained from weighing in with an editorial on Potter’s resignation as head of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada for one major reason. As editor in chief of the Gazette, I am the one who ultimately determines our editorial position on such matters, and I have a significant conflict.

I am a friend of Andrew Potter, and I also served as a reference when he was being considered for the job at the McGill institute. I believe that puts this newspaper in an untenable situation when it comes to officially opining on that aspect of the affair.

But as an Alberta-born journalist who has lived in that province (on three separate occasions), in British Columbia (for six years), in Toronto and in Montreal (for 23 years off and on), I feel eminently qualified to comment on the tsunami of under-informed criticism of this province since the Potter affair.