A new era dawns.

Maybe Flaherty was right:

"In the short term sovereignty is impossible," Mr. Boisclair stated unequivocally. "It is clear that we have to change our platform."

Wow. But oh, wait. They lost. What are the winners saying?

Mr. Dumont, meanwhile, warned the rest of Canada that it would be a mistake to perceive him as an unequivocal defender of federalism.

"I hope that is not how they perceive me," he said. "That would be a mistake. But they certainly realize that the desire for another referendum in Quebec is low and they certainly see me as someone who does not support another referendum. ... The vision I put forward is autonomy."

Mr. Dumont has yet to clearly define how much more "autonomy" Quebec would need within Canada and did nothing yesterday to lift the ambiguity except to say the ADQ will tackle Quebec-Canada relations "one issue at a time."

Does this sound like a man who believes fiscal imbalance is "over"?