Speaking as a person who once thought Yellowknife was 1000 miles north of Whitehorse—or maybe it was the other way around—I’m inclined to be charitable to the geographically challenged. Perhaps MacKay was remembering that part of Canada is actually south of the northern border of California.

I know we’re all in pre-election mode, but let’s not be too hasty to jump on the Cons for minor gaffes when there are major issues of performance and policy to flog them for. Once we called that sort of thing petty—remember?