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Chong says `non' to Quebec nation LISA TALLYN Staff Writer Wellington-Halton Hills MP Michael Chong resigned his cabinet post suddenly Monday over Prime Minister Stephen Harper's increasingly controversial resolution to formally recognize the Quebecois as a nation within Canada Chong, 35, quit as intergovernmental affairs minister responsible for the unity file and now sits as an ordinary MP, which allowed him to refrain from voting for the resolution that passed overwhelmingly in the Commons Monday night. Cabinet ministers were ordered by the Prime Minister to vote with him. Chong, who also held the minister of sport portfolio, called the resolution "nothing else than the recognition of ethnic nationalism, and MICHAEL that I cannot support." CHONG "I also believe that recognizing the Quebecois as a nation will provide the sovereignists with an argument that they will use to confuse Quebeckers in any future debate on sovereignty," said Chong. "They will argue if the Quebecois are a nation within Canada, the Quebecois are certainly a nation without Canada." "I believe in one nation, undivided called Canada," Chong said. "This is a fundamental principle for me, not something on which I can or will compromise. Not now, not ever. While I'm loyal to my party and to my leader, my first loyalty is to my country." See CHONG, pg. 3 Talk about ruffling someone's feathers Mark Nash of the Canadian Peregrine Foundation received an impromptu fanning as he displayed a female peregrine falcon to students at Georgetown District High School, Friday. The demonstration was part of the E-POWER '06 Conference, for Grade 6-10 students, and was organized by P.O.W.E.R. (Protect Our Water and Environmental Resources) and offered seminars on all sorts of environmental issues. Photo by Ted Brown