Paul Martin is in Windsor -- my hometown, and his -- where he will unveil the Liberal platform tomorrow.

Paul Wells is there, too, and reports the following:

I'm in Windsor with Paul Martin. The prime minister took a busload of scribes on a short tour of his hometown. We saw the drugstore where his mom used to work. That sort of thing. All very sweet.

As the bus pulls up to a waterfront hotel, a knot of protesters is waiting across the street. They're mostly union types — it's Windsor, after all — but one woman has a hand-lettered sign that says:

"'I am a Quebecer.'
— P. Martin"

Oh, you're right. The real reason to vote against the guy is that he's secretly French.

Which is pretty funny.

The thing is, Windsorites feel a bit left out. We're in a forgotten corner of the country, and most people that come there from elsewhere don't seem to like the place much. (A lot of people who grew up there, like me, think the place is very nice, and a well-kept secret. Especially if you like mild winters and sunny summers.) You know the way a lot of Canadians get upset about how little Americans know about this country? At times I've felt that way about Canadians and Windsor. (PW: It's the Detroit River.)

Anyway, many in Windsor are therefore proud of any locals who go on to do big things on the national scene. Like Paul Martin's dad, who nearly became Prime Minister. So, if you have a bit of a thin skin, what could be worse than a Windsor-born son of a local hero who now goes around saying "I'm a Quebecer"?

I can completely understand, since I both love Windsor and call myself a Torontonian. But the protester's sign still made me laugh.

POSTSCRIPT: Okay, Paul still loves Windsor, too. And Paul Wells, from Sarnia, explains his river error, although I'd think that being from Sarnia should make this sort of thing much less likely, not more.

-permalink-