It came as a shock, even though it had been expected for some time. The mighty three term Premier had been felled -- mostly by his own missteps, but with an assist to former Social Credit Premier Bill Vanderzalm and his populist anti-HST movement.

Gordon Campbell has been a total piece of work in his time in office -- he leaves in his immediate wake an HST referendum which will take place next year and a cancelled BC Liberal convention which was to take place in a few weeks.

Canadians headed confidently into the new millennium, but they are limping out of its first decade uncertain about the future and what their country stands for.

Living on the northern edge of Manifesto Destiny felt comfortable enough for most Canadians with Bill Clinton in the White House, notwithstanding his philandering ways. The 1990s was the age of the Dot.com bubble, a decade when American economic pre-eminence was reasserted against Japan and Europe, and China had not yet staked out its role as a rising superpower.

But America lost its way in the succeeding decade, as did Canada.