What kind of Last-Spike ceremony would that produce?Two spikes would probably be

What kind of "Last-Spike" ceremony would that produce?Two spikes would probably be involved. It is not clear how Mr Chretien will explain to taxpayers in western Canada, where there is not much patience with the separatists, that they must contribute to a scheme which is aimed principally at pleasing Quebec.And consider this scene: it is 2007 and the train line has been built. "Can the government pay for projects like this when it is closing hospitals and other services?" Mr Paquet asks. "It would be hard, politically, to invest in something which only the wealthier portion of the population would use."But as engineers and politicians ponder the project's wisdom, nothing can be considered in isolation from Mr Bouchard's pledge to hold another referendum on separation after Quebec's next provincial elections. "If Bombardier comes to us and says Quebec City is not included in the project, I think that the government will say, well, we are including it".But there are more fundamental questions. Although the Quebec City-Windsor corridor contains two-thirds of Canada's population, critics doubt enough people would abandon their cars and the use of aeroplanes to ride the railway once more.There are also questions about how realistic it is to expect such an enormous outlay of government spending. Bombardier has hinted that it would prefer to limit the project, by linking only Montreal and Toronto, thus excluding Quebec City."That would be my inclination," Alain Paquet, a research director at Bombardier admits.

"But I guess that, politically, it would makes sense to include Quebec City" Mr L'Allier agrees. Mr Bouchard has even been teasing Mr Chretien about his lukewarm support for the TGV. "If I was the federalist prime minister," he joked recently, "I would want to prove to everyone that federalism is good. I would want to recreate the conditions that existed at the birth of federalism - the great railway lines that united Canada."None of these political cross-currents have escaped Bombardier, whose chief executive, Laurent Beaudouin, is an outspoken opponent of separation. I don't believe that separating means stopping communicating.

We don't want to turn our backs on the rest of Canada".The same logic drives Mr Bouchard, who wants to show an independent Quebec would still be a partner with the rest of Canada. "Wanting to separate doesn't mean wanting to isolate ourselves," he explains. "It doesn't mean that we want to float away, like some kind of island and anchor ourselves somewhere else. Most of it would have to be funded by Ontario, Quebec and the federal government, although they are already burdened with huge budget deficits. And why would Quebec, which last year came within a half percentage point of approving secession, push for a new physical link to the heart of Canada?Jean-Paul L'Allier, the pro-sovereignty Mayor of Quebec City, a train enthusiast who has ridden the TGV in France and the Japanese bullet train, insists there is no contradiction in Quebec's position. On the table is a mega- project which, according to a first study completed last year, would cost some C$18bn (pounds 9bn). The travel times would be cut in half.Bombardier, the Montreal-based aviation and transport giant, which owns the North American rights to the TGV technology, is beginning a four-month study into the viability of the line.

The study was commissioned jointly by Mr Chretien and the Premier of Quebec, Lucien Bouchard, in an unusual show of unity between two men more used to conflict than to co-operation.Therein lies a tangle of conflicting political interests that would have made even Sir John Macdonald pause for thought. The section between Montreal and Toronto alone takes four-and-a-half hours, though the carriages are comfortable, with service worthy of an aeroplane.What is being proposed is a 180-mph service on new track, with the same technology used by the TGV high-speed trains in France. Officials from the New China News Agency (Xinhua), which acts as Peking's control centre in the colony, are quick to call up editors and proprietors if they dislike their coverage.A mere three daily newspapers out of about 20 - Apple Daily, Hong Kong Economic Journal and Mad Dog Daily - remain at true arm's length from the incoming administration.. Quebec City - For any Canadian with a sense of history it is obvious. If francophone restlessness in Quebec threatens to tear the Confederation asunder, your best course of action is to build a railway line: tie Quebec more tightly to the rest of Canada with a band of steel.