When Canada was teetering on the brink of separation in the 1990s, reeling from one nail-biter referendum and facing the possibility of another, the federal Liberals were smart enough to listen to Stephane Dion.

Now, with Adscam and a growing list of regional tensions threatening national unity again, they'd do well to listen to the former Intergovernmental Affairs minister once more.

Meeting with the National Post editorial board yesterday, mostly to discuss Ottawa's Kyoto plans in his capacity as Environment Minister, the father of the Clarity Act was asked what he made of the recent handwringing over Quebec's purportedly reinvigorated sovereignty movement. Mr. Dion's response was ostensibly aimed at Stephen Harper and Jack Layton, but it should speak just as loudly to Liberals.

"To me, unity is above partisan politics," Mr. Dion said. "We should not encourage the mentality that if you have a disagreement with the government of the day, if you don't like the Premier or the Prime Minister, if you are mad because of the last scandal, then it makes sense to put your loyalties to the country on the table. This is a mistake. Other countries don't do it, but in Canada we're always doing it."

To try to use the separatist threat to bully the public or other politicians, Mr. Dion suggested, is a dangerous game: "It [reminds] me of Mulroney during Meech Lake. He was saying ... 'sign, sign, otherwise Quebecers may separate.' And then Quebecers were [saying] 'If the Prime Minister is saying to us we should separate, maybe we should.'"

Perhaps he really was just talking about the Conservatives and the NDP. But if so, it would mean Mr. Dion has tuned out the wave of Liberal ministers who've spent the past weeks cautioning Canadians that defeating them in the next election would - wait for it - increase the risk of Quebec separating.

The claim this past weekend from Joe Volpe, the Immigration Minister and Paul Martin's Ontario lieutenant, that "Stephen Harper is a more ardent provincialist and separatist than even Gilles Duceppe" was so absurd that it's almost not worth taking seriously. But more lucid offerings from other Liberals - including Public Works Minister Scott Brison, the point-man on Adscam damage control - suggest the party's campaign strategy will be to paint a Conservative government as the first step toward a oui vote.

So now, we've got Quebecers effectively being told by the Conservatives and the NDP (along with the Bloc Quebecois, but that goes without saying) that the federal government's behaviour has given them reason to consider separating, and the Liberals telling them that the mere election of a different government may also give them reason to head for the hills.

It's a scenario that should give Mr. Dion nightmares: Federalists from all sides pouring gasoline on sovereignty's heretofore flickering flame.

Already, Liberal premiers of Quebec tend to complain so much about Ottawa that they create the impression that even federalists don't think confederation is working. But at least they could argue it's the only way they'll get elected over the real nationalists.

Federal politicians don't even have that excuse: Pure opportunism is the only reason they're willing to put separatism on the table. Unfortunately, that seems to be reason enough for most of Mr. Dion's colleagues.