Though Harper has been repeatedly mocked by Liberals this week for saying Canada could learn some constitutional lessons from Belgium, at least one cabinet minister and the Privy Council Office have flirted with the Belgian experience over the past few years.

Environment Minister Stephane Dion, in his former job as intergovernmental affairs minister, gave a speech in 1996 in which he pointed to Belgium as an example of a nation that respected its linguistic minorities.

"All Canadian provinces are obviously distinct from one another. But with its difference in language, Quebec is different in a fundamental way which requires specific attention," Dion told the Canadian Bar Association in March 1996.

"Other multilingual democracies, like Switzerland and Belgium, have these kinds of arrangements. They give the minority language community the ability to feel secure and to make a more positive contribution to the country."

Nevertheless, the Liberals continued to poke fun at Harper in the Commons yesterday for saying in a speech last weekend that he had asked his party to look at Belgium - with its education and culture systems separated between three language minorities - for ideas that Canada could possibly adapt. Source.

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