The Globe and Mail reports on Donald Tsang's visit to Vancouver, the first leg of his junket around America and Europe. Democracy is not around the corner, proclaims The Don. It's not even on the same street map, in fact. In an affront to particle physicists everywhere, he said, "We do not believe in a big bang. We believe in incremental stages to find a solution." Hong Kong's poor, ignorant huddled masses need time to come to grips with this complicated "voting" concept. In a cynical attempt to curry (hmmm, curry) favour with pro-Beijingers, The Don laid into his erstwhile employer, Britain: It was unfair to blame Hong Kong leaders for not bringing in democracy immediately, after more than 140 years of colonial rule when they could not vote. But wait, there's more:

Mr. Tsang dismissed a suggestion that Beijing has been heavy-handed lately in its relations with Hong Kong. The presence of the People's Liberation Army in Hong Kong is not an issue, he added. Some even see advantages over colonial days. The soldiers from mainland China are much better behaved than their British counterparts before 1997.

"Every weekend there were brawls in the bars with the British soldiers. We have had not one single incident involving Chinese soldiers, not even traffic tickets. . . . With the British, it was every week."

Mr. Tsang refused to describe Beijing as a dictatorship.

"Dictatorship to me is something like Hitler or Saddam Hussein. One person in it. Certainly that is not the case in China."

(Thanks to False Positives for the article)