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Quebec Premier Jean Charest had his moment - a pretext and a platform, as well as strong popular support, for a firm but fair crackdown on the violence and hooliganism that have wracked Quebec for weeks.

He appears to have squandered the opportunity, overplaying his hand with a vaguely worded emergency law that growing numbers of Quebecers believe was draconian and excessive. One consequence is that the rest of Canada, which might have been spared a third round of national unity wrangling (capping previous outings in 1980 and 1995), is now back on track for more of the same, in 2014 or so. Merci, Mr. Charest.