Canada's Meech Lake Mistake

...Since the Progressive Conservatives have no obvious successor in the wings, he is getting a chance to put the pieces back together...

...As recently as last September, when Bourassa's Liberals handily won re-election, there was no serious public debate about options other than federalism...

...The task is complicated by his shrinking support in the House of Commons...

...The furor it caused has succeeded in bringing sovereignty to the fore in Quebec...

...As he tries to recover from losing his game of "chicken" with English Canada, Bourassa's preferred technique has been to appoint a party commission to examine the various options carefully over the next several months...

...They were aided and abetted by Mulroney and Bourassa, who predicted calamitous events while trying to assure the Accord's adoption...

...The local governing body's intricate rules also require unanimous consent for many actions, and Harper, taking advantage of this to the hilt, demonstrated emphatically that not only the French Canadians have a strong sense of grievance against Canada...

...Chrétien has always claimed to be something of a populist...

...Is it possible, in the present atmosphere, to foresee a good scenario for Canada...

...Neither the stock market nor the currency collapsed...

...Bourassa, who is known to be intrigued by some aspects of the political arrangements evolving in the European Community, has spoken vaguely about a new "superstructure" to replace the existing Canadian federal system...

...The Meech Lake Accord, a 1987 package of constitutional amendments designed to induce Quebec to formally endorse the 1982 Constitution that its then separatist-seeking government declined to sign, needed the approval of all 10 provincial legislatures by June 23 in order to take effect...

...In his home province of Quebec, with its intensified nationalism, his strongly federalist views have blunted his effectiveness...

...It remains to be seen whether he can circumvent the elite and reach out successfully to Quebec's grass roots...

...New Brunswick did quickly fall into line...

...It is cited to illustrate how not to run a government...

...He called the provincial premiers to Ottawa, closeted them for nearly a week, and finally coaxed them into agreeing to a companion resolution that met the key objections of the holdouts...

...Clearly there were a lot of losers in the Meech Lake exercise, not the least of them being Canada...

...The latter province is already complaining that the Hibernia oil project is being held up by the Federal government in retribution for its actions...

...But following the first of the year, as the months progressed without action by the three recalcitrant provinces, discourse in Quebec began to depict their foot-dragging as a "humiliation," a rejection of the Francophones' moderate stance by an obstinate English Canada...

...So at the last minute, with Manitoba unable to vote, Wells announced that his province's decision would not matter anyway, adjourned the House and went home...

...Quebec celebrated its Fête Nationale peacefully, albeit with an undertone of intense nationalism...

...The main objections of the holdout provinces centered around what was left out of the Accord that they wanted, such as reform of the appointed and largely ineffective Senate, and the "distinct society" clause, seen by some as a license for Quebec to subordinate the individual rights of its citizens to the "collective rights" of the Québécois majority...

...Several of his nationalistically inclined Quebec MPs have deserted the party because of the failure of Meech Lake, preferring to sit as independents...

...There are Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and Quebec's Premier Robert Bourassa for agreeing that the province could not make any concessions, and for creating an environment where the stakes were raised so high that the fate of the country itself was seen to be in the balance—despite the fact that Quebec is bound by the Constitution, signature or not...

...It is a long shot, admittedly, but the best that can be hoped for...

...As a result, there was a hardening of the opposition to Meech Lake...

...He also has said he will do nothing to jeopardize Quebec's economic health, and has implied independence might do just that...

...The Federal government and eight provinces ratified the Accord rather quickly, but Newfoundland, after electing a new government, rescinded its approval and joined Manitoba and New Brunswick in opposition...

...He is routinely criticized in the media as "yesterday's man," because he holds positions that are out of step with what local opinion leaders are currently saying...

...Manitoba's Premier Gary Filmon, who heads a minority government but had the other two party leaders with him in Ottawa to approve the Mulroney formula, blames things on Harper's intransigence and some very complicated legislature rules...

...On the other hand, Quebecers have stressed that they are now going to consider their options, and that no option will be excluded...

...But even if we limit ourselves to the recent past, there are plenty of players upon whose shoulders responsibility for the latest debacle can be placed...

...Proponents argued that it was essential for Quebec to be a full partner in the Federal system, and that the objective could not be achieved without accepting its "minimal demands" for promoting and protecting the French language and culture, placed on the table by Bourassa in 1987 when Meech was negotiated...

...From the founding of the PQ in 1968 until fairly recently, businessmen generally opposed sovereignty as being too risky economically...

...Opponents said it weakened the Federal government and strengthened the centrifugal forces already making this highly regionalized country difficult to govern...

...In case anyone missed the point, it was underscored early in July by the Mohawk Indian actions launched in Quebec...

...Chrétien, at the moment of attaining his long-sought goal, finds himself being called to account by some for his constitutional deeds nearly 10 years ago...

...In the immediate aftermath of the fiasco, both Mulroney and Bourassa tried to calm everyone...

...Those fears were heightened at the end of 1988, after Bourassa's provincial Liberals invoked the Constitution's "notwithstanding" clause to circumvent a Supreme Court decision that declared a portion of Quebec's law banning languages other than French from commercial signs unconstitutional...

...Although opponents were not wont to quote James Madison, they were worried about a tyranny of the majority...

...But Manitoba and Newfoundland ultimately did not ratify...

...To some Québécois today's political skirmishing is a continuation of the struggle that began when the British defeated the French on the Plains of Abraham in 1759...

...Bourassa will have to keep looking over his shoulder to see what the advocates of independence are doing, especially since public opinion polls now show that about 60 per cent of Quebecers want to pursue sovereignty-association...

...During the crucial final fortnight the Manitoba Legislature was tied up in knots by a lone Indian member, Elijah Harper, whose name will certainly be preserved in the history books, at least inafootnote...

...One, a bitter Louis Plamondon, has charged that "since...

...Two Liberal Quebec MPs actually have abandoned their caucus because they cannot stomach Chrétien as leader...

...Yet it would be unfair to saddle the two holdout legislatures with the failure of one of the most important undertakings in Canadian history...

...For his part, Bourassa has announced that he will no longer attend first ministers' conferences (the PM and the 10 premiers), though he was careful to say he would maintain bilateral relationships with Ottawa and with individual provinces...

...It is assumed the Liberals will then endorse a constitutional approach that would enhance Quebec's position more than Meech Lakedid...

...HOW NOT TO GOVERN Canada's Meech Lake Mistake By Harold M. Waller Montreal Poltical scientists with a sense of history are fond of recalling the liberum veto of the 18thcentury Polish Sejm, which required unanimity to pass a law...

...Newfoundland's Clyde Wells, after complaining about not being permitted time to hold the referendum he wanted, promised a free vote in the House...

...In early June with time running out, Mulroney decided that, as he put it afterward, "the only way this could be done was to roll all the dice...

...How wide one casts the net depends on how far back one cares to go...

...If the defections become more numerous, he might be forced to call an election that he would be likely to lose...

...At this writing Mulroney has only 159 of the seats, just 11 more than a bare majority...

...Many others deserve to share the blame...

...There are former Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau and Jean Chrétien of the Federal Liberal Party, who pushed through the new Constitution and its Charter of Rights in 1982 knowing they could not get the Quebec government, led by the late René Lévesque's independenceminded Parti Québécois (PQ), to sign...

...1763, the goal of our new conquerors was to assimilate us...

...And in Calgary the national Liberal Party convention selected Jean Chrétien to succeed John Turner as leader...

...As for Canada's aboriginal people, they may have had their plight and their hopes dramatized by Elijah Harper, but his tactics are not likely to generate sympathy for them in the future...

...This represents an amazing shift in sentiment in a short period, and is the highest level ever recorded for separation...

...He took a lot of risks and lost...

...Consider the following: Chrétien manages to win the hearts and minds of fellow Quebecers, he goes on to win the next national election, and once in office he finds a way to resolve the outstanding constitutional problems without dismantling the country...

...It was simply assumed that the three provinces would ratify within the two weeks remaining before the deadline, and then everyone could enjoy what was left of the summer...

...Manitoba and Newfoundland never got around to holding votes in their respective legislatures...

...It is probably the indépendentistes who have emerged the big winners from the Meech Lake upset...

...There are the Quebec nationalists, who put great pressure on Bourassa because they oppose anything that might be good for Canada...

...The outcome of that effort will go a long way toward determining how well he does as the national Liberal leader...

...Whatever one thinks of the substance of the Meech Lake Accord, it was intended as a conciliatory effort to assuage Quebec and "bring it back into the constitutional family...

...Mulroney has very little credibility left (except in Quebec, where he is respected for trying to meet the province's conditions...

...Nationalists and indépendantistes shamelessly took advantage of the situation to fan the flames of anti-Canada sentiment...

...And, of course, there are the voters...

...That killed any possible clever last-ditch move by Mulroney to stop the clock...

...Pundits speculate that it was really the breadth and intensity of public opinion that convinced him nottofinda remedy for the Harper problem...

...All of this is happening because there is a new spirit of self-confidence in Quebec, spurred in large part by the entrepreneurial class that developed in the 1980s...

...Today many of them are prepared to take the plunge, particularly because they assume the free trade agreement that grants them access to the vast American market would not be in danger...

...Now the notwithstanding clause—allowing local legislatures to enact laws "notwithstanding" their infringement of individual rights—has nothing to do with the distinct society clause...

...There are a few provincial premiers whose view of the common weal does not extend beyond their own boundaries...

...Had Harper not stymied his fellow legislators, probably Manitoba and then Newfoundland would in the end have approved the Accord...

...The sole acceptable conclusion to that saga, these people insist, would be independent statehood for Quebec...

...Normally such a disaster would end a political career...

...Harold M. Waller, who writes frequently for the NL on Canadian affairs, is chairman of the Department of Political Science at McGill University...

...Certainly Manitoba and Newfoundland will be reviled in many circles for blockingpassageoftheAccord...

...What no one counted on was a resurgence of intense Quebec nationalism that had been dormant since the unsuccessful 1980 referendum on "sovereignty-association" (a sugar-coated verton of independence...

...Two premiers in the perennially disaffected West, William Vander Zalm of British Columbia and Grant Devine of Saskatchewan, have suggested that if sovereignty-association might be good for Quebec, perhaps it might be good for their provinces too...

...He still disliked the Accord, though, and was smarting over what he felt were Mulroney's manipulative tactics during the week of isolation in Ottawa...

...When Canada lurched toward the ignominious defeat of the Meech Lake Accord last month, the wisdom of rejecting unanimity as a political principle —a lesson learned well by America's Founding Fathers—was driven home to its citizens...

...The country breathed a collective sigh of relief...

...However, because the Liberals were so cavalier about overriding individual rights provided under the 1982 Constitution, many people wondered how they—or, even worse, the PQ if it regained power—would exploit the more permissive concept of Quebec as a distinct society...

...The fact that provincial governments representing over 94 per cent of the population had ratified the Accord seemed to have no effect on the use of intemperate language...

...Late on Saturday night, June 9, all was sweetness, light and patriotism as the 11 leaders announced that Canada had been saved...