That Quebec's decades-old demands for constitutional recognition of its distinct character can go unaddressed indefinitely. That the main reason for even entertaining Quebec's demands in the first place — the threat of separation — is now such a distant prospect that they can be ignored without consequence.
But they are mistaken if they think we can move ahead as a country without doing so. Reconciliation with Quebec is no less critical to Canada's success in the 21st century than reconciliation with First Nations and Inuit peoples. If we're to at all become the model for the world we pretend to be, we must achieve both. What sovereign country can long endure if it is too paralyzed by fear to even discuss its basic premise?
We would never have made it to the year mark as a country had earlier generations of Canadians not recognized that diversity is our strength and that, without Quebec, there is no Canada. Even before Confederation, British authorites understood this by adopting the Quebec Act of Every step of the way thereafter, we knew to accommodate our differences.
The exception came with former prime minister Pierre Trudeau's patriation of the Constitution in This is all the more astonishing considering that Mr. However, the Mulroney government was still stinging from criticism that the Meech Lake Accord had been put together in backrooms, without public scrutiny.
It chose to submit the Charlottetown Accord to a national referendum. British Columbia , Alberta and Quebec had referendum laws of their own. But BC and Alberta decided to participate in the federal referendum. Nationally, In Quebec, the result was After the failure of the Meech Lake Accord , Canadians again could not reach a national consensus on constitutional reform. Ironically, two key topics of the Accord would continue to be hotly debated many years after its death: interprovincial trade barriers and Senate reform.
The federal government, the provinces and the territories signed the Agreement on Internal Trade in But this agreement had only limited success in reducing internal trade barriers. A more comprehensive pact was made in with the Canada Free Trade Agreement. By , serious democratic changes had still not come to the Senate. This was despite a dramatic move by Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau that year; he expelled every Liberal senator from the party caucus to try and make the Senate less partisan.
Many Canadians still believe the Upper House of Parliament should either be reformed or abolished. One further attempt at constitutional change was made in Couillard published a page proposal that echoed the points former premier Robert Bourassa had pursued in the Meech Lake Accord.
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Story continues below advertisement. Leave a comment Comments. We reserve the right to close comments at any time. Join the conversation Create account. Already have an account? Montreal 'Quebec has changed': Time is right to reopen constitutional debate, Philippe Couillard says Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard says the time is right to reopen the constitutional debate in the hopes of having the province's distinct character officially recognized.
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