|
NAFTA | Gulf War |
Meech Lake |
Charlottetown Accords
| Kim Campbell |
Oka |
Cod Collapse
By 1992, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney
was ready to take another run at a constitutional
agreement which would formally bring Quebec into
Confederation as a willing partner. Mulroney seemed to
be desperate to succeed where he believed Trudeau had
failed and prove himself as the great reconciler of
Canadian confederation.
After the failure of
his 1987 Meech Lake Accord, the nationalistic feeling in
Quebec began to grown again. The Quebec government
established several committee's to determine a course
for the provinces future and define what it wanted from
Confederation. Mulroney's government followed a similar
path with the Beaudoin-Edwards and Spicer commissions.
Former Conservative Prime Minister Joe Clark was chosen
by Mulroney to put together a deal which would include
all provinces, native groups and the Federal government.
In August of 1992,
after extensive discussions, presentations, compromises
and concessions, the provinces, the Federalism
government and the native groups came up with the
Charlottetown Agreement. Rather then follow the process
of having all of the Provincial Governments seek
approval for the agreement, this time around, the
agreement was to be submitted to the population of
Canada as a national referendum.
The accord further defined the
delineation of federal and provincial powers over
various areas of overlap such as cultural issues and
resource jurisdiction. Other areas of policy concerning
immigration, labour issues and telecommunications would
be negotiated. The federal government would give up the
right of reservation by which a provincial Lieutenant
Governor could ask the Federal Government to accept of
strike down legislation already passed by provincial
governments. In addition, the Federal power of
disallowance, which allows the Federal government could
strike down provincial laws, would have been extensively
reduced. The
Federal government also agreed to guarantee funding for
various programs which technically fell under provincial
jurisdiction with no control over national standards
required. These would in effect had over substantial
Federal revenues to the provinces with no say in how the
money would be spent or what results should be expected.
The accord also strove
to eliminate cumbersome barriers and restrictions to
interprovincial trade and commerce while promoting
better health care, education and labour policies.
Two of he most important parts of the accord addressed
the issue of recognizing Quebec as a distinct
society, which had been included in the Meech
Lake Accord, and a process which would recognize
aboriginal self-government. In addition, Senate
reform would mandate that 6 Senators would be
elected from each province or appointed by the
provincial legislatures. Special seats would be
created in the Senate for first nations people.
Any matters relating to francophone issues would
require the majority of both the Senate as a
whole and of the francophone Senators as a
separate group.
A more refined system of seat
distribution for the House of Commons would be
instituted and Quebec would be guaranteed one
quarter of all seats. Native representation
would also be included in specified
circumstances.
The process of a
national referendum for approval was chosen by Mulroney
as opposed to the simpler provincial agreement because
of legislation passed by BC, Alberta, and Quebec which
required referendums on constitutional change.
As the agreement was
rolled out and presented it seemed that it would be
passed across the country with all three major political
party leaders supporting it as well as the ten
provincial premiers. Media support was also in favour of
the accord. The polls showed that the vote would be in
favour for it across Canada and very close in Quebec.
The tide of approval was abruptly halted
when former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau came out
against the accord. Trudeau argued that the basic
structure of Canadian Federalism required a strong
federal government and that the accord was essentially
gutting the powers of that strong government. He also
believed that the individual as the sole unit of
democracy was being sacrificed to special interest and
regional interests and forces which would result in a
decay of Canada as a nation. His arguments found
unlikely allies on the opposite end of the political
spectrum who argued that the agreement did not go far
enough. Trudeau's article in MacLean's magazine and an
interview in a Chinese restaurant in Montreal started
the process reversing the support for the Accord.
On referendum day the four western
provinces, Nova Scotia and Quebec all rejected the
accord and the overall national vote also rejected the
accord.
| Prov/Terr |
Approval |
Rejection |
| Alberta |
39.8 |
60.2 |
| BC |
31.7 |
68.3 |
| Manitoba |
38.4 |
61.6 |
| New Brunswick |
61.8 |
38.2 |
| Newfoundland |
63.2 |
36.8 |
| Nova Scotia |
48.8 |
51.2 |
| Ontario |
50.1 |
49.9 |
| PEI |
73.9 |
26.2 |
| Quebec |
43.3 |
56.7 |
| Saskatchewan |
44.7 |
55.3 |
| NWT |
61.3 |
38.7 |
| Yukon |
43.7 |
50.4 |
|
Total |
49.6 |
50.4 |
Constitutional change
was dead for the foreseeable future and nationalism in
Quebec given a boost due to the constant debate and the
offensive remarks and opinions voiced during the
process. Mulroney had failed, substantially due to
Trudeau's continuing ability to dictate opinion
regarding Quebec and Federalism and partially due to his
plummeting support in the polls. He would not run for
office again and has generally been regarded with
distain since leaving office. |
