The place of Quebec is at the heart of the debate on constit
The confederation settlement in Canada was proclaimed in 1867 and for the next 100 years Quebec was politically quiet, showing no signs of agitation toward the constitutional guidelines. During this period Quebec nationalism remained very defensive in character, with the primary effort of Quebec politicians being, to protect the constitutional framework, rather campaigning for reform. With the onset of the quiet revolution in the early 1960's, for which Quebec began to progress in many ways, economically, politically and becoming one of the most secular provinces in Canada. The Quebec government began to push for reform in the constitution, pushing for its recognition as a distinct society, due to the vast francophone majority in the province. Further manifestations maintained that Quebec should become a sovereign state in control of its own politics, these proposals went to attempts at referendum in the constitution act in 1982, the Meech lake Accord in 1987 and the Charlottetown Accord in 1991-92, all of which will be discussed later. This move for reform of the system was intensified with the emergence of other sources of political discontent, such as the Aboriginal peoples, lack of representation in the House of Commons for
When the Constitution act of 1982 was proclaimed it provoked much controversy throughout the Canadian federal system. The Act failed, amongst other things to modify the existing federal division of powers, which was a major source of constitutional debate over the previous 15 years, but the most outstanding omission was the acts failure to recognise Quebec individually within the national system. Quebec received no special role or status and their aspirations for larger proportion of the federal division of powers were ignored . The only really bright point for Quebec was that official bilingualism was announced both English and French became the official languages of the constitution, but the act failed to address Quebec's role as founding partner. From the act Quebec was, as before a province just like all the others. This was enhanced by the fact that the act took effect despite being rejected by Quebec's National Assembly, and Quebec premier Rene Levesque's refusal to sign. David Smiley denounced the act as a betrayal of Quebec. The 1982 reform left many loose ends, failing to answer questions relating to Quebec's status and institutional reform, this break in the reformation of the constitution was sure to be short . The act was well received in the rest of Canada but Quebec in this case proved to be the only area of discontent. If ignoring Quebec was an attempt by the federal government to quell the sovereignty movement, then as Donald Smiley said of the act as a 'dangerous deed'. The constitutional process stalled for a short period after the collapse of the Meech Lake Accord. The betrayal felt by the Quebecois nationalists after 1982 had intensified after the collapse of Meech Lake. It was therefore considered an almost certainty that Quebec would hold a referendum at the end of 1992, if the federal government failed to come up with an offer, then that by default would have been a vote on sovereignty. Quebec's refusal to participate in multilateral forums meant that regional and other identities had to be solicited through the cabinet committee. Their report 'Sha
Some common words found in the essay are:
Parti Quebecois, Meech Lake, House Commons, Scotia Quebec, Western Canadians, Charlottetown Accord, Canada Quebec, , Lake Accord, Brian Mulroney, meech lake, federal government, lake accord, meech lake accord, distinct society, constitution act, quiet revolution, act 1982, major source, recognition quebec distinct, constitutional reform, period change, constitutional reform canada, federal division powers, referendum constitution act,
Approximate Word count = 1408
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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