the meech lake accord took place in 1990.
the meech lake accord took place in 1990.
when did the meech lake accord take place?
1990
the most controversial issue facing canada in the first half of 1990 was the meech lake accord. the meech lake accord of 1987 proposed a set of constitutional amendments that would have seen a significant devolution of federal powers to the provinces and a clause that would have recognized quebec as a "distinct society" within canada. chrétien had announced in a speech in january 1990 that he was an opponent of meech lake, but stated that he would support the accord with amendments such as scrapping the controversial "distinct society" clause as written, instead have the preamble to the constitution declare that quebec was a "distinct society" and adding in a new clause saying if any conflict arose between the constitutional recognition of quebec as a "distinct society" and the charter of rights and freedoms, the latter would always prevail. the "distinct society" clause theoretically could have been the basis of a wide-ranging devolution of federal power as potentially it could have empowered the quebec government to pass any law short of secession to protect the "distinct society", which is why the "distinct society" clause was so popular in quebec while arousing such passionate opposition amongst many quarters in english canada. in a much talked about essay, trudeau had warned that giving quebec the constitutional right to be a "distinct society" would mean that quebec would quite legally start expelling its anglo minority. chrétien's proposed amendments would have meant that the constitution would have recognized quebec as a "distinct society" while effectively gutting any attempt to use the constitutional recognition of quebec as a "distinct society" to grant special powers to quebec. in private, chrétien was opposed to meech, but as the accord was extremely popular in quebec, to run as an out-and-out opponent of meech was judged to be too risky politically, hence chrétien's conditional opposition to meech lake. meech placed chrétien in a difficult position as it was very popular in quebec while being loathed by the trudeau wing of the liberals whose support chrétien also needed. chrétien had tried to avoid talking about meech as much as possible as it was a minefield issue for him, and instead stuck to generalities about national unity. martin by contrast had declared himself an unconditional supporter of meech lake as it was, and was quite willing to talk about his support for meech.
jean chrétien
manning describes the reasons for why the reform party opposed the meech lake accord that involved granting distinct society status to quebec. manning claims that he and the reform party went against the meech lake accord because it was discriminatory advocating special powers for the province of quebec while not advocating similar powers to the other provinces of canada. manning points out the hypocrisy of the meech lake accord's advocacy of distinct society for quebec while ignoring aboriginal canadians that manning claims justified aboriginal manitoba new democratic party mla elijah harper's decision to act in the interests of his aboriginal people and in the interests of the popular will of the people of manitoba in opposing the meech lake accord. manning condemns then-prime minister brian mulroney and then-quebec premier robert bourassa of being deceitful for accusing opponents of meech lake such as newfoundland premier clyde wells, manitoba premier gary filmon and elijah harper of "rejecting quebec". manning states that the rejection of meech lake was not a rejection of quebec and that such claims were lies. manning notes that the reform party stood out against the traditional federal political parties (the liberal, new democratic, and progressive conservative parties) in opposing the accord.
the new canada