Four years later, following a ruling by the Supreme Court of Canada on the conditions which a referendum on secession would have to meet in order to be legally legitimate, the Chrétien government passed the Clarity Act, which became law in June 2000. While usually attributed to Liberal cabinet minister Stéphane Dion, then Minister for Intergovernmental Affairs, it shared much in common with a private member's bill (C-341 – An Act to establish the terms and conditions that must apply to a referendum relating to the separation of Quebec from Canada before it may be recognized as a proper expression of the will of the people of Quebec) – that had been drafted by Stephen Harper and introduced in the House by Manning in 1996. At the time, it was bitterly denounced and opposed as unhelpful by the Chrétien government.