A fantastic oped this morning by La Presse editorialist André Pratte in The Globe and Mail about the future of federalism and the dangers posed to Canada by the sponsorship scandal. Pratte lays out a possible scenario that he says has federalists worried:
June, 2005: Stephen Harper's Conservatives win a general election and form a minority government with no elected member from Quebec. The Bloc Québécois takes over 60 of Quebec's 75 seats.
2006: Triumphant after his performance at the federal level, Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe is elected as leader of the provincial Parti Québécois.
2007: Jean Charest's Liberal government is trounced by the PQ.
2008: Mr. Duceppe calls a referendum on Quebec's independence.
Pratte offers some sage advice:
Since the rise of the separatist movement in the 1960s, federal politicians have tried everything, to no avail. There's been the Trudeau approach; the Chrétien approach (i.e. "Don't worry, be happy"); the sponsorship approach; Plan B (the Clarity Bill); the "do nothing, say nothing" approach again. And here we are, with sovereignty as popular today (supported by 40 to 45 per cent of Quebeckers) as it was in 1980, the year of the first referendum, and with Canada at the mercy of any event that would cause a surge of nationalist sentiment in Quebec.
Yes, federal politicians have tried everything . . . except what Quebec federalists have repeatedly implored them to do. André Laurendeau, Daniel Johnson Sr., Jean Lesage, Claude Ryan, Robert Bourassa and Jean Charest all concluded that the one way to solve the Canadian problem is to reform federalism. The specific proposals have evolved over the years -- special status, distinct society, asymmetry -- but the basic idea has remained: Recognize in the Constitution, and in the functioning of Confederation, Quebec's particular contribution to the Canadian mosaic.
The key line here being: "Yes, federal politicians have tried everything . . . except what Quebec federalists have repeatedly implored them to do." This is precisely the problem. The federal Liberal Party's approach to "solving" the Quebec question always involves more big government, more centralization, more top-down BS from Ottawa. The only real attempt to "save" the country that could have ever worked was done under the Mulroney Tories.
I don't know about everyone else, but I'm in the camp that believes Canada cannot forge ahead and reach its full potential until the Quebec question is solved. My view has become hardened after living here for the past eight months and travelling outside of Montreal to places like Quebec City, Drummondville and the Eastern Townships.
Waiting around for a crisis is a stupid strategy (although what's going on now could be construed as a crisis, I suppose.) The national unity question needs to be addressed sooner, not later.
