In this 100e birthday of René Lévesque, several personalities or political columnists will seek to interpret his political career by repeating that he failed in his dream of achieving the “sovereignty” of Quebec. Nothing could be more false, because as the moral of Jean de La Fontaine’s fable of the hare and the tortoise says, “there is no point in running, you have to start on time”.
Posted yesterday at 11:00 a.m.
The vanity of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, the Quebec anti-nationalist hare, against the perseverance of René Lévesque, the Quebec nationalist turtle, this will be the issue of the next Quebec election, and here is why.
Forty years have passed since the unilateral patriation of the Canadian Constitution from England without the consent of Quebec.
It is clear that Quebec nationalism is doing well, to such an extent that I bet that in the long term, the Quebec nationalist turtle will arrive at the finish line before the anti-nationalist hare.
Why ? Because by denying the existence of the Quebec nation and by wishing that it would disappear over time, everything indicates that popular support for François Legault on his identity policies, be it secularism and the strengthening of the language French, represents a step-by-step advancement of the nationalist tortoise against the federal anti-nationalist hare.
Will the hare’s vanity get the better of the tortoise’s perseverance?
Who does not remember the vanity of a Pierre Elliott Trudeau, the Quebec anti-nationalist hare, repatriating the Constitution of Canada at top speed in 1982 while humiliating René Lévesque, the tortoise, who not only never signed the Canadian Constitution, but which succeeded in convincing Quebec nationalist federalists never to sign this same Constitution which forever flouted the very existence of the collective rights of Quebecers.
Indeed, Robert Bourassa, Claude Ryan, Jean Charest and Philippe Couillard, all of them fervent federalists, never wanted to sign the current Constitution.
Why ? Because they believed that the Canadian Constitution could be reformed. But they were quickly disillusioned after two bitter failures. First, the Meech Lake Accord adopted in 1987 which recognized the “distinct society” of Quebec, but which was rejected in 1990 by anti-nationalists. Then, the Charlottetown referendum, another failure in 1992, which would have allowed Quebec and the other provinces to consolidate their powers in the federation while recognizing Quebec’s distinct society and the rights of Aboriginal peoples.
The recognition of sovereignty in a Quebec Constitution
After four failures, two Quebec nationalist referendums lost in 1980 and 1995 and two projects for reform of the Canadian constitution lost on the part of Quebec nationalist federalists, in 1990 and 1992, what path remains?
The only possible way in the short term would be the adoption by the National Assembly of Quebec of a Quebec Constitution which would define the collective rights of the Quebec nation, through its language, its culture, immigration, its territory and its political institutions. and judicial.
During the next provincial election on October 3, I bet that this will be one of the issues proposed by the government of the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ), namely the recognition of the sovereignty of the Quebec nation based on a proposal of a Quebec Constitution.
Will the Quebec nationalist tortoise eventually arrive at the finish line of recognition of the Quebec nation before the federal anti-nationalist hare? If this is the case, René Lévesque would be proud of the advancement of the recognition of the collective rights of the Quebec nation and of the Aboriginal nations in Quebec, as he wished at the time of the beautiful risk of Brian Mulroney!