For Benoît Pelletier, federalism was not simply a political posture. He sincerely believed that it was the most advantageous political system for Quebec. He had made it his mission to make it conform to his aspirations and believed he was on the way to achieving it.
In a speech given in December 2006 in Brazil as part of the Conference of Heads of Government of Partner Regions, the minister responsible for Canadian intergovernmental affairs in the Charest government, who was also an excellent teacher, gave his listeners a real lesson Canadian Federalism 101.
He told them how the decentralized vision which had initially triumphed, with the aim of satisfying Quebec, had been undermined during the second half of the twentieth century. The advent of the welfare state led the Canadian government to use the financial leeway acquired during the Second World War to create a vast social safety net by encroaching on the areas of provincial jurisdiction.
He had somewhat exaggerated by saying that before the election of the Charest government in 2003, the provinces had never seriously considered uniting to oppose these intrusions, but it is not surprising that a politician seeks to play the good part. Moreover, Mr. Pelletier generally showed great moderation in showing off.
In any case, he explained that, thanks to the Council of the Federation, of which he was the main instigator, the provinces had been able to establish a basis for negotiation with Ottawa that was more egalitarian and more respectful of their areas of jurisdiction. He was also pleased that his government had succeeded in convincing the federal government and the other provinces to accept the principle of asymmetrical arrangements, particularly in health matters, which took into account the specificity of Quebec.
One might wonder if Mr. Pelletier had not confused a simple change of government in Ottawa with a real transformation of Canadian federalism. After the Chrétien-Dion years, marked by the referendum standoff, the election of the Harper government brought a breath of fresh air to Quebec-Ottawa relations, just as that of Brian Mulroney was followed by a sort of moonlight. honey after the tumult of the Trudeau father era.
Even after leaving politics in 2008, Mr. Pelletier never lost hope of seeing his almost idyllic vision of a federalism within which Quebec could fully flourish. However, it has never been proven that faith, even that of the charcoal burner, could move mountains.
His premature death last Saturday occurred precisely at the time when the Trudeau government is embarking on a series of pre-budget announcements that constitute gross intrusions into areas of provincial responsibility and attacks on the model dreamed of by the former minister. .
The Council of the Federation, on which it had such great hopes, risks being as powerless to counter this new centralizing push as it was to obtain more than a sixth of the sums requested by the provinces to finance services health. There will be other changes of government in Ottawa in the future; changing the nature of the country is another matter.
In his speech in São Paulo, Brazil, Mr. Pelletier did not mention the “brutal rupture” between Quebec and the Canadian Francophonie which occurred in 1967, during the Estates General of French Canada, and which he was also employed in repairs.
Upon the announcement of his death, the president of the Federation of Francophone and Acadian Communities of Canada, Liane Roy, paid tribute to this “great accomplice”, who had presided over a certain reconciliation after the cold created during the referendum campaign, while the sovereignists had perceived French-speakers outside Quebec as allies of the No camp.
This went beyond complicity. The Canadian Francophonie was at the very heart of Mr. Pelletier’s political project. The report of the Constitutional Committee of the Liberal Party of Quebec that he chaired in 2001 presented Quebec as his “main home”. In his mind, this implied that it had to be “at the center of the values which are fundamental to the future of our federative bond”.
Even if the emotional bond with French-speaking communities in the rest of the country is no longer as close as it was in the past, Quebec still feels a duty of solidarity. The divergence of interests nonetheless remains real. Ensuring the primacy of French on its territory periodically leads it to adopt positions for which French-speakers in other provinces risk paying the price.
We may be nostalgic for another era, but the demographic reality is brutal. The proportion of French speakers in the country is constantly decreasing, like the weight of Quebec within the federation. Like it or not, French is a declining value in Canada.
Benoît Pelletier was undoubtedly an endearing man and an authentic nationalist, but it is difficult to abandon a conviction held for years. Faith can very well be both sincere and blind.