The recent death of Brian Mulroney affected many Quebecers. Mr. Mulroney’s time as Prime Minister of Canada (1984-1993) allowed citizens to perceive his deeply human personal qualities. His warmth, his friendliness with everyone he met, his respect for political adversaries will always remain imprinted in people’s minds.
On the international level, we will remember the free trade agreement concluded with the United States, which Mexico later joined, its fight against racism in South Africa and its contribution to the liberation of South African black leader Nelson Mandela.
These positive aspects made it possible to relegate to the background less popular decisions he made as a businessman, notably the closure of the Iron Ore iron mine, which reduced the town of Schefferville to the bare minimum.
But there is one sector for which Quebecers owe him a lot. It is an exceptional achievement of which he was not, at the time, aware, which took place without his knowledge and which will mark the rest of the history of Quebec. He proved that Quebec no longer has its place in Canada.
Twice, in 1990 and 1992, he led powerful offensives to integrate Quebec into the Canadian Constitution. The province had refused to sign the Constitution repatriated from Great Britain in 1982. All Quebec governments since that date have maintained this refusal, regardless of the political party in power in Quebec. This unilaterally imposed Constitution has always been rejected by Quebec leaders.
However, Brian Mulroney succeeded in 1987 in obtaining the approval of all Canadian provinces for an agreement which would have made it possible to reintegrate Quebec into the Canadian constitutional fold. It went down in history as the Meech Lake Accord. The distinct character of Quebec was recognized.
All provincial premiers had three years to have the text ratified by their respective parliaments. Two provinces, Manitoba and Newfoundland, refused to do so within the prescribed time frame, leading to Meech’s failure.
Brian Mulroney was not discouraged. He made a second attempt in 1992 with what is known as the Charlottetown Accord. This agreement took up that of Meech, but subtracted certain “irritants” which upset English Canada.
To assess whether this text was acceptable, Mr. Mulroney submitted this agreement directly to the people through a referendum instead of requiring only the approval of provincial parliaments. New failure! The text was rejected by 55% of Canadians and 56% of Quebecers. English Canada found it too “generous” for Quebec and Quebecers considered it insufficient.
These two failures opened the eyes of many Quebecers. This was proof — if such proof was still necessary — that Quebec will never be welcome in an Anglo-Saxon country like Canada.
Quebecers will always form a group apart, ostracized, excluded, never equal, in short, second-class citizens. Their language is threatened within Canada. They had 1 in 10 seats in the Council of the Federation, they now have 1 in 13 after the addition of the three northern territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut).
It is this minority status that Brian Mulroney’s failures have illustrated. Meech and Charlottetown demonstrated the rejection of Quebec’s aspirations by the rest of Canada. Independence remains the only path open for Quebecers. We must be grateful to Brian Mulroney for having demonstrated this despite himself.