Stéphane Dion says the current context is different than it was in 1995 when he was intergovernmental affairs minister, and premier-elect Pauline Marois does not have as much popularity and room to manoeuvre as former Quebec PQ Premier Lucien Bouchard.
However, in an interview with iPolitics, Dion said it would be a mistake to underestimate the PQ or to think that satisfying Marois’ demands will stop the PQ from pursuing sovereignty.
“The powers they are asking for are hors d’oeuvres compared to the overall powers that they want,” he said. “Each new power that we transfer not because we think it will be good for public service but because we think it will calm the separatists, will simply feed the beast because they will say it is a new step towards independence.”
Instead, Harper should force Marois to prove that her proposals would work better than the status quo.
“If she comes with requests for transfers of power — I think the good attitude for Mr. Harper should be to say you should make your case, you should prove that it is in the interest of people because all the indicators show the opposite.”
“If we dismantle employment insurance it won’t be good for Quebecers, nor for Quebec taxpayers. To no longer apply the official languages law will certainly be extremely difficult for francophones outside Quebec and the anglophones in Quebec. Culture is financially very advantageous for our artists and those are good policies we have with the National Film Board and to a certain measure with Heritage Canada. On communications, there is no proof that a CRTQ would be better than the CRTC.”
As the federal government prepares for the prospect of a PQ government, Dion who was recruited into politics by former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien as the architect of the government’s national unity strategy, is one of only three members of the House of Commons who served in Chrétien’s 1995-2000 cabinet. The two others are Ralph Goodale and Lawrence MacAulay.
While Harper was an MP at the time, he was a backbench member of the Reform Party. NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair was a Liberal MNA in the National Assembly.
In fact, only an small percentage of the 308 MPs in the current House of Commons were MPs the last time the federal government faced a sovereignist government.
The Conservative caucus only has 5 MPs from Quebec — four of whom are in cabinet.
Dion says dealing with the PQ government at the time was a challenge.
“They did everything to try to take Canada out of Quebec with the objective to then take Quebec out of Canada. All the battles over flags, all the incantatory politics like when Mr. Chrétien did the millennium scholarships, Mr. Bouchard, Mr. Landry said it was ‘an unprecedented violent coup.’”
“We have to be the only country in the world where a program to help students is associated with a coup d’etat. It was exaggerated. It was rending of garments that was aimed at creating an emotion among Quebecers. Obviously it didn’t work.”
Dion said he thinks it will be very difficult to repeat that this time, but he said the PQ will try.
“You shouldn’t underestimate them — Madame Marois, M. (Bernard) Drainville, M. (Jean-François) Lisée. I am certain that at this moment they are thinking up all sorts of plans. But I am confident that Quebecers will always tell them that we want to remain in Canada.”
One legacy of the unity battles of the 1990’s is the Clarity Act which spells out that Quebec could only separate from Canada on the basis of a clear vote on a clear question.
“Now they can’t use confusion the way they did before. Nobody is talking about a sovereignty-partnership or that kind of ambiguous formula.”
“That was a clarification that we have to make.”
Liberal MP Ralph Goodale, who was natural resources minister for much of that period, said the PQ’s sovereignist agenda was always in the background of federal-provincial minister’s meetings.
“You always had to be alert to the fact that there was in the ambitions of those particular provincial ministers an agenda item that was always different from other ministers across the country – an agenda item that related to sovereignty.”
“It was wise for ministers to always be aware of that so that you fully understood the implications of what was being debated or what was being proposed or opposed in the process.”
The key, says Goodale, is to make sure each province is treated fairly while protecting the national interest.
MacAulay, who was minister of labour then solicitor general during that period said he is concerned the PQ will once again ask for powers to be transferred from the federal government to the provinces.
“That seems to be, of course, the first steps that they take,” he recalled. “When they can’t achieve all these powers, then they say because we can’t get them we should leave.”
Harper’s government has to make national unity a priority, said MacAulay.
“Unity is so important and it is their job to make sure this country remains strong with a strong central government.”
Original Article
Source: ipolitics
Author: Elizabeth Thompson
No comments:
Post a Comment