Canadian Medical Association Journal 1995; 152: 1126-1127
In an interview, Lazure said his pro-sovereignty opinions were formed, at least in part, by his experiences within organized medicine. When he was president of the Canadian Psychiatric Association in 1966 67, he concluded that "there are two distinct peoples in Canada and one of them doesn't have a country. We each have different ways of perceiving, of planning, of organizing."
Lazure, who graduated from the University of Montreal in 1952, argues that Canada is "ungovernable as currently structured." During an interview in which he discussed how his government hopes to convince Quebeckers of the need for sovereignty, he said Quebec's presence in Confederation "hurts English Canadians who want a strong central government." At the same time, he added, "Quebeckers want exactly the opposite to limit the powers of the federal government."
Constitutionally, said Lazure, the country is at an impasse. "Even the minimal requirement of recognition of Quebec as a distinct society, as laid out in the Meech Lake agreement, is not acceptable to English Canadians. Quebeckers have to create their own country, with all the ways and means of a modern state."
Lazure, who describes himself as a "committed social democrat," has been part of a PQ government before. In 1978, as part of the René Lévesque government, he was responsible for creating a government agency for the disabled as well as introducing measures to integrate them in society.
A lot has changed since then, says Lazure, including people's views on sovereignty. He refuses to accept the hypothesis that Quebeckers will reject sovereignty in this referendum as they did in 1980. "We got 45% of the popular vote [in the 1994 provincial election]. Now we have to get out there and get another 5%."
Those views are greeted sceptically by Dr. Ed Coffey, president of the Quebec Medical Association (QMA). (He stressed that his views are his private opinions and that he was not speaking as QMA president. The QMA will not be taking an official stand on the referendum.) Coffey says Lazure's belief that Quebeckers want to be separate from English Canada appears to be at odds with results of a recent survey of physicians' views about the QMA.
"The interesting thing was that the survey showed the most important value of the QMA is in maintaining links with physicians in the rest of Canada. Instead of breaking the link, as Dr. Lazure suggested, they want a stronger link with the rest of Canada.
"I also think that the popular vote in the September election was very telling," added Coffey. "The PQ won 44.7% of the vote 0.4% more than the Liberals. To me, those numbers showed Quebeckers aren't interested in separation."
For his part, Lazure says polls show that 70% of Quebeckers support autonomy for the province in terms of laws, taxes and power to make international treaties. "In fact, those are the basic components of sovereignty," he said. "We'll have to explain this to Quebeckers." Lazure is convinced that sovereignty will contribute to social progress in the province. "When the PQ was in power between 1976 and 1985, we displayed a different way of governing," he said. "We introduced innovative services such as free dental care for children and free prescription drugs for senior citizens. Quebeckers want more social services and they are ready to pay for them."
In fact, health-services issues were an important part of the PQ platform in last year's election. The party raised issues such as user fees, the shortage of physicians outside Montreal and Quebec City, and waiting lists for surgery. The PQ said a 1993 survey by the province's general surgeons revealed waiting periods of up to 6 weeks for cancer surgery, 8 months for elective surgery and 18 months for day surgery. In Montreal, added the PQ, patients waited up to 45 days for a laboratory test, while 3000 children were waiting for surgery at Ste. Justine Hospital.
During the campaign, the PQ promised to reduce waiting lists by 50% and to re-examine cuts worth $875 million that had already been planned by the previous government. However, the province's recent bleak economic news, which showed a deficit that was more than $1 billion higher than expected, may affect those promises.
The responsibility for meeting Quebeckers' health concerns falls to Rochon, a former dean of medicine at Laval University. Laurin, meanwhile, has been named the PQ's regional delegate for Montreal. He is best known for having sponsored Bill 101, the province's controversial language legislation, when he was a PQ minister.
Coffey said the referendum issue is a popular topic of discussion in doctors' lounges. "My personal opinion is that if there is a referendum, the PQ will lose," he said. "The time may not be ripe for separation, but it is ripe for a lot of rhetoric and hype."