[This article was written in November 1992 after Canada's constitutional referendum. The voting public rejected it. Please be aware that since this article was written, Kim Campbell took over Brian Mulroney's place as Canada's Prime Minister. P.M. Campbell is currently campaigning for the upcoming federal elections. - Ian]
On Tuesday morning October 27 people got out of bed and looked out the window. Yes, Canada was still there.
The referendum on the Charlottetown accord was a long, drawn out and bitter battle that ended with a resounding No being shoved in the faces of the Prime Minister and the nine premiers that negotiated the deal.
The big question on everyone's mind is what's next. By all intents and purposes the deal didn't have much significance to what it was supposed to achieve, that was bringing Quebec into the constitution.
The reason we had to draw up Meech Lake, and when that failed, the Charlottetown accord, was to try to head off a referendum in Quebec on sovereignty association. The separatists in Quebec could always inflame the populous by pointing to the fact they weren't in the constitution of this country, so why should they act as citizens.
The failed October 26 referendum does not mean Quebec will separate, just that within the next three years, they will have the only referendum that really matters, and that's on whether they want to be their own country.
Canada is now faced with political change, Alberta must hold an election to replace resigning premier Don Getty, and of course Prime Minister Brian Mulroney is facing enormous pressure to step down, and whether he does or not, he still has to call an election within the next year. Following that, we will see a provincial election in Quebec.
Regardless of who gets in there will be a referendum on sovereignty association, but who gets in may dictate which way it will go. If Bourassa is in, then Canada may well still include Quebec, if the Bloc Quebecois' Lucien Bouchard, or the Partis Quebecois Jacques Parizeau gain power, they may indeed separate.
Throughout the world we are seeing smaller regions become more politically independent, Yugoslavia, the U.S.S.R. it all goes on. But we are seeing more economic dependence, the European Economic Community and even NAFTA between Canada the U.S. and Mexico. Regions want to protect their politics and culture, but need global cooperation to get sluggish economies back to life. It's hard to say which way Quebec will go.
But in all this talk about the French-English question, some others got steam rolled. The natives.
In all honesty a lot of Canadians voted no because A.) They hate Mulroney and chiefly associated him with the deal. B) They are bigoted and don't like the French, and C.) They are bigoted and don't like the natives.
The same people who were screaming from the rooftops about why is Quebec so special and why should the natives have self government are the same ones screaming about keeping foreign cultures out of Vancouver. They want protection against the Asian influx. A double standard you might say.
It's a shame the natives got rolled into the English-French argument, and it will be interesting to see what develops with them in the future. In the words of Ron George, if you thought Oka was something, wait and see what happens next.
In a sense that's where the accord failed. It tried to be too many things to too many people. It's a crying shame it failed, because we'll never get that level of cooperation again.
