Archives - Jean Chrétien

Notes by Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, Shawinigan, Quebec

When they asked me where I wanted to make my first speech of the referendum campaign, right away I answered "back home". The decision we will make in three weeks' time is of vital importance to all of us Mauricie natives, Quebecers, Canadians.

And so I felt the need to return to my roots, to look back a little, and think about the path I have taken since I was a young man here in the Mauricie.

You don't know how happy I am to be among my own people this evening my friends, my neighbours, my family. You know me pretty well. I am the son of Wellie Chrétien and Marie Boisvert.

My parents taught me to be proud of my own region, the Mauricie, and I am. They taught me to be proud of being Francophone, and I am. They taught me to be proud of being a Quebecer and I am. And, last, they taught me to be proud of my country, Canada, and I am very proud of it.

Not for one minute have I ever thought of denying part of my identity. For me, it would be unthinkable to no longer be a Mauricie native, a Quebecer or a Canadian.

My parents passed down values that have guided me all my life family, work, the hope of a better life for our children, tolerance, openness, respect for the opinions of others, sharing and helping the less fortunate among us. These are the values of the Mauricie, the values of Quebec.

But later in my life I had the opportunity to travel to every part of Canada and I learned that our values, these values of Quebec, are shared by all Canadians. My parents firmly believed that Canada is a country full of possibilities. They raised us, my brothers and sisters and me, in the conviction that in Canada people can do more than dream, they can make their dreams come true. They can be masters of their own destiny.

When I was twenty-nine years old, you elected me to the House of Commons. At that time I was a unilingual Francophone who knew nothing of Canada outside Quebec. You sent me to represent you there, where the federal administration was almost entirely Anglophone.

There were very few Francophone Quebecers in the senior ranks of the public service. The economic Departments were all represented in Cabinet by Anglophone ministers.

Here in Quebec, an Anglophone minority controlled the economy. Francophones earned less than Anglophones. We had no Education Department. No one dreamed that the day would come when Francophone business people from Quebec could sell their goods and services worldwide.

My friends, that was Quebec and Canada thirty years ago. Canada has changed profoundly since that time. Let's talk about it.

The French fact has become a reality in Ottawa. Francophone Quebecers occupy the highest positions in the federal administration. The economic Departments are no longer the preserve of Anglophones.

According to Mr. Parizeau's declaration of independence, and I quote:

"Continuing within Canada would be tantamount to condemning ourselves to languish and to debasing our very identity".

End of quote.

My friends, is our identity debased because the Governor General of Canada is an Acadian, the Chief éustice of the Supreme Court of Canada is a Quebecer, the Clerk of the Privy Council is a woman from Quebec, the Minister of Finance is a Quebecer, the President of the Export Development Corporation is a Quebecer, the Minister of Foreign Affairs is a Quebecer, and the Prime Minister is a Quebecer?

It is not only occupying important positions in Ottawa that counts. It is the power to put this to use in the best interests of Quebec and all of Canada. For thirty years, Mr. Parizeau has been accusing the federal government of every wrong. But this is the government that passed the Official Languages Act.

Guided by principles of social éustice, this government also developed a national health insurance plan and the guaranteed income supplement for seniors, and developed an equalization program to reduce the inequities between the various parts of Canada. Quebec has benefited greatly from this.

In the cultural sector, it is this government that created such organizations as the CBC, the Canada Council, and the National Film Board, which have given thousands of Quebec artists and artisans their livelihood over the years.

In the economic sector, it created the Canadian International Development Agency, which has played a key role in helping Quebec business people find foreign markets. It negotiated the North American Free Trade Agreement, NAFTA. The Export Development Corporation, another creation of this government, funds Quebec companies to create éobs here and sell our goods and services abroad. We can say that together we have shown that we can build a strong Quebec in a united Canada.

The flexible Canadian framework has also enabled Quebec to acquire distinct policies and institutions: Hydro-Québec, the result of nationalizing electricity, the Caisse de dép^t et de placement, the Régie des rentes du Québec, the Société de développement industriel, the Société générale de financement, and Radio-Québec, to name éust a few.

There are many ways to be different, éust as there are many ways to be Canadian, and there is no doubt that one way of being both different and Canadian is to be a Quebecer.

Today, everyone can see that Francophone Quebecers have taken control of their economy. There is no longer a wage difference between the linguistic groups. Sixty percent of nonFrancophones in Quebec now speak French and among those less than twenty-four years old, the proportion is about 90 percent. In fact, the proportion of Francophones in Quebec has never been as high as it is today.

It is true that Quebec and Canada have changed a great deal since the 1960s. Listen to this description of the modern Quebec by a well-informed observer:

"It is remarkable what our people have accomplished in thirty years. A society that did not even have an Education Department now produces technology so advanced that our biggest export is telecommunications equipment, and our software programs are in demand from Tokyo to Hollywood.

They said our society had no head for business, but it has produced industrial and financial giants with international reputations. They said our society had no history and no literature, but it now has films, singers, dancers, playwrights and writers who tour the globe. It does not even surprise us any more. They said our society was overcautious and inward-looking, but it promoted free trade and opening of borders like no other society on the continent".

My friends, it was Mr. Parizeau who said that and he was telling the truth. But he forgot to mention that this amazing progress of Quebec was achieved within Canada. He confirmed that we can build a strong Quebec in a united Canada.

If we managed to do all that in thirty years, how can they say now that changes are not possible within Canada? If we managed to do all that together in thirty years, imagine what we can do together in the next thirty years.

Because together we can build a strong Quebec in a united Canada.

If Canada and Quebec have experienced remarkable changes in the last thirty years, the world has changed as well.

In the past, we could protect our markets regardless of international competition, but this is no longer true today. In the past, we could count our competitors on the fingers of one hand, but today we are faced with competition from every continent, every part of the globe. Thirty years ago, we did not pay much attention to competition from the countries of the Pacific. You will agree with me that breaking up Canada is not the way to meet this competition.

Canada has an important position in the world, and we must do everything possible to build on what we have already achieved.

Two years ago, as the Prime Minister of Canada, I, a Francophone Quebecer from the Mauricie, had some unforgettable experiences on the international scene as your representative. I want to share them with you today.

In éune 1994, on the Normandy beaches, as your representative, I paid tribute to the Canadian solders who died for freedom during the Second World War. I experienced the gratitude of France for the sacrifices made by young Canadians from Quebec, Ontario, the West and the Atlantic, who showed us that together we can make our mark in the world.

And that very same week I had the privilege of visiting Canadian troops wearing the blue helmet of the United Nations in the former Yugoslavia. They were working under difficult conditions to help a population that had been torn apart and terrorized. And I realized once again that together and united, we can make our mark in the world.

And in May of the same year, I went to Holland as your representative to receive, as Prime Minister of Canada, the thanks of a population that was liberated by Canadian soldiers fifty years ago. Their gratitude is boundless and they have not forgotten what Canadians can do together.

A year ago, I had the honour to lead a delegation of Canadian business people and provincial premiers to China. Everyone remembers the success of Team Canada. The Team Canada mission is an example of what we can accomplish together. It is a pity that Mr. Parizeau did not consider it appropriate to associate himself with this success.

This mission showed us that federal-provincial cooperation can be very effective when we concentrate our energies on people's real priorities in order to create éobs here and open up horizons for all Canadians. I will have the opportunity to hear the latest news about the benefits resulting from this mission next week in Montreal, with the Team Canada members and the Chinese premier, Li Peng. This mission showed that together we can make our mark in the world.

In éune, I had the opportunity to chair the meeting of the Group of Seven most developed countries, the G7, of which Canada is a member. Since it began, the G7 has held 21 summits and a Quebecer has represented Canada at 19 of them. And a Quebecer has chaired three of those meetings. Once again, we have shown that together we can make our mark in the world.

Immediately after the referendum, I will go to éapan for the meeting of Pacific heads of government. That is where economic expansion will be fastest in the decades to come. And Quebec is there because it is part of Canada. Together, we can make our mark in the world.

We Quebecers have built together with our fellow Canadians a great country called Canada. Of course, our country is not perfect; of course, it must continue to adapt to new realities; of course, Canada can and must be improved; but it is a country which is the envy of the world. We have every reason to be extremely proud to be Canadians.

But all the same, some people want us to break with this exceptionally rich inheritance. Some people want to separate Quebec from Canada. If we listened to them, you and I would soon no longer be Canadians. That is the real issue in the referendum on October 30.

The burden of proof is on those who are advocating the separation of Quebec:

Will separation improve the economic lot of Quebecers?

Will there be more jobs in a separate Quebec and better business opportunities?

Will separation improve Quebecers' social safety net?

Will senior citizens and the unemployed be better off?

Will a separate Quebec mean better protection for French language and culture?

Does belonging to Canada hurt Quebec's trade?

Does belonging to Canada hurt Quebec jobs?

Does belonging to Canada hurt investment in Quebec?

Does belonging to Canada hurt Quebec's education system?

Would Quebec benefit by no longer being part of a Pacific country?

Would Quebec be more competitive on the economic front if it were no longer a G-7 country?

Would the million Francophones outside Quebec be better off in a Canada without Quebec?

Ladies and gentlemen, the separatists know that we Francophone Quebecers are deeply attached to Canada. So instead of asking a clear, definite question, "Do you want Quebec to become a country separate from Canada", they are trying to persuade Quebecers that it is possible to separate from Quebec and at the same time build a new economic and political partnership with what would be left of a Canada deeply wounded by their rash adventure.

This time, the separatists want to make an offer to the rest of Canada that is designed to be reéected. As they very well know, Paul Martin demonstrated last week that their offer, their proposal for economic association, makes no sense.

And to try to hide their option, they are also proposing a political partnership. They want to get divorced and then marry again. But their conditions for the remarriage insult the intelligence.

The proposal for political partnership flies in the face of the most elementary good sense. It is unrealistic and illusory and would be immediately reéected by the rest of Canada. It would be reéected because it would impose another level of government in Canada, with equal representation, even though Canada is three times the size of Quebec, and a right of veto that would paralyse both those broken countries. But Mr. Parizeau will not admit this until October 31. That is the surprise we are in for after the referendum.

So the choice we face, three weeks from Monday, is not the choice of a sovereign Quebec combined with a new partnership with the rest of Canada.

The choice is a separate Quebec which is no longer part of Canada, where there are no more Quebecers in the House of Commons, where there are no more Quebecers in the federal administration, where there are no more Quebecers in the Canadian government, where Quebec is no longer a Canadian province, where Quebecers willno longer be Canadian citizens, where Quebecers will no longer be entitled to the Canadian passport. That is the option Mr. Parizeau is proposing.

That is the option known as separation, the real word for it that our opponents will not use because its meaning is too clear. It is the option that would inevitably and without a shadow of a doubt weaken Quebec.

There is another option. It is the option that will enable us to continue building together a country with a shared history, shared values and shared hopes. It is the best guarantee of a strong Quebec.

That option is Canada.

The truth is that the only answer is to say NO to separation.

Vive le Québec ... Vive le Canada.