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Politics : Prime Minister Jean Chretien -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Graystone who wrote (222)	11/27/2002 12:34:33 PM
From: SofaSpud	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 443

...English Canada that couldn't understand why almost one half of all Quebec voters would vote to leave Confederation Is that really what they voted for? One of Steve Harper's accomplishments as an MP after '93 was to draft what became the Clarity Bill, setting out clearly what hurdles a province needed to successfully leap before it could claim a mandate to separate. One of those hurdles was that a clear question be asked in a referendum. That was in response to the nearly 50/50 split in 1995 over this question: "Do you agree that Quebec should become sovereign, after having made a formal offer to Canada for a new economic and political partnership, within the scope of the bill respecting the future of Quebec and of the agreement signed on June 12, 1995?" You can slice and dice this puppy a million ways, which is of course what happened at the time. But it's clear that the Quebec government, regardless of their ultimate aims, was committing itself to negotiating first. 49.9% of the voters wanted to (a) separate, or (b) make sure the provincial government had a good strong hand at the table. Those are not the same thing. For the record, the 1980 referendum question wasn't exactly a model of clarity, either (this vote went 40/60). Nobody knew what the hell "sovereignty association" was supposed to mean: "The Government of Québec has made public its proposal to negotiate a new agreement with the rest of Canada, based on the equality of nations; this agreement would enable Québec to acquire the exclusive power to make its laws, levy its taxes and establish relations abroad - in other words, sovereignty - and at the same time to maintain with Canada an economic association including a common currency; no change in political status resulting from these negotiations will be effected without approval by the people through another referendum; on these terms, do you give the Government of Québec the mandate to negotiate the proposed agreement between Québec and Canada? "