PM calls Quebec 'a nation'

Harper's bold gambit recognizes Quebec, but within the framework of 'a united Canada'

Nov. 23, 2006. 09:09 AM
SUSAN DELACOURT AND TONDA MACCHARLES
OTTAWA BUREAU

OTTAWA—Prime Minister Stephen Harper is asking the House of Commons to declare that Quebec is a nation — "within a united Canada" — and in so doing, has blazed a trail for the opposition Liberals to get out of their own controversy over this hot-button, national-unity issue.

With just four words, Harper has simultaneously made history and potential peace in Liberal ranks. Quebec Premier Jean Charest called it a significant moment for the country.

Prompted by the separatist Bloc Québécois's intent to have the Commons vote on whether Quebec is a nation, Harper made a surprise statement in the House yesterday afternoon.

He said Parliament wouldn't be put into a trap by the sovereignists making this vow:

"With the support of the government and with the support of our party, I will be putting on the notice paper later today the following motion: `That, this House recognize that the Québécois form a nation within a united Canada.'"

The Prime Minister went on to declare: "Having been asked by the Bloc to define the Québécois, we must take a position. Our position is clear. Do the Québécois form a nation within Canada? The answer is yes. Do the Québécois form an independent nation? The answer is no, and the answer will always be no, because Quebecers of all political persuasions ... have led this country, and millions like them of all political persuasions have helped to build it."

Harper's resolution will help the opposition Liberals defuse a controversy that has dogged its leadership campaign ever since the Quebec wing of the party called for recognition of Quebec as a nation to be "officialized."

After front-runner Michael Ignatieff embraced the resolution, his opponents accused him of threatening to reopen the Constitution. He denied this, but the party has been unsuccessfully trying to find a way to avoid a showdown on the issue at next week's leadership convention.

Liberals, especially Ignatieff, were relieved. "I think it's a good day for Canada," Ignatieff said.

Yet another Liberal leadership candidate, Stéphane Dion, was actually called by Harper's office Tuesday night to sound him out on the proposal. He is also happy, saying it reflects the compromise he'd floated privately with his opponents.

"I have no problem with this," said Dion, also a former political scientist and intergovernmental affairs minister who had been viewed as the most staunch opponent of recognizing Quebec as a nation.

Now, for the first time, Canada's top legislature will recognize Quebec's status as a nation, but with the significant proviso: within Canada. It's another step on a long, historic road littered with other descriptions of Quebec's unique character — "distinct society" being the most famous, and controversial.

Liberals, meanwhile, have four words — "within a united Canada" — that could defuse a looming debate on Quebec's "nation" status at next week's leadership convention in Montreal.

It's not a total outbreak of peace, however. Some of Harper's own Conservative MPs have reservations. "I'm really uncomfortable with this," said one, who predicted several MPs will likely abstain next week when it comes time to vote. Nor is it clear that it will satisfy "soft" sovereignists in Quebec. Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe warned that Quebecers would always see themselves as a nation "without conditions."

But on the Liberal-Tory divide, Harper's move was a bombshell and an echo of his past role as inspiration and author of the foundation for the famous Clarity Act — a law setting out terms for negotiating Quebec separation — adopted almost wholesale by Jean Chrétien's Liberals in the wake of the 1995 referendum. In fact, once again, Harper has given the Liberals a strategy toward handling Quebec separatism, one they couldn't seem to find themselves.

The significance of the compromise was sealed with the sight of Harper and Liberal leader Bill Graham walking to the middle of the Commons floor to shake each other's hands yesterday.

"I tell the Prime Minister we will work with all parties in the House, with all members who have the interests of all Canadians at heart, to adopt a solution that respects Quebec and Quebecers and gives them that future within this wonderful country of ours," Graham told the Commons.

The relief was obvious among Liberals. Ignatieff, who's been taking the most heat for arguing in favour of Quebec's nation status, said: "I'm sure Mr. Harper is not in the business of throwing me any life jackets at all. ... We will always be political adversaries but ... I've been clear from the first moment I went into this race. I've led on this issue from the beginning and I'm gratified with the result."

Liberal leadership contender Ken Dryden had urged the Liberals to wipe the debate off the table, calling it "ludicrous," but yesterday even he was saying of Harper's wording: "I think it has changed things."

Harper first approached Graham Tuesday night and told him he was going to "figure something out" to counter the Bloc motion, Liberal sources say. It was an aide who alerted Harper to the Bloc motion at 6 p.m., Tuesday and immediately the Prime Minister started looking for his own wording, said a senior federal source.

Dion got a call from a Harper adviser, seeking his advice as a constitutional expert and as a Liberal contender. Dion told the Star last night that "within Canada" was close enough to his proposal to recognize Quebec's nation status as a "sociological," not legal fact. "It's no big deal," he said.

Harper, who cut his political teeth on constitutional issues back in the 1980s and the 1990s, mainly as an opponent of special status for Quebec, also met privately with NDP Leader Jack Layton Tuesday night.

Then yesterday, as the weekly caucus meetings were beginning on Parliament Hill, Harper again pulled aside Graham in a corridor and told him he was playing with wording that would make mention of a united Canada in any recognition of Quebec's nationhood.

It probably wasn't a coincidence, then, that several Liberal leadership candidates told reporters yesterday they wouldn't vote for the Bloc motion because it didn't mention Canada.

"The word `Canada' is not mentioned in the resolution, that's not acceptable," said Bob Rae, the former Ontario premier and veteran of Canada's constitutional dramas.

Gerard Kennedy, former Ontario education minister, said much the same thing: "Fundamentally, if it doesn't talk about Canada, if it doesn't talk about a united Canada, it's not something that we can support."

Ditto from Toronto lawyer Martha Hall Findlay: "The (Bloc) motion as it is says nothing about Canada."

Meanwhile, a senior Quebec Tory said the party has been mulling the resolution over "for quite some time" and they see it as a way to give the Bloc a taste of its own medicine while appealing to the Tories' fading support in the province. "This will be remembered as a great day for Parliament," the official said.

With files from Les Whittington, Sean Gordon and Canadian Press

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The Toronto Star