To quote Robert Bourassa’s statement after the Meech Lake failure, Donald Trump’s annexation proposal ” […] calls into question our political future. Why have we come to this? » A peaceful annexation of Canada becomes plausible because some of our elites, those who defeated the Meech Lake Accord, have dedicated themselves for decades to denying Canadian national identities rather than valuing them.
During his appearance on the American show The Late ShowStephen Colbert asked Justin Trudeau what distinguishes Canada from the United States. Trudeau’s response was deeply disappointing: unlike the melting-pot American, Canada is a place where immigrants retain their original culture.
Why then oppose the idea of this country, without its own culture, dependent on the Americans for its trade and defense, being integrated into the United States? Several observers also note that Quebec would have more autonomy in several respects as an American state than as a Canadian province. This self-destructive vision of Canada is the logical outcome of the political and cultural direction initiated under Trudeau Sr. and pushed to its peak by Trudeau Sr., who leaves us today with a country that resembles an empty shell.
Pierre Elliott Trudeau and Jean Chrétien managed to derail sovereignty-association and the beautiful risk of René Lévesque, just like Brian Mulroney’s Meech Lake agreement. The victory of the Trudeau clan, however, turns out to be double-edged: to be able to erase the ambitions of the Quebec nation, it will also have been necessary to sacrifice the other Canadian nations.
As Robert Bourassa already noted with disappointment in his declaration in 1990, Meech’s failure also prevents us from recognizing the sovereignty of Indigenous nations in law. Thirty years later, the most rooted, but also the most fragile, nations of Canada are eclipsed by foreign identities, in a multicultural structure that harms any form of national cohesion.
Emerging from constitutional torpor and denial of identity
Bringing Canadian nations back to life requires an ambition and a desire to exist that the current local and global political context gives us the opportunity to revive. As the Advisory Committee on Constitutional Issues (CCEC) recently explained to us, it is currently possible to draft a Quebec constitution and create citizenship independently in Quebec.
By using this citizenship to assert its special relationship with France, Quebec can establish a sovereignty-association with Canada without having to achieve its independence. This beautiful 2.0 risk would ultimately have the additional advantage of making Canada, whose political organization is still vague, a true confederation which recognizes the sovereignty of the founding nations.
The composition of the political landscape will never have been so favorable to such an initiative. The Coalition Avenir Québec would see the application of the CCEC’s recommendations as the crowning achievement of its autonomist option. The wise people of the Liberal Party of Quebec and the Québec solidaire program already support the drafting of a Quebec constitution. The Parti Québécois, a priori favorable to increased sovereignty, is led by a leader whose popularity is partly due to his ability to overcome political partisanship.
On the federal side, Pierre Poilievre has already announced that he would be the prime minister who would grant the most autonomy to Quebec in history, a program with which the Bloc Québécois could naturally associate itself.
All of Canada would benefit from Quebec’s initiative. In the context of a confederation which also recognizes the legal status specific to the English-Canadian nation, Brexit and globalization become formidable opportunities to strengthen its links with Great Britain. For indigenous nations, it would be a political renaissance and an opening to the world that has been desperately awaited since the British conquest. A true sovereignty-association between the Quebec, English-Canadian and Indigenous nations would create a cultural dynamism corresponding to that of the United States and favorable for all.
Donald Trump’s proposal has the merit of reminding us that immobility and self-negation are political impasses. To quote Bourassa’s statement again: “Quebec is always stronger when it is united. » If Canada wishes to remain united, this union must become free and consenting for each of its nations.
If such a union can exist, let the Canadian nations rise up. Otherwise, let’s move on.
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