Mulroney Asks Canada to ‘Heal Wounds’ : Impasse: The prime minister rejects calls for his resignation after failure of the constitutional accord.

Prime Minister Brian Mulroney called Saturday for restraint in Canada after the collapse of a package of constitutional amendments that were supposed to have normalized relations between the English and French-speaking provinces.

“Today is not the day to launch new constitutional initiatives,” Mulroney said in one of his rare, televised formal speeches. “It is a time to mend divisions and heal wounds, and reach out to fellow Canadians.”

But in a speech of his own in Quebec, Francophone Premier Robert Bourassa talked about the end of his involvement in broad-based federal negotiations and about the need to draw up a new, as yet undefined, political program.

Mulroney directed one part of his address to Canada’s “friends and partners abroad,” urging them to keep the weekend’s dramatic events in perspective.

“Canadians have always overcome challenges to our unity, and we shall do so again,” he said. “It would be unwise for anyone to underestimate this industrious and resource-rich nation of hard-working and productive people.”

Mulroney’s words were clearly meant to calm international markets, which had already closed for the weekend when it became clear late Friday that Canada would now be entering a period of constitutional impasse and political uncertainty. For months, Mulroney himself has been warning that if the constitutional amendments were not ratified, the Canadian dollar might fall, and foreign investors might think twice about putting their money into this country.

Since Friday evening, leading politicians from Canada’s two main opposition parties have been calling for Mulroney to resign in the wake of the failed amendments. Debate over them has polarized public opinion and awakened separatist feelings in Quebec.

“I believe if a new process (of constitution-making) is to have any chance for success, the prime minister must step aside in the national interest,” said Audrey McLaughlin, leader of the social-democratic New Democratic Party, the third-largest political grouping in Canada. “I say he must resign.”

But in his speech, Mulroney said he has no intention of leaving office.

“There is no dishonor in having tried to overcome a serious threat to our unity,” he said. “I would rather have failed trying to advance the cause of Canada’s unity than to have simply played it safe, done nothing, or criticized from the sidelines. . . . This is not a government of quitters. We will all be back at work next week.”

There are likely to be more calls for Mulroney to resign in the coming weeks or months. Whether he can withstand them will depend in large measure on whether he can keep control of his Progressive Conservative Party caucus. Until now, the caucus has shown him staunch loyalty even as he plunged in public opinion polls--but it includes numerous Quebecers, and they may now be tempted to abandon the prime minister and go back home to work toward sovereignty. Six members of Mulroney’s caucus have either left or been kicked out in recent months, and it will be up to Mulroney now to keep that number from growing.

The constitutional package at the heart of this weekend’s events, called the Meech Lake Accord, had been intended to woo the province of Quebec into signing the national constitution, which it has been refusing to do for years. The accord would have given extra powers to all 10 Canadian provinces--and thereby to Quebec--and would have officially recognized Quebec as a “distinct society” within Canada.

The accord ruffled few feathers when it was drafted in 1987, but as the months went by before it could be ratified by all 10 provinces, it became intensely controversial. The “distinct society” clause was the most disputed element of all, with the English-speaking provinces of Manitoba and Newfoundland, in particular, arguing that it would be dangerous to give special constitutional privileges to Quebec.

It was the legislatures of those two provinces that killed the accord Friday, by adjourning without voting to ratify it. By law, all 10 provinces had to have approved the accord by Saturday for it to have become law.

But while English Canadians were fuming that the Meech Lake Accord was giving too much to Quebec, Francophones in Quebec began to think that for them, the accord was too little, too late. Since it collapsed Friday, there has been a mood of happy anticipation here in Quebec, with many Francophones hoping that the latest turn of events will open a new phase in their relationship with English Canada.

Just hours after Mulroney made his remarks, Bourassa addressed his provincial legislature in Quebec, holding court in a special chamber reserved for important speeches and ceremonies.

Observers waited keenly for clues to what will happen next in Quebec, but Bourassa spoke in very general and relatively moderate terms, leaving practically all options open except for one: signing the national constitution.

“The process of constitutional reform in Canada has been discredited,” Bourassa said, vowing that his government would not enter any future talks on the subject, however badly other provinces might want them. “How can you expect me to return to the constitutional table?” the premier asked.

As for the unanswered question about whether Quebec would begin some sort of process of separation from English Canada now, Bourassa merely said that he wants to consult with party activists and others, and to develop plans.

“Quebec has the freedom of its choices, and it’s going to make its choices in realism and calm,” he said.

“I can assure you that my only goal will be the superior interests of the Quebec people.”

While Bourassa was speaking in Quebec, Canada’s main opposition party, the Liberals, were selecting their party leader, the man who will run for Mulroney’s seat the next time an election is called. Significantly, the Liberals elected Jean Chretien, a Francophone Quebecer who opposed the Meech Lake Accord and is viewed with contempt in his home province.

Chretien’s selection adds even more texture to the complicated political fabric now being woven in Canada. When a national election is called, as one must be sometime before 1993, it is hard to imagine Chretien carrying the province of Quebec. And, however unpopular Mulroney and his Conservatives may be, it is hard to imagine any Liberal beating them without carrying Quebec, which has about a quarter of the Canadian population and tends to vote as a bloc.

In addition, Chretien’s presence now, as the main alternative to Mulroney in Ottawa, may persuade Quebec Conservatives to stick with the embattled prime minister in the coming months, rather than jumping ship and heading for Quebec.