Canadian Leaders OK Pact Aimed at Satisfying Quebec

Provincial premiers and other leaders agreed Saturday to a sweeping political reform package designed to head off a secession referendum in French-speaking Quebec.

“We do not have perfection tonight, but we do have fair and honorable compromise that will benefit Canada,” Prime Minister Brian Mulroney said at the close of five days of national talks involving the premiers and native and territorial leaders.

The accord would completely overhaul the federal Parliament, allow Indians and Eskimos to have self-government, give provinces a veto over future changes in federal institutions and lower inter-provincial trade barriers.

The package must still be ratified by the federal Parliament and provincial legislatures, and in referendums in Quebec, Alberta and British Columbia.

Canada has been in constitutional limbo since 1990, when the provinces failed to unanimously ratify a previous reform package, the Meech Lake accord. The 1987 agreement foundered after some provinces objected to recognizing Quebec as a “distinct society.”

Mulroney said he expects that the agreement, which has unanimous support, will be ratified but he has not yet decided whether to call a national referendum.

Mulroney and the premiers will meet later this week in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, to review legal details of the agreement.

Quebec’s Liberal Party premier, Robert Bourassa, said he was disappointed that the talks had not produced a greater transfer of power from Ottawa to the provinces, but that Quebec had gained enough to justify compromises.

In exchange for agreeing to a powerful, directly elected Senate in which each of the provinces would have six seats, Quebec was guaranteed 25% of the seats in the influential lower House of Commons. Currently, the Senate has little power, and is proportionally appointed by provincial governments.

“Canada is attached to this province (Quebec) and to this Francophone society,” Bourassa said, taking heart from the agreement.

But Bernard Landry, vice president of Quebec’s separatist Parti Quebecois, blasted Bourassa for “surrendering” to the English-speaking provinces.

Jean Dorion, leader of the pro-independence Societe Saint-Jean Baptiste, said Bourassa “has achieved terrible results with his latest constitutional excursion.” He claimed Quebec had been “reduced to insignificance in the Senate.”

Dorion urged Bourassa to go ahead with a provincial referendum on sovereignty scheduled for Oct. 26. It was not immediately clear whether Quebec would now go ahead with the vote.

Ontario Premier Bob Rae said a constitutional settlement would allow all governments “to sit down and talk about how to build jobs, how to make the economy work better and how to make our country stronger.”

The deal, struck after six months of extensive negotiations, includes a shift of federal powers to the provinces over mining, forestry, tourism, housing, recreation and urban affairs in a move to meet Quebec’s demands for more autonomy.

Quebec won a veto over future changes to federal institutions and constitutional protection for its French language and culture and three of the nine Supreme Court justices.

“This is a good day for Canadians because this will result in a better federation, but most of all because we get to keep Canada, the most magnificent country in the world,” Mulroney said.