Clinton Signals Support for Canadian Unity

President Clinton took on the explosive issue of Quebec separatism on Thursday, telling the Canadian Parliament in his first state visit that Canada’s embrace of cultural diversity has been a model for the world.

Signaling a subtle tilt toward this country’s federalists, Clinton quoted President Harry S. Truman’s praise for Canada’s “achievement of national unity and progress through accommodation, moderation and forbearance.”

While Clinton asserted that the issue ultimately is for Canadians to decide, the import of his words was clear in the reaction of separatist legislators. As the President praised Canadian tolerance, they sat mute and glowering in the Gothic-style House of Commons.

For almost two decades, the United States has observed a policy of official neutrality on the French-speaking province’s move toward independence. But with a referendum on separation approaching this year in Quebec, the Liberal Party administration of Prime Minister Jean Chretien has been pressuring the Clinton Administration to support the federal union.

And though the issue has divided Administration officials, the President has come to the view that the United States needed subtly to show that it prefers the current arrangement to the economic and diplomatic uncertainties of a severed Canada.

Asked later about his nuanced call for unity, Clinton said: “I think they got the message, don’t you?”

While Clinton’s two-day Canadian sojourn was widely predicted to be a uneventful affair, his address to Parliament on this divisive question packed high drama.

Both sides have been jockeying for attention, and legislators were anticipating his remarks.

Clinton ventured into the issue by declaring that “in a world darkened by ethnic conflicts that literally tear people apart, Canada has stood for all of us as a model of how people of different cultures can live and work together in peace, prosperity and respect.”

As federalist legislators applauded, members of the Bloc Quebecois took their signal from party leader Lucien Bouchard. He remained seated with his arms folded, glowering and chewing gum.

Moments later, when Clinton added the usual American disclaimer that “your political future is, of course, for you to decide,” the separatists jumped to their feet to applaud. Soon the majority federalists, realizing that they naturally also support the notion of Canadian prerogatives, joined them.

Clinton, who clearly wanted to soften the effect of his words on the Quebeckers, joked that his 81-minute State of the Union speech last month had also been prolonged by his desire to please both parties.

The speech “took so long” he said, “because I evenly divided the things that would make the Democrats clap and the Republicans clap.”

But then, in a sign that he leaned toward the federalist side of the argument, Clinton quoted Truman’s 1947 remarks about the value of Canadian tolerance.

His remarks were not without diplomatic risk.

Canadians are highly sensitive to any American prodding that might be taken as an intrusion in their affairs. Indeed, Chretien owes a good measure of his popularity to the way he has carefully kept a distance from U.S. leaders who, Canadians believe, dominated his predecessor, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.

Because of such sensitivities, an aide said, Clinton was trying to make the point “very, very subtly.”

*

Clinton also later met in private for 25 minutes with Bouchard, in what the White House called a “courtesy” session.

Bouchard said he gave Clinton a firsthand account of the separatists’ goals and told him that an independent Quebec would be “one more friend in the world, one more good neighbor” for the United States.

Bouchard told reporters that he did not believe that Clinton went too far to support Canadian unity and that he remains confident of American neutrality.

But he made clear his reason for not rising to applaud the President’s endorsement of Canada’s treatment of different cultures.

“I would be reluctant to approve without any qualification that the Canadian federation managed quite well the coexistence of different cultures,” he said. “I happen to be a French guy from Quebec, of a different culture than the majority . . . and I do think our culture is much better managed in Quebec than in Ottawa.”

The separatist political parties in Quebec today are stronger than they have been in 15 years.

They control the provincial Parliament in Quebec City and most of the Quebec seats in the national Parliament in Ottawa.

So far, however, they appear unable to persuade the majority of the province’s voters to commit to separation.

Every poll taken in Quebec in recent months has shown only 40% to 45% in favor of independence. The most recent survey was released Thursday and showed 42% in support and 54% opposed.

Clinton today is scheduled to formally sign an agreement to deregulate air travel between the two countries before heading back to Washington.

Before arriving, the President smoothed out a potential rough spot with his hosts by dropping a proposal to charge a $3 fee for vehicles crossing the border. The fee will be made an option of the states.