POL 2101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Clarity Act, Charlottetown Accord, Distinct Society
5 Jun 2018
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The Quest for Constitutional Change
The Trudeau vision of Canada and Quebec's two-nations vision.
o Emphasizes Canada being a country composed of ten equal provinces
o Quebec governments beginning in the 1960s: decentralization of the
federation (Quebec needed more powers as it was lagging behind).
Quebec government also argued the distinct history and role of Quebec in
the past should be recognized
o These two demands were not shared by Trudeau and his government
o Trudeau believed in strong central government
o Programs that would treat Canadians the same from coast to coast
o His project for securing vision was : the charter of rights and freedoms
o Believed Canada could be rebuilt by a constitution that could protect
citizens
o Constitution would provide new way of working for politicians
o Trudeau also once made promise that if Quebecers said “NO” that there
would be change
o After this Trudeau called a conference that would showcase that he
wanted a charter of rights
o Many provinces said no at first because they felt their power was being
taken from them
o Quebec government even more reluctant because they believed their new
linguistic constitution would be meaningless with new charter of rights and
freedoms
o In 1967 there was no amendment rules in order to put through this new
constitution
o Trudeau then went to Supreme Court of Canada
o They said they did not think initiating this constitution without provincial
support would be right
o Trudeau goes back to provinces and discusses further with them
o Provinces begin to see his position more clearly
o In the end 9 provinces out of 10 decided to go with the new constitutional
change among other things the new charter of rights and freedoms
o Quebec was the only province that didn’t agree, they went to Supreme
Court of Canada and said it should not go through because they were a
founding group of Canada and did not support it. The supreme court of
Canada dismissed their case
o Quebec although had something established in their favor with this new
constitution which was a “notwithstanding clause”
o Canada establishes new amending formula with new constitution
o This amending formula consists of 7 of 10 provinces that make up more
than 50% of the nation population agreeing to change existing
constitutional material for general change however
o Quebec hasn’t sign the 1982 constitution.
Québec's 5 minimal conditions and the Meech Lake Accord:
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
The trudeau vision of canada and quebec"s two-nations vision: emphasizes canada being a country composed of ten equal provinces, quebec governments beginning in the 1960s: decentralization of the federation (quebec needed more powers as it was lagging behind). In the end 9 provinces out of 10 decided to go with the new constitutional change among other things the new charter of rights and freedoms: quebec was the only province that didn"t agree, they went to supreme. Court of canada and said it should not go through because they were a founding group of canada and did not support it. Trudeau was against quebecs newly agreed to conditions. Believed that these conditions would mean the end of canada. New that these conditions could only be agreed to if the provinces agreed as well. Newfoundland did not agree to these conditions and neither did manitoba. In the end two provinces did not support the meech lake accord and it died in 1990.
