Split Decisions

It was the best of times and the worst of times. For a whole generation, Canada was caught up in existential politics. In 1965, the members of the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism raised the alarm, saying they had “been driven to the conclusion that Canada, without being fully conscious of the fact, is passing through the greatest crisis in its history. . . . If it should persist and gather momentum it could destroy Canada.” For thirty years, the threat of Quebec secession, language policy, Indigenous and other minority rights, and even Senate reform were at the centre of our politics. We had patriation of the Constitution in 1982, numberless meetings of first ministers, multiple commissions and consultations, rifts and rancour. The drawn-out Meech Lake episode destroyed the Progressive Conservatives, caused deep strains within the Liberals, and nurtured the birth of the Reform Party and the Bloc Québécois. Quebecers voted no to sovereignty-association in...