Madam Speaker, first I would like to say to my colleague that we are not the only province, we are not alone in asking for compensation, since three provinces agree with us on this, and the BC premier acknowledges that Quebec should be compensated.
I was listening to a colleague before me say, in response or in a question to another member who spoke before me, that the Reform Party's position is that the maritimes should never have been compensated.
Had the maritimes not had any compensation, Quebec would not be asking for any. What we want is fairness. If a thousand million dollars are sent to the maritimes, we in Quebec are entitled to ask for the $2 billion due us, which the Liberal Party is denying us.
As far as the sovereignist movement is concerned, I would remind my colleague that Quebec's demands have been known, clear and simple for 40 years. All Quebec politicians, whatever their party, have said the same thing. In the mid-1950s, Mr. Duplessis demanded his share of the spoils. Mr. Duplessis was a member of the Union Nationale party.
He was followed by Mr. Lesage, a Liberal and a federalist, who talked of Quebecers being masters in their own home. Next came someone else from the Union Nationale, Daniel Johnson Sr., who called for "equality or independence". Then came René Lévesque, who said: "We cannot go on fighting endlessly like this for 30 years; what we want is Quebec's sovereignty".
Through all these movements and all these premiers, Quebec continued to make the same clear and simple demand. These people were federalists. Quebec has always asked to be recognized for what it is-a nation-with certain privileges in the Constitution enabling it to defend itself as a nation. Nothing more, nothing less.
The refusal by the Canadian government and the Canadian establishment to accept this fact will mean that Quebec will become a country, in the long term. A look at the sovereignty movement in Quebec leaves no doubt that it is a growing movement. The Parti Quebecois was born in 1968. There were hardly any sovereignists in the early 1960s in Quebec. In 1968, the PQ was born. That was less than 30 years ago.
In 1976, the Parti Quebecois was elected for the first time and formed the government in the National Assembly. Three referendums were held. In the first, in 1980, the no vote was 60 per cent and the yes vote, 40 per cent. In the Charlottetown referendum, it was the reverse: 60 per cent voted against the Charlottetown accord. Canadians voted against the accord too, for reasons differ-
ent from ours: they thought we had too much already. In the last referendum, it was 50-50. So it is clear that the sovereignist movement has grown in the past 28 or 29 years.
The government could stop this movement tomorrow, if it wanted. It would be very easy to do, by recognizing in the Constitution that the people of Quebec form a nation and, therefore, have the right to protect themselves and this concept of a nation.
That is all Quebecers are asking for. Not me. Personally, I am an unconditional sovereignist, in that I fail to see any point in a nation living as a minority within another nation, because as a minority, you then have to do as you are told; you do what they want, when they want.
I want to be independent. I want to make my own choices, speak on my own behalf and take my own responsibilities. That is how it should be.
But that, we will never get from Canada. I will never be a true federalist, but if this kind of recognition was included in the Constitution, most Quebecers would go for it. They would sign the Constitution they have never signed, and I would democratically fall in with the people's will and stop fighting for sovereignty. But that will never happen because this Prime Minister and his predecessors have never stopped attacking Quebec.
Remember the long knives stuck in the back of René Lévesque by Trudeau and the little guy from Shawinigan, who will soon be calling an election and whom we will beat in his own riding.